When Is a Sprint a Sprint? A Review of the Analysis of Team-Sport Athlete Activity Profile

[thumbnail of fphys-08-00432.pdf]
Preview
fphys-08-00432.pdf - Published Version (251kB) | Preview
Available under license: Creative Commons Attribution

Sweeting, Alice ORCID: 0000-0002-9185-6773, Cormack, SJ, Morgan, S and Aughey, Robert ORCID: 0000-0002-0285-8516 (2017) When Is a Sprint a Sprint? A Review of the Analysis of Team-Sport Athlete Activity Profile. Frontiers in Physiology, 8. ISSN 1664-042X

Abstract

The external load of a team-sport athlete can be measured by tracking technologies, including global positioning systems (GPS), local positioning systems (LPS) and vision-based systems. These technologies allow for the calculation of displacement, velocity and acceleration during a match or training session. The accurate quantification of these variables is critical so that meaningful changes in team-sport athlete external load can be detected. High-velocity running, including sprinting, may be important for specific team-sport match activities, including evading an opponent or creating a shot on goal. Maximal accelerations are energetically demanding and frequently occur from a low velocity during team-sport matches. Despite extensive research, conjecture exists regarding the thresholds by which to classify the high velocity and acceleration activity of a team-sport athlete. There is currently no consensus on the definition of a sprint or acceleration effort, even within a single sport. The aim of this narrative review was to examine the varying velocity and acceleration thresholds reported in athlete activity profiling. The purposes of this review were therefore to (1) identify the various thresholds used to classify high-velocity or –intensity running plus accelerations; (2) examine the impact of individualized thresholds on reported team-sport activity profile; (3) evaluate the use of thresholds for court-based team-sports and; (4) discuss potential areas for future research. The presentation of velocity thresholds as a single value, with equivocal qualitative descriptors, is confusing when data lies between two thresholds. In Australian football, sprint efforts have been defined as activity > 4.00 m·s-1 or > 4.17 m·s-1. Acceleration thresholds differ across the literature, with > 1.11 m·s-2, 2.78 m·s-2, 3.00 m·s-2 and 4.00 m·s-2 utilized across a number of sports. It is difficult to compare literature on field-based sports due to inconsistencies in velocity and acceleration thresholds, even within a single sport. Velocity and acceleration thresholds have been determined from physical capacity tests. Limited research exists on the classification of velocity and acceleration data by female team-sport athletes. Alternatively, data mining techniques may be used to report team-sport athlete external load, without the requirement of arbitrary or physiologically defined thresholds.

Dimensions Badge

Altmetric Badge

Item type Article
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/34133
DOI 10.3389/fphys.2017.00432
Official URL http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fph...
Subjects Historical > FOR Classification > 1106 Human Movement and Sports Science
Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living (ISEAL)
Keywords velocity thresholds; acceleration; data mining; player tracking; match analysis
Citations in Scopus 64 - View on Scopus
Download/View statistics View download statistics for this item

Search Google Scholar

Repository staff login