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Mechanical Player Load™ using trunk-mounted accelerometry in football: Is it a reliable, task- and player-specific
Paulo Barreira1, Mark A Robinson1, Barry Drust1
1a Sport Sciences , Liverpool John Moores University , Liverpool , England.
Journal of Sports Sciences
|September 7, 2016
Summary
Player Load™ (PL) monitoring in football shows moderate-to-high reliability for multidirectional actions. Individual locomotive skills, not anthropometrics, explain variability in Player Load™ (PL) measurements.
Area of Science:
- Sports Science
- Biomechanics
- Human Movement Analysis
Background:
- Player Load™ (PL) is a key metric in sports science for quantifying external workload.
- Understanding the reliability and validity of PL in dynamic, multidirectional sports like football is crucial for accurate performance monitoring.
- Trunk-mounted accelerometry is commonly used to capture movement data in athletes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the reliability and construct convergent validity of Player Load™ (PL) using trunk-mounted accelerometry in football.
- To differentiate between cumulative PL and intensity-based PL (PL·min⁻¹) measures.
- To explore factors contributing to between-participant variability in PL during football-specific actions.
Main Methods:
- Fifteen male participants completed a football match simulation twice, including jogging, side cuts, strides, and sprints.
- Participants wore a trunk-mounted accelerometer integrated into a global positioning system unit.
- Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) and limits of agreement were used to assess reliability; convergent validity was examined through correlation analyses and coefficient of variation.
Main Results:
- Moderate-to-high reliability was observed for PL measurements (ICC: 0.806–0.949).
- Considerable between-participant variation in PL was noted (CV: 14.5–24.5%), not explained by demographics except for a negative association with height during strides.
- Moderate correlations were found between participant rankings for cumulative PL and intensity-based PL (PL·min⁻¹).
Conclusions:
- Monitoring Player Load™ (PL) in football's multidirectional actions demonstrates moderate-to-high reliability.
- Individual locomotive skills, rather than anthropometrics, are likely the primary drivers of between-participant variability in PL.
- The intensity of a football task, quantified by PL·min⁻¹, is strongly associated with the task's running velocity.
