Pre-Season Training Camp

Here is a short article I featured in, describing some of the duties I undertook whilst on a seven day pre-season training camp in Vale Do Lobo, Portugal with Ebbsfleet United FC.

Click here to read.

BASES Student Conference 2017

I was lucky enough to be accepted to present a poster at the BASES Student Conference 2017.  The topic of the poster was that of my final year dissertation project for my undergraduate degree course.  It surrounded the use of GPS devices to identify position specific activity profiles in professional football, and whether the final match outcome had an effect on individual positional activity.  This blog is a reflection on the whole experience, and what I have taken from it.

My research project began during an internship at a professional football club competing in the Sky Bet English Football League Two.  The team had just invested in the use of GPS devices to measure game and training loads.  I thought that this would make quite an interesting project so I asked my supervisor if it would be possible to gain access to the data that was to be collected.  After getting clearance from the management team to release the data, I was granted permission to use it.  This made me feel validated as an intern because the staff had confidence in my ability to use and interpret the collected data.  As the use of GPS technology in sport is ever increasing, I also thought that this would be an ideal opportunity for me to gain a good understanding of this technology using real-life data and that this experience could really add to my skill set and experience. 

The lead sport scientist at the club was using GPS to collect both training and match data.  I thought, to make things a little easier for myself, I would use only data collected from competitive matches for my project.  My theory was that this would enable me to develop an understanding of the physical demands placed on the players during competition.  This could be useful in identifying the physical needs of these players based on their position which could further help optimize the individualisation of football player training. 

After carrying out my own research into the use of GPS in team sports, it became obvious to me that the total distance covered was not really representative of the actual demands of the game, and that more relevant information concerned high speed distance travelled and accelerations and decelerations performed.  This research process really helped me develop a good understanding of what data I could use to maximize the benefit of using the device, while also developing my confidence in identifying key areas of physical performance.  I therefore, decided to look at high speed distance, sprint distance and accelerations/decelerations performed by each position and to examine whether these metrics changed according to the final outcome of the match (win, lose or draw).

I inputted all collected data into a custom spreadsheet that I designed using Microsoft Excel.  Once the data were organized I then inputted into SPSS to run the relevant statistical tests.   I chose to perform a one way analysis of variance to compare the previous mention metrics with each position, then a two way analysis of variance to compare metrics against position and final match outcome.  A problem that I encountered here was that for nearly every test I ran, Lavene’s test of variance failed (indicating the high variance in values between the groups of data) which meant that my F-ratio (the statistic used to test if the means are significantly different from one another) would be invalid.  On researching an alternative method, it was established that there were two options; a Welch’s F or Brown-Forsythe.  A Welch’s F was the chosen method as this test has been shown to be more powerful in detecting an effect when it exists.  This initially left me feeling quite frustrated at the fact that the results were not panning out the way I hoped, but when the alternative was established I felt relieved and a sense of accomplishment, and also gave me an opportunity to revisit my statistics to help improve my knowledge in this area.

The key points that I was able to take from my research project were:

• Central Midfielders covered the greatest total distance while Centre Backs covered the least.
• Forwards are exposed to increased high intensity and sprint distance compared to other positions
• High intensity distance and sprint distance covered shows little variation between Full Backs, Central Midfielders and Wide Midfielders players
• Full Backs and Wide Midfield players performed the highest amounts of accelerations and decelerations although displayed a high variability.

After collecting and interpreting all my results I began to design my poster.  I enjoyed this process as it allowed me to be creative in displaying the most relevant information I had uncovered.  On completion of the poster I felt proud that I had condensed my whole project into a single poster, and tried hard to get as much information as I could on there without over crowding.  It was the accumulation of many months work.

The BASES Student Conference was held at the University of St Mark & St John, Plymouth.  It was a two day event with some very interesting key note speakers.  One of which I found particularly interesting was Professor Andy Jones who spoke about the role of dietary nitrate in enhancing nitric oxide production and in modulating blood pressure, blood flow, and muscle efficiency and performance.  I presented my poster on day two.  This allowed me to experience the first day and observe some of the other posters that students had produced.  I felt more relaxed after this as I knew what to expect when presenting my own.  This also gave me the opportunity to talk to other students about their work which I feel I gained a lot of benefit from.  For example there were two students presenting on the use of the acute chronic workload ratio to quantify training loads in football, and also one student presenting on Bio-Banding in football academies (a topic of one of my previous blog posts click here). 

When presenting my poster I had a lot of interest from other students taking the time out to ask about my project.  This filled me with a lot of confidence as the feedback that I was getting was very positive.  People were most interested in the break down of metrics for each position, and how this could be used to influence a host of areas such as individualised training, return to play measures or specific testing for individual positions.  The fact that I had worked on the project from so long gave me a lot of confidence in delivering the presentation, and this left me feeling very proud of my achievement  and the fact that I had used real life data made me feel relevant in that this could positively contribute to the professional sporting environment.

I was left feeling extremely proud of my self and of the hard work that I had put in.  This was further elevated when I was informed that my poster abstract is now going to be published in an online graduate journal.  I genuinely believe that this whole process has really developed me as a sport scientist and helped me acquire skills that can be really important in the professional sporting environment such as collecting data, interpreting data and presenting it in an understandable way.  My final poster presentation can be viewed here.  To read my published abstract in the Graduate Journal of Sport, Exercise & Physical Education Research, click here. (page 59).

Bio-Banding

I recently attended a student Sport Science workshop hosted by AFC Bournemouth.  The event was curated by lead academy Sport Scientist Ben Bradley.  Other speakers included James Bunce (Head of Sport Science at the Premier League) and Dan Hodges (AFC Bournemouth 1^st Team Head of Sport Science).  Although all presentations were extremely interesting, a topic that I found particularly interesting and was covered in both Ben, and James’ presentation was that of Bio-Banding.  Bio-Banding aims to group young players together according to their physical maturity rather than their age.  AFC Bournemouth along with a hand full of other clubs have been innovative in implementing this technique within their academies, in the attempt to allow an even playing field throughout the development of a young player.  This blog will explore the maturation process, what bio-banding is and why it is being used in football academies.

Peak Height Velocity (PHV)

PHV is a period a maturation in which an adolescent experiences their most rapid growth spurt (Lloyd, Oliver, 2012).  The PHV coincides with the onset of puberty, and occurs on average at age of 14 for boys (Balyi, Hamilton, 2004) and last for approximately 2 years.  However, although this is the average age, the actual age at which a boy will experience this phase of maturation is highly variable.  This is demonstrated in the study by Chuman, Hoshikawa, Iida & Nishijima (2014) where PHV was shown to vary from as young as 11 years, up to the age of 15 years.

Why is PHV Important?

Before during and after PHV appear to periods in which the athlete may be more sensitive to certain types of training (i.e., hypertrophy, strength, power).  These periods have been identified as periods of accelerated adaptation (Lloyd, Oliver, 2012) and may influence conditioning design.  Therefore, identifying an athletes PHV can assist in developing a training programme that is relevant to the athletes’ level of maturation.  For example, Rump, Cronin, Oliver & Hughes (2012) showed that preadolescents benefit from training that involves high levels of neural activation (sprint and plyometrics) whereas adolescents respond better to training that targets neural and muscular development.  Below is the Youth Physical Development Model from Lloyd and Oliver (2012).

(Lloyd & Oliver 2012)

Measuring PHV

The PHV may be estimated using a simple equation.  The variables requires are standing height (cm), sitting height (cm), date of birth and weight (kg).  It must be appreciated that this is only an estimation, and there can be an error of 6 month variance on each side.  The full equation is below:

Maturity Offset = -9.236 + (0.0002708 x leg length and sitting height interaction) + (-0.001663 x age and leg lenth interaction) + (0.007216 x age and sitting height interaction) + (0.02292 x weight by height ratio)

(Sherar et al., 2005)

The equation results in the number of years the athlete is from experiencing PHV.  A reference table can then be used to infer their predicted adult height.  It is recommended that these measurements are taken 2-3 times throughout the year as a childs growth rate has a tendency to fluctuate.  This may also improve accuracy of the estimation.

Bio-Banding

Too often players are rejected from academies on the premise of their physicality.  This is evident in players such as Harry Kane who was released from Arsenal at age 11 due to size, Jamie Vardy at Sheffield Wednesday and even Roy Keane at Bright and Hove Albion.  

There is a proven bias towards clubs selecting players based on whether they were born in the first quarter of the UK academic year (September-November) as they are generally bigger, therefore early developers.

A handful of academies are now introducing the concept of bio-banding, which groups players together in relation to their biological age rather than their chronological age in attempt to provide an even playing field for player development.   This attempts to identify early and late developers with a view to eliminating the problem of the early maturer relying on their physicality to get them through games, while helping the later maturers who may be at a risk of being overlooked.  It creates a platform for everyone to compete and a fresh opportunity to maximise the players technical development. 

Using the equation above, players are grouped together into three bands, 80-85%, 86-91% and 91-97% of predicted adult height (PAD).  At AFC Bournemeouth the players still play normal league matches within their own age group, but certain training sessions and in house tournaments are used to bio-band the players and offer a different perspective.

With the variation in age seen in the bio-banded groups, interesting outcomes have been noticed.  For example the players that were not so dominant, or natural leaders in their own age group, were seen to show more confidence and improved leadership skills.  Older players in the group were also able to pass on their wisdom, teach younger players and take more of leadership role.       

   

This concept can be taken even further with physiological testing carried out within bio-bands.  This could potentially give a more accurate representation of where the player actually is terms of physicality.

Biological age is an area that still requires further research to investigate the possible effects it may have on young developing footballers.  Nevertheless, it provides a high level of idividualisation within training programes which can only be a good thing as a one size fits all approach is not acceptable.  This is a really interesting area of study and essential for any practioner entering the academy system.  

References                   

1. Lloyd, R.S., and Oliver, J.L. (2012). The Youth Physical Development Model: A New Approach to Long-Term Athletic Development. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 34(3), pp.61-72
2. Balyi, I., and Hamilton, A. (2004). Long term athlete development: Trainability in children and adolescents; windows of opportunity.  National Coaching Institute: Canada
3. Chuman, K., Hoshikawa, Y., Iida, T., and Nishijima, T. (2014). Maturity and intermittent endurance in male soccer layers during the adolescent growth spurt: A longitudinal study.  Football Science, Vol.11, 39-47
4. Rumpf., MC, Cronin, JB., and Hughes, MG. (2012). Effect of different training methods on running sprint times in male youth. Paediatric Exercise Science.
5. Sherar, L.B., Mirwald, R.L., Baxter-Jones, A.D.G. and Thomis, M. (2005) ‘Prediction of adult height using maturity-based cumulative height velocity curves’, The Journal of Pediatrics, 147(4), pp. 508–514.