Individual and situational factors affecting the movement characteristics and internal responses to Touch match-play during an international tournament.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of individual and situational factors on the movement characteristics and internal responses of players to an international Touch tournament. Using 47 International Touch players (25 men and 22 women), the associations between the movement characteristics and internal responses with individual (sprint, glycolytic test, Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 [Yo-Yo IR1], jump performance and wellbeing) and situational (sex, squad, position, competition day, points scored/conceded, result, and opposition rank) factors were examined using linear mixed modelling. Yo-Yo IR1 distance was associated with all movement characteristics and internal responses (r=-0.29 to 0.37), whilst sprint and glycolytic times only influenced mean heart rate (HRmean) (r=0.15) and high-speed distance (r=0.10), respectively. Sex influenced high-speed distance (r=-0.41), whilst squad was associated with playing time and HRmean (r=-0.10-0.33). Other associations included: playing position with all movement characteristics (r=-0.67-0.81); points conceded with relative distance (r=-0.14); winning with high metabolic power and session RPE (r=-0.07-0.09), and opposition rank with HRmean and RPE (r=0.11-0.35). Individual and situational factors can influence the movement characteristics and internal responses to Touch and should be considered when developing the characteristics of players and interpreting responses to match-play.