Billy Hulin

South Sydney Rabbitohs · Football Department

The acute:chronic workload ratio is associated with injury risk in rugby league players.1 Researchers and practitioners have discussed the most appropriate way in which acute and chronic workloads should be modelled and compared with injury. Menaspa2 suggested that when workloads do not follow weekly patterns in team sport, rolling weekly averages...

Objectives: Collision frequency during rugby league matches is associated with team success, greater and longer lasting fatigue and increased injury risk. This study researched the sensitivity and specificity of microtechnology to count collision events during rugby league matches. Design: Diagnostic accuracy study. Methods: While wearing a mi...

Aim: Investigate whether acute workload (1 week total distance) and chronic workload (4-week average acute workload) predict injury in elite rugby league players. Methods: Data were collected from 53 elite players over two rugby league seasons. The ‘acute:chronic workload ratio’ was calculated by dividing acute workload by chronic workload. A value...

Background: Between-match recovery time, and acute and chronic workloads likely affect subsequent match-injury risk in elite rugby league players. Methods: Workloads of 28 players throughout two seasons were calculated during short (<7 days), and long (≥7 days) between-match recovery times. 'Acute' workloads (1 week) greater than 'chronic' workl...

To determine if the comparison of acute and chronic workload is associated with increased injury risk in elite cricket fast bowlers. Data were collected from 28 fast bowlers who completed a total of 43 individual seasons over a 6-year period. Workloads were estimated by summarising the total number of balls bowled per week (external workload), and...

High-speed running (HSR) loads have been linked with non-contact injury risks in team-sports. This study investigated whether player-specific speed zones, reflecting individual fitness characteristics, impact the associations between non-contact injury and acute and chronic HSR loads. Semi-professional soccer players from two clubs (n = 47) were tr...

BLUF Previous publications have contributed to sensationalised and miss-interpreted conclusions in elite sport; practitioners should recognize that player workloads are merely a reference metric rather than a causal prognostic factor and they will never be able to predict injury with accuracy. Abstract The goal of this article is to openly reflect...

Objectives: Investigate the determinants of hamstring fascicle length in professional rugby league players. Design: Retrospective cohort study METHODS: Thirty-three elite male athletes underwent testing in the pre-season and in-season periods. Fascicle length measurements of the biceps femoris long head, 3D kinematics and elapsed time-periods at...

Purpose: To examine relationships among physical performance, workload, and injury risk in professional rugby league players. Methods: Maximal-effort (n = 112) and submaximal (n = 1084) running performances of 45 players were recorded from 1 club over 2 consecutive seasons. Poorer and better submaximal running performance was determined by highe...

We examined the association between coupled and uncoupled acute:chronic workload ratios (ACWR) and injury risk in a cohort of 28 elite cricket fast bowlers (mean±SD age, 26±5 yr). Workloads were estimated using the session rating of perceived exertion (session-RPE). Coupled ACWRs were calculated using a 1-week acute workload and 4-week chronic work...

To quantify the peak movement and contact demands of National Rugby League (NRL) and European Super League (ESL) competition players were tracked during 10 NRL (166 files) and 10 ESL (143 files) matches using microtechnology devices. The peak 1- to 5-min periods were then calculated for average match speed (m·min⁻¹), and acceleration (m·s⁻²) when 0...

Objectives: We examined: (1) relationships among sub-maximal heart rate (sub-maxHR) following 4 minutes of the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 (IR1) and maximal-effort performance (distance covered at volitional exhaustion), (2) test re-test reliability of sub-maxHR, and (3) whether changes in maximal-effort Yo-Yo performance are related w...

Purpose: Determine: 1) how change of direction (COD) workloads influence PlayerLoad variables when controlling total distance covered, and 2) relationships among collision workloads and PlayerLoad variables during rugby league match-play. Methods: Participants completed 3 protocols (crossover design) consisting of 10 repetitions of a 60 m effort...

We investigated changes in activity and recovery cycles and skill involvements: (1) during National Rugby league (NRL) match-play from 2004 to 2014 and (2) among successful and unsuccessful teams over the same period. Teams were divided into 4 tiers according to final ladder position: (A) 1st–4th, (B) 5th–8th, (C) 9th–12th and (D) 13th–16th. Total,...

A model that takes into account the current workload, and the workload the athlete has been prepared for, as an acute:chronic workload ratio has been previously used as a novel way to monitor training load and injury risk. Fifty-nine elite Australian football players from one club participated in this 2-year study. Global Positioning System technol...

GOLDILOCKS APPROACH TO TRAINING—NOT TOO LITTLE, NOT TOO MUCH Clinicians or strength and conditioning professionals who prescribe training workloads aim for workloads that are high enough to improve fitness (ie, performance), but not so high as to risk injury. At the extremes, no training results in an unprepared athlete, whereas an overuse injury i...

Purpose: To quantify activity profiles in approximately 5-min periods to determine if the intensity of rugby league match play changes after the most intense period of play and to determine if the intensity of activity during predefined periods of match play differ between successful and less-successful teams playing at an elite standard. Methods...

Objectives This study examined the influence of physical qualities on markers of fatigue and muscle damage following rugby league match-play. Design Between subjects design. Methods Twenty-one male youth rugby league players (age 19.2 ± 0.7 years; height 180.7 ± 5.6 cm; body mass 89.9 ± 10.0 kg) participated in the study. Yo-Yo intermittent recov...