Quantification of Training and Competition Load Across a Season in an Elite Australian Football Club.
OBJECTIVE
Load monitoring in Australian football (AF) has been widely adopted, yet team-sport periodization strategies are relatively unknown. The authors aimed to quantify training and competition load across a season in an elite AF team, using rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and GPS tracking.


METHODS
Weekly totals for RPE and GPS loads (including accelerometer data; PlayerLoad) were obtained for 44 players across a full season for each training modality and for competition. General linear mixed models compared mean weekly load between 3 preseason and 4 in-season blocks. Effects were assessed with inferences about magnitudes standardized with between-players SD.


RESULTS
Total RPE load was most likely greater during preseason, where the majority of load was obtained via skills and conditioning. There was a large reduction in RPE load in the last preseason block. During in-season, half the total load came from games and the remaining half from training, predominantly skills and upper-body weights. Total distance, high-intensity running, and PlayerLoad showed large to very large reductions from preseason to in-season, whereas changes in mean speed were trivial across all blocks. All these effects were clear at the 99% level.


CONCLUSIONS
These data provide useful information about targeted periods of loading and unloading across different stages of a season. The study also provides a framework for further investigation of training periodization in AF teams.
Inst of Sport Exercise and Active Living, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Dean
D
Ritchie
Will G
WG
Hopkins
Martin
M
Buchheit
Justin
J
Cordy
Jonathan D
JD
Bartlett
D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001315:Australia; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D064797:Physical Conditioning, Human / Q000379:methods*; D055070:Resistance Training; D012621:Seasons; D012916:Soccer / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult