Training, Wellbeing and Recovery Load Monitoring in Female Youth Athletes

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Pediatric Sports Medicine
• Exercise Physiology

Background:

• Youth sports participation and training demands are increasing.
• High training loads in young athletes can lead to overreaching, injury, and illness.
• Effective monitoring of youth athlete load is essential for long-term development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current methods for monitoring internal and external training load in youth athletes.
• To highlight the gaps in understanding the validity, reliability, and practicality of these measures, particularly in female youth.
• To emphasize the importance of comprehensive monitoring for athlete well-being and performance.

Main Methods:

• Narrative review of existing literature on youth athlete load monitoring.
• Discussion of common external load measures (e.g., GPS, TRIMP) and internal load measures (e.g., questionnaires, RPE, heart rate).
• Inclusion of injury and menstrual cycle reporting as critical monitoring components.

Main Results:

• Multiple measures exist for internal and external load monitoring, but their application in female youth populations requires further investigation.
• Commonly used methods include GPS tracking, TRIMP, questionnaires, perceived exertion, and heart rate.
• Combining training load, recovery, and well-being data is suggested for optimal fatigue monitoring.

Conclusions:

• There is a need for valid, reliable, and practical load monitoring strategies tailored for youth athletes.
• Individualized, inexpensive, and easily implementable monitoring protocols are crucial for sustainability in youth sports.
• Further research is needed to fully understand and apply these methods, especially in female athletes.