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Affiliation
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Western Bulldogs AFL Club, Whitten Oval, Barkly Street, West Footscray, Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 3210. |
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Abstract
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PURPOSE: Training volume, intensity and distribution are important factors during periods of return to play. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of injury on training load (TL) before and after return to play (RTP) in professional Australian Rules Football.
METHODS: Perceived training load (RPE-TL) for 44 players was obtained for all indoor & outdoor training sessions, while field-based training was monitored via GPS (total distance, high-speed running, mean speed). When a player sustained a competition time-loss injury, weekly TL was quantified for 3 weeks before and after RTP. General linear mixed models, with inference about magnitudes standardized by between-player SD's, were used to quantify effects of lower and upper body injury on TL compared to the team.
RESULTS: While total RPE-TL was similar to the team 2 weeks before RTP, training distribution was different, whereby skills RPE-TL was likely and most likely lower for upper and lower body injury, respectively, and most likely replaced with small-very large increases in running and other conditioning load. Weekly total distance and high-speed running was most likely moderately-largely reduced for lower and upper body injury until after RTP, at which point, total RPE-TL, training distribution, total distance and high-speed running were similar to the team. Mean speed of field-based training was similar before and after RTP compared to the team.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite injured athletes obtaining comparable training loads to injured players, training distribution is different until after RTP, indicating the importance of monitoring all types of training athletes complete.
Keywords: Australian Football
Language: en |