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Strength and conditioning (S&C) interventions for golfers consistently demonstrate improvements in performance metrics such as clubhead speed. Golfers typically employ Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) coaches to support technical and tactical development. These coaches need to ensure golfers balance S&C training alongside competitions and technical golf practise, although no empirical data exist that demonstrates how this integration occurs practically. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions and practises of PGA Professional golf coaches and how S&C is integrated into the golf year. Forty-three (male = 35; female = 8) PGA coaches completed a mixed-methods survey with questions on themes such as coaching approach, perceptions of S&C, annual planning and goal setting. Results show that formal planning processes are highly variable or absent. The majority (n = 29; 70.7%) of PGA coaches stated they worked with an S&C coach and see the role of the S&C coach to support golfers with their input. However, when planning the season, 63.4% (n = 26) of coaches do so without input from the S&C coach. These and other related disconnects between desire for S&C intervention and inclusion of the S&C coach in planning processes were evident throughout survey responses. There may be subsequent risks of conflict or misunderstanding between PGA coach, S&C coach and golfer. It is recommended golf coaches, golfers and S&C coaches work collaboratively as a multidisciplinary support team to ensure coordinated golfer support is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of training load in youth team-sport athletes is important. There is, however, a lack of research on practitioners' perceptions and understandings of managing training load during this period and what this means in terms of maturational status and injury risk. This study aimed to investigate academy football practitioners' perceptions and understanding of training load, maturation and injury risk in young male footballers. Coaches, sports scientists, medical staff and key stakeholders from a professional football club academy in England participated in focus groups investigating their understanding and perceptions of training load, maturation and injury risk. A qualitative descriptive methodology utilising framework analysis was used to capture and better understand participants' views. Findings revealed that practitioners consider managing training load during adolescence to be comprised of, and mediated by, three key elements: club philosophy, factors inside the club's control (periodisation strategy; staff member practice), and factors outside the club's control (life load; growth and maturation). This study is an important addition to the current literature on managing injuries through the growth spurt by investigating how different stakeholders perceive training load, maturation and potential strategies to mitigate risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standards are pivotal for generating the evidence required to manage players in professional sport environments like rugby union. Resultantly, using a three-step qualitative approach, this study aimed to formulate a consensus as a subjective standard for evidence generation pertaining to player management. The consensus statement intended to identify evidence on peaks/troughs in player external training loads using Global Positioning System (GPS)-based information in the High-Performance Unit (HPU) of a Gallagher Premiership rugby union club. Initially, a systematic review adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) framework was conducted to unravel the factors considered (literature-based cues) when identifying peaks/troughs in player external training loads using GPS information. Next, thematic analysis conducted on the data obtained from 7 semi-structured interviews with HPU staff highlighted that they consider 6 factors with 38 elements (practitioner-based cues) during player external training load management. Thereafter, guided by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument and by utilising selected elements representing 4/6 factors (healthy player, GPS information, longitudinal durations and practitioner judgements on information), a consensus among practitioners for identifying peaks/troughs in player external training loads was developed with the participation of five HPU members using the nominal group technique (NGT). Practitioners reached an agreement with regard to 12 indicators to subjectively identify peaks/troughs in player external training loads within the considered environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on the content and periodisation of the preseason field-based training for a professional rugby league team. Thirty professional male rugby league players (26 ± 5 years, 180.9 ± 6.5 cm, 94 ± 9 kg) completed an 8-week preseason. Global positioning system devices and heart rate were used to monitor physical and physiological responses of different field-based training components (speed, conditioning, rugby skill and game-based training). Rugby skill training contributed the most to the total distance covered, conditioning was the greatest contributor to high-speed running (>15 km/h) and game-based training provided the greatest high metabolic distance (>20 W/kg) and overall external load. Game-based training provided the greatest time with heart rate ≥80% estimated maximum. The weekly preseason cycle had lower loads on Monday and Thursday whereas Tuesday and Friday produced the highest loads. The preseason described herein adopted a progressive overload comprising a weekly undulating cycle. This study emphasises how skill and games-based training contributes significantly to the overall load of a professional rugby league team's preseason with more traditional conditioning promoting high-speed running load and high metabolic load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study to document the training and tapering practices of elite CrossFit athletes. Seventy-two CrossFit athletes (39 females, 33 males) (mean ±SD; 26.5 ± 3.6 y, 167.1 ± 9.5 cm, 74.5 ± 12.7 kg, 12.8 ± 6.5 y general training, 5.4 ± 1.7 y CrossFit training) who competed at the "Regionals" level or higher in the 2018 CrossFit Games season completed a self-reported 5-page online survey. Almost all athletes (98.6%) tapered before important competitions. Taper length was 5.4 ± 2.7 days, with the step and linear tapering styles being most commonly utilised. Strength training volume peaked 5.1 ± 4.6 weeks before competition, whereas conditioning training volume peaked 4.0 ± 4.4 weeks before competition. Strength training intensity peaked 3.1 ± 2.4 weeks before competition, whereas conditioning training intensity peaked 2.8 ± 2.2 weeks before competition. Almost all athletes (90.0%) reduced training duration during tapering, but changes to frequency and intensity were mixed. Training volume decreased by 41.2 ± 15.5% during the taper, all training ceased 2.0 ± 1.1 days before competition. Tapering was performed to achieve peak performance, recover (physically and psychologically), and reduce feelings of fatigue. Poor results from tapering were experienced when athletes tapered for too long or insufficiently. This observational data may be valuable for coaches and athletes engaged in CrossFit as well as other sports with concurrent training and competition demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of Ramadan fasting on various training regimes, running endurance performance and recovery in a controlled environment. Twenty male athletes (fasting and non-fasting) performed a 20m shuttle run test (20SRT) pre and post a 4-week periodized training programme. Training loads from various types of exercises, ratings of perceived exertions (RPE), total quality recovery (TQR) and heart rates were daily monitored. No significant differences existed between groups for SRT, heart rates, training volume and RPE. A strong relationship (r=0.88; p<0.05) was evident between TQR and recovery duration (modalities: stretching, cool down, swimming, whirlpool and sauna) for fasting athletes. Ramadan fasting does not affect the achievement of daily training goals and the improvement of endurance performance throughout a mixed endurance and strength training programme where daily undulating periodized models are used. Allowing athletes to freely select from various recovery modalities above the 26 min span daily, can eventually increase their training recovery under Ramadan fasting conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study is to give a description of the exceptional running career of Grete Waitz (GW) and give special attention to the distribution of training volume and training intensity in two of her most successful years as an international long-distance and marathon runner. Training data are based on an analysis of GW's training diaries from her early start as a track and field athlete to her best performance years as a long-distance track runner and marathon runner. The main finding in this study was that GW's total running volume, in her best seasons, varied between 119-132 km · week-1 in the different meso-cycles of the training year. Her weekly training volume is far below the volume reported for the current female World Record holder for the marathon distance at the time of writing. Her training typically consisted of two daily sessions of continuous running (50-60 min) at a relatively high intensity. She did very few long interval training sessions, but she usually did one high-intensity session of shorter intervals/sprint training (strides) per week. In the season 1978-1979 she took part in 50 competitions (ranging from 800m to marathon) of which she won 48. Her best track performance in this season was her Nordic record in the 3000 m, 8:31.75 which would have been the best time in the world in 2011 and 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose was to evaluate a hypothesized model of change during a training and competition macrocycle in a sample of elite field hockey players. Subjects were 11 members of the Polish national team. Players were measured and tested four times through a complete macrocycle. Variables included body mass, % Fat (BIA), aerobic endurance, maximal running speed, speed-endurance and blood lactate concentrations after the endurance, speed and speed-endurance tests. Significant changes occurred in % Fat, aerobic endurance and blood lactate concentrations at different phases of the macrocycle. Mean changes for the total sample did not follow the hypothesized model for speed, aerobic endurance and speed-endurance between specific periods of the macrocycle. Variability among individual players was considerable and emphasized the importance of individualizing training protocols during a macrocycle. The results highlighted the need to consider specific functional capacities (speed, aerobic endurance, speed-endurance) of individual athletes in addition to technical and tactical skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare training volume and the distribution of training intensity of six of the best long-distance runners in Norway from the last decade.Three international-level long-distance runners (two males and one female) and three marathon runners (one male and two females) were included. The runners' training diaries for one of the seasons they competed in an international championship were analysed. The reported running volume (km/week) was used to estimate the distribution of training at the prescribed intensity zones in representative weeks in the preparation period and in the competition season.During the preparation period (November - February) the marathon runners ran an average of 186.6 ± 25.7 km/week and the track runners 161 ± 11 km/week. For all runners, 80 ± 5% of the weekly training distance (km/week) in this period was continuous running with a heart rate (HR) between 65-82% of maximum. The remaining 20% of total training volume (km/week) was performed at intensities near and above the anaerobic threshold (82-92% of HRmax). This was done in three to five weekly interval sessions or continuous running sessions. All athletes ran 11 - 13 sessions per week. The training volume (km/week) in the pre-competition period and the competition season did not differ much from the volume in the preparation period. The track runners increased the amount of highintensity training at specific race pace in the pre-competition period (March and April), and in the track competition season (May - September). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]