Does sprint and jump performance of football players from a Premier League academy change throughout the season?

Meira F.C. Franke R.D.A. da Costa D.L. Nakamura F.Y. Baroni B.M.
June 2024 Springer-Verlag Italia s.r.l.

Sport Sciences for Health
2024 #20 Issue 2 427 - 434 pp.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the sprint and jump performance throughout the season in young male players aged 13–18 years from a Premier League football (soccer) academy. Methods: Participants were engaged in a 6-day weekly football training routine. Plyometric and sprint exercises were embedded in training sessions but did not follow a systematized program. Performance on 10-m and 30-m sprints, vertical and horizontal jumps were assessed at the beginning, middle, and end of competitive calendar along two consecutive seasons. This retrospective longitudinal study analyzed 94 players from under-14 to under-19 teams (56 players in both seasons and 38 in a single season; i.e., 150 player-seasons). Results: Players had significant performance improvements along the season: 10-m sprint [p < 0.001, delta = − 0.06 s (− 2.93%), effect size (ES) = 0.60], 30-m sprint [p < 0.001, delta = − 0.11 s (− 2.46%), ES = 0.54], vertical jump [p = 0.005, delta = 1.84 cm (5.45%), ES = 0.37], and horizontal jump [p = 0.005, delta = 6.48 cm (2.86%), ES = 0.37]. Individual analyses on age categories denoted that significant performance improvements mostly occurred in under-14, under-15, and under-16 teams. Under-18 and under-19 teams had no significant increases in any performance test, while under-17 team had an increase only in the 30-m sprint test. Conclusion: Regular football training routine (without systematized plyometric or sprint training) was able to enhance sprint and jump performance of footballers from under-14 to under-16 teams, but this training regime was insufficient to improve such abilities of older players (under-17 to under-19 teams).

Athletes , Athletic performance , Physical fitness , Soccer

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Football Club Kairat, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Instituto Universitário da Maia, Maia, Portugal

Football Club Kairat
Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre
Instituto Universitário da Maia

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