The Importance Of Performance In Soccer

Soccer is the world’s most popular sport played in many countries at the professional level (Williams, 2013). The challenge to produce a winning performance at the professional level is high, with teams frequently playing one weekly match and even up to two or three matches in a week during congested periods in the competition calendar. As such, physical preparation in soccer differs drastically from individual sports as peak performance is needed each week throughout the season(Morgans, Orme, Anderson, & Drust, 2014). In team sports such as soccer, training are usually structured in groups sessions such as small sided games in developing players’ technical skills and tactical awareness (Morgans et al., 2014). Consequently, the training stimulus …show more content…
Notably, the high intensity distance (HID) which is the distance covered above velocity of 14.4km-1 has been considered as a valid measure of physical performance due to its strong relationship with training status (Krustrup, Mohr, Ellingsgaard, & Bangsbo, 2005) and the ability to discriminate standards of match- play (eg. Elite vs sub elite players) (Mohr, Krustrup, & Bangsbo, 2003). Therefore, using both approaches to monitor internal and external training load, the overall management of the player can be determine whether the player is adapting to the training program and maximize peak …show more content…
It is from the training load, that adaptations takes place in muscular, metabolic, cardiovascular and neurological systems (Borresen & Lambert, 2009). There have been several studies conducted to understand the training load – performance relationship in individual sports discipline by manipulating the influence of training volume, intensity and frequency. These studies have shown a linear positive relationship between training load and performance where higher training load translated in improve in performance (Foster, Daines, Hector, Snyder, & Welsh, 1996; Stewart & Hopkins, 2000). However, it is also known that increasing of training load over time might also result in the incidence of overtraining which can have a negative effect on performance (Halson & Jeukendrup, 2004). The relationship between training load and performance in team sports such as soccer is less clear due to the limited studies comparing the training load and performance. Much of the studies have been comparing different methods of monitoring training load and did not relate it to a performance measurement (Alexiou & Coutts, 2008; Casamichana, Castellano, Calleja-Gonzalez, San Román, & Castagna, 2013; Scott, Lockie, Knight, Clark, & De Jonge, 2013).