Being one of the most prominent globalized sports, soccer played at club, national, and continental levels has a relevant societal role. At present, the specific competencies, interests, and languages of the different actors involved in the selection, development, and support of long-lasting careers of players might limit opportunities for potential talented players. Unless the cultural environment of soccer resolves the gaps between empirical results and actual soccer strategies, scientific discussion relating to the effectiveness of talent selection and development remains limited. This commentary is intended to highlight the need for developmental programs to prepare soccer personnel for a transdisciplinary dialogue, which could foster a future development of this sport. Finally, in considering the wide soccer-related employment opportunities at local, national, and international levels, the need for a clear qualification framework is crucial.
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Bridging the Gap Between Empirical Results, Actual Strategies, and Developmental Programs in Soccer
António J. Figueiredo, Carlos E. Gonçalves, and Antonio Tessitore
Training-Related Changes in Force–Power Profiles: Implications for the Skeleton Start
Steffi L. Colyer, Keith A. Stokes, James L.J. Bilzon, Danny Holdcroft, and Aki I.T. Salo
squad included 6 athletes who had competed in multiple World Cup and/or World Championship races (2 medaled at least once) and 1 athlete who had medaled in multiple European Cup (developmental level) races. In addition, 2 of the athletes competed in the Winter Olympics during the competition season that
Training, Performance, and Physiological Predictors of a Successful Elite Senior Career in Junior Competitive Road Cyclists
Ida S. Svendsen, Espen Tønnesen, Leif Inge Tjelta, and Stein Ørn
performance at the senior level, due to substantial differences in biological versus developmental age. As such, talent selection in this period typically favors early developers, who are bigger, faster, and stronger than their late-developing peers. 18 – 20 However, by age 18, most individuals have reached
Marathon Specialization in Elites: A Head Start for Africans
Tyler J. Noble and Robert F. Chapman
greater amounts of physical activity and specific training during developmental periods. 1 , 2 Like most sports, marathon running requires specialization and specificity of training on the part of athletes to experience elite-level success. 3 – 5 It has been suggested that it may take as much as of 10
An Integrated, Multifactorial Approach to Periodization for Optimal Performance in Individual and Team Sports
Iñigo Mujika, Shona Halson, Louise M. Burke, Gloria Balagué, and Damian Farrow
concerned with longer periods (macrocycle—ie, a long-duration plan usually lasting about half a year or a year). 5 , 12 These structural components have also been classified into distinct subcategories, such as developmental, shock, regeneration, and peaking/unloading microcycles, 2 or introductory, basic
Dynamics of the Metabolic Response During a Competitive 100-m Freestyle in Elite Male Swimmers
Philippe Hellard, Robin Pla, Ferran A. Rodríguez, David Simbana, and David B. Pyne
): 1160 – 1167 doi:10.1152/jappl.1993.75.3.1160 10.1152/jappl.1993.75.3.1160 8226525 8. Kavouras S , Troup J . Growth and developmental changes in selected characteristics of age group swimmers . In: Troup JP , Hollander AP , Strasse DEA , eds. Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming VII
Modeling Developmental Changes in the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 in Elite Pubertal Soccer Players
Dieter Deprez, Joao Valente-dos-Santos, Manuel Coelho e Silva, Matthieu Lenoir, Renaat M. Philippaerts, and Roel Vaeyens
Purpose:
To model the development of soccer-specific aerobic performance, assessed by the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 in 162 elite pubertal soccer players, age 11–14 y at baseline.
Methods:
Longitudinal multilevel modeling analyses comprised predictors related to growth (chronological age, body size [height and weight] and composition [fat mass, fat-free mass]), and motor coordination [3 Körperkoordination Test für Kinder subtests: jumping sideways, moving sideways, backward balancing] and estimated biological-maturation groups (earliest [>percentile 33] and latest maturers [>percentile 66]).
Results:
The best-fitting model on soccer-specific aerobic performance could be expressed as –3639.76 + 369.86 × age + 21.38 × age2 + 9.12 × height – 29.04 × fat mass + 0.06 × backward balance. Maturity groups had a negligible effect on soccer-specific aerobic performance (–45.32 ± 66.28; P > .05).
Conclusion:
The current study showed that the development of aerobic performance in elite youth soccer is related to growth and muscularity and emphasized the importance of motor coordination in the talentidentification and -development process. Note that biological maturation was excluded from the model, which might endorse the homogeneity in estimated biological-maturation status in the current elite pubertal soccer sample.
The Use of Recovery Strategies in Gaelic Games: A Mixed-Methods Analysis
Lorcan S. Daly, Ciarán Ó. Catháin, and David T. Kelly
developmental (club/collegiate) and national (intercounty) levels. 1 , 2 The field-based invasive Gaelic sports require significant physiological, mental, and tactical–technical proficiency to execute numerous sport-specific tasks in a fast-paced and highly unpredictable environment. 3 , 4 These tasks must be
Peak Performance: Characteristics and Key Factors in the Development of the World Top-8 Swimmers Based on Longitudinal Data
Yuming Chen, Chenbin Huang, Hui Chen, Ting Huang, Christine Su, and Jiexing Chen
on individual performance development. As a result, Hollings et al 4 pioneered the use of the quadratic curve model to explore the developmental trajectory of performance in track and field athletes, describing their peak performance by extracting the age of peak performance and the window of peak
Tramadol and Cycling: Is It the End of a “Painful” Relationship? An Insight From 60,802 Doping-Control Samples From 2012 to 2020
Thomas Zandonai, Ana M. Peiró, Caterina Covelli, Xavier de la Torre, and Francesco Botré
Purpose: To assess the prevalence of tramadol use among athletes from 2012 to 2020. Methods: All urine samples were collected from national and international in-competition doping-control tests that took place in Italy between 2012 and 2020. The analysis of the samples was performed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry with electronic ionization and acquisition in selected ion monitoring. The cutoff tramadol concentration was >50 ng/mL. Results: Of the 60,802 in-competition urine samples we analyzed, 1.2% (n = 759) showed tramadol intake, with 84.2% (n = 637) of these coming from cyclists and 15.8% (n = 122) from other sports. In cycling, a strong and significant negative correlation was found (r = −.738; P = .003), showing a decrease of tramadol use compared with the other sports. Conclusions: The decrease in tramadol prevalence in cycling in the last years may be due to (1) the deterrent action of antidoping regulations and (2) the fact that tramadol may not have any actual ergogenic effect on performance.
