Heart Rate Intensity in Female Footballers and its Effect on Playing Position based on External Workload.
Female football is the world’s fastest developing sport, and due to the rise in magnitude, female football, of all levels, must embrace scientific applications allowing an increase in performance through training, technique, and preparation. The purpose of the study was to examine the physiological external workload, of amateur female footballers, across varying heart rate intensities, as well as, interpret fatigue between each half of the Soccer-Specific Aerobic Field Test (SAFT90) protocol.
Football is the world’s most popular sport, practiced across the world. The sports universal appeal is reflected by 260 million, males, females, and children, of all abilities, who participate globally, which corresponds for more than 29 million female participants. Therefore, through obtaining a deeper level of understanding, coaches and players can benefit in terms of their ability to present improved information to modify tactics and training approaches. With female football extensively increasing in stature, the performance expectation has further risen with an increased
need for specific scientific research to improve performance.
Physical demands within football have increased across the last decade3 with all players now participating within defensive and offensive phases; this has created multifunctional footballers, usable within multiple positions. Numerous studies have compared playing position,
presenting a clear link between playing position and physical capacity both aerobically and anaerobically. However, oxygen kinetics undergo changes throughout a football match due to the 150-250 anaerobic short intense bouts performed, indicating a high anaerobic energy turnover.
Sport Exerc Med Open J. 2018; 4(2): 24-34. doi: 10.17140/SEMOJ-4-157