Published Research

A difference in individual anterior cruciate ligament injury risk assessment depending on movement type was revealed. While knee abduction moment magnitudes were similar across direction-change tasks, player rankings differed. The contributions of resultant ground reaction forces and frontal plane moment arms to peak knee abduction moments varied between tasks, underscoring the importance of task-specific and individualized injury prevention.

The deceleration threshold method using the average of the best two trials from each testing day, exhibited excellent inter-day reliability for the key metrics (TTS: ICC = 0.93, CV% = 6.4; DTS: ICC = 0.97, CV% = 5.3; DECave: ICC = 0.92, CV% = 7.1). To optimize reliability and sensitivity of detecting a meaningful change in sprint deceleration performance practitioners should consider using the average of two best trials analyzed with the deceleration threshold.

After the intervention, non-significant (p > .05) increases of 2.94% (95% CI: 0.25 – 5.62) of the voluntary maximum running speed were obtained with a large effect size (rB: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.00 – 0.95). The distance to the first support from the vertical projection of the center of masses presented significant differences (p < .05; drB: 1; 95% CI: 1 – 1). The non-significant maximum running speed increases cannot be neglected in high-level competition, where small differences in performance separate athletes. To choose the appropriate training load is key, and so a standardized methodology allowing the comparison of results is necessary.

The study revealed a statistically significant difference in % Vdec (p ≤ 0.05) across different sprint phases, with higher resistance leading to increased differences in the individual phases of the run. Segmental analysis showed a greater % Vdecas sprint distance increased across all resistance levels. These findings highlight the need for a deeper understanding of resisted sprint training for more effective speed development.

We observed the highest level of deceleration in the full backs, who are characterized by the highest number of decelerations in the game, precisely due to the frequent transition between phases of the game. These findings are directly applicable to the design of individual training programs with an emphasis on reducing injury incidence and increasing movement efficiency during deceleration.

The sprinters excelled in jumping abilities (SJ, CMJ, BJ, RSI), they did not achieve the highest levels of strength across any of the selected metrics (1). The second part of this study underscores the fact, that while football players demonstrate greater force production and application effectiveness, sprinters exhibit high efficiency in force at elevated velocities (2). No or weak relationships were found between KPI and the force-velocity profile of the research sample in our correlations. Another finding is the fact that despite the different movement strategies to reach maximal speed between football players and sprinters, these facts did not substantially affect the final results

These findings suggest that targeted resisted sprint training interventions can enhance sprint performance for the specific phase targeted, with potential practical implications for professional rugby players. Future research should explore using more frequent training sessions over longer intervention periods and investigating the combined effects of these interventions on sprint performance.

Maximal lactate accumulation rate is a good indicator of 50 m front crawl performance in male swimmers, and higher glycolytic power contributes to the faster time at the beginning of the sprint race. Maximal lactate accumulation rate could also evaluate the ability of a swimmer to apply force to the water during high-intensity swimming.

Top speed sprinting represents the primary global KPI and closest off-ice proxy for skating speed regardless of cohort.

The key tests to be applied in soccer are the 40-meter straight-line sprint and COD tests, with particular emphasis on the 15-0-5, which we consider the most suitable complement to the 40-meter sprint for evaluating these specific capacities in relation to the demands of football.

Athletes with faster initial acceleration and overall sprint performance times demonstrated lower relative weight acceptance impulse during their strides and employed a jump strategy that optimized concentric impulse with a rapid eccentric phase. To attain a high peak velocity the athletes appeared to require a stride that maximized glide and minimized vertical force, with greater ankle dorsiflexion ROM potentially facilitating this.

Current findings propose a novel training strategy that could simultaneously enhance sprint mechanics during initial accelerations and repeated sprint abilities for elite youth soccer players—a methodology not previously employed.

This study suggest that mechanical specificity rather than movement specificity was more relevant for predicting on-ice acceleration performance in elite long track speed skaters.

The 15-0-5 test effectively mirrors the average peak speed demands of football pressing actions in matches (25.4 km/h), validating its use as both a screening and training tool in football.

The present study shows that the 1080 Sprint is valid and reliable for measuring throwing performance in volleyball athletes for monitoring purposes.

The results indicate that by using the velocity and force data recorded in the loading device, most of the spatiotemporal and GRF variables during resisted sprinting can be estimated with some correction of the fixed bias and data smoothing using the two-step moving average.

The results indicate that mono exponential modeling is a valid and reliable method of monitoring initial acceleration performance in elite level long track speed skaters.

The present study indicates that horizontal resistance load in sprint acceleration has little impact on the spatiotemporal and GRF variables at a given running velocity. In contrast to a general recommendation, one should adopt a heavy load in resisted sprint aiming to improve performance in the earlier stage of maximal sprint acceleration.

The sprint performance test based on semi-tethered front crawl swimming confirmed that outcome measurements were reliable variables to indirectly indicate a potential to perform the maximal anaerobic effort among adolescent swimmers. The evaluation of the swimming velocity profiles allows coaches to monitor the adaptive changes of performance during the training process.

The results indicate that unilateral loaded jump tests are reliable in speed skating athletes and may help practitioners diagnose and monitor lower-limb maximal muscle power capacity in a sport-specific manner

The present study demonstrates that the MRD can obtain reliable phase-specific outcome measurements across different CoD tests, providing coaches and researchers with new opportunities to advance our understanding of CoD ability and inform more advanced CoD training prescriptions.

New and novel method to determine active drag in from-crawl swimming

In a sport (speed skating) with asymmetrical loading, interlimb differences in mechanical output remain stable at the group level. However, changes occurring at the individual athlete level may be occurring that are meaningful for performance and injury.

Change of direction (CoD) performance has a moderate and higher impact on tennis performance compared to linear sprint. CoD performance as well as Pmax from linear sprint force-velocity profiling achieved a higher relevance for the ranking position predominantly in girls compared to boys. Hence, particularly Pmax as well as the transfer to on-court CoD motor skills should be a central training goal in elite junior tennis players besides technical skills and should depend on maturation status and gender.