Deriving Movement Categories in Rugby Sevens.

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Biomechanics
• Performance Analysis

Background:

• Elite rugby sevens demands high-intensity movements.
• Existing movement velocity thresholds may not accurately reflect gender-specific demands in rugby sevens.
• Accurate assessment of physical load is crucial for player development and injury prevention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To generate sport-specific movement category velocity thresholds for elite male and female rugby sevens players.
• To identify gender-specific differences in movement patterns during matches.
• To inform the development of customized physical load assessments and conditioning programs.

Main Methods:

• Collected Global Positioning System (GPS) data from 19 male and 11 female elite rugby sevens players over 88 international fixtures.
• Applied a two-stage unsupervised clustering method (elbow method and spectral clustering) to define movement categories and velocity thresholds.
• Analyzed total distance covered within gender-specific velocity zones.

Main Results:

• Identified four distinct movement categories with varying velocity thresholds for both male and female players.
• Established gender-specific velocity thresholds: males (Low: 0-2.05 m/s, Moderate: 2.06-4.26 m/s, High: 4.27-7.20 m/s, Very High: >7.20 m/s) and females (Low: 0-1.87 m/s, Moderate: 1.88-3.74 m/s, High: 3.75-5.97 m/s, Very High: >5.97 m/s).
• Females covered significantly less distance in low-velocity zones (p=0.02) and more distance in very-high-velocity zones (p<0.001) compared to males.

Conclusions:

• The study provides novel, gender-specific movement velocity thresholds for elite rugby sevens.
• These thresholds enable more accurate physical load assessments tailored to male and female athletes.
• The findings support the design of sport-specific and gender-specific conditioning programs for improved performance and safety.