Cardiocirculatory Stress in Professional Football (Soccer) Coaches
Tim Meyer1, Vera Demond1, Jürgen Scharhag1,2
1Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany; and.
Objective:
It was intended to quantify cardiocirculatory stress and risk of professional football (soccer) coaches during competition.
Design:
Descriptive cross-sectional study.
Setting:
Medical screening examination and measurements during match.
Participants:
Seventeen coaches and 11 assistant coaches of the 2 highest German football leagues (male coaches; 46 ± 7 years; 8 ± 7 years in job).
Independent Variables:
Professional football matches with highly competitive character were chosen and monitored for elicited cardiocirculatory stress and possible damage.
Main Outcome Measures:
Indicators of general health status, occurrence of arrhythmias, and course of heart rate and cardiac biomarkers (brain natriuretic peptide [BNP], troponin I) during the match.
Results:
Besides a few preexisting cardiovascular diseases, medical screening revealed a risk factor profile similar to the general population and above-average maximal/submaximal cycle ergometry performance: Pmax 2.9 ± 0.5 W*kg-1; PWC130 1.9 ± 0.5 W*kg-1. No match-induced changes were detected for BNP (20.5 ± 9.4 to 19.7 ± 10.7 pg/mL; P = 0.48) and troponin I (12.6 ± 16.5 to 10.5 ± 14.1 ng/L; P = 0.31). Maximal heart rate during the first and second half was 127 ± 15 and 132 ± 19 beats per minute, respectively. No match-induced arrhythmias of higher degree were detected.
Conclusions:
Head and assistant coaches of German professional football teams do not show any match-induced cardiac damage, despite considerable cardiocirculatory stress. Possibly, their above-average fitness level saves them from more detrimental outcomes.
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