Jo Clubb

Global Performance Insights

Background: There is a lack of data relating to the physical performance qualities of women’s football players across the performance scale. Objectives: (1) to establish meta-analytic estimates for select assessment protocols across seven physical qualities (cardiorespiratory fitness, sprint, acceleration, change of direction, lower limb power and...

Background : The optimization of athlete training load is not a new concept; however in recent years, the concept of “load management” is one of the most widely studied and divisive topics in sports science and medicine. Purpose : Discuss the challenges faced by sports when utilizing training load monitoring and management, with a specific focus on...

Purpose: The study had 3 purposes: (1) to develop an index using machine-learning techniques to predict the fitness status of soccer players, (2) to explore the index’s validity and its relationship with a submaximal run test (SMFT), and (3) to analyze the impact of weekly training load on the index and SMFT outcomes. Methods: The study involved 50...

Purpose : Monitoring player readiness to train and perform is an important practical concept in football. Despite an abundance of research in this area in the male game, to date, research is limited in female football. The aims of this study were, first, to summarize the current literature on the monitoring of readiness in female football; second,...

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are commonplace in business and sport. They offer an objective means to link data and processes with performance outcomes. Yet, their application in sports performance, particularly team sports, is not without issue. Here, we review 4 key issues relating to KPI application in team sports; lack of a universal defini...

Seeking to obtain a competitive advantage and manage the risk of injury, team sport organisations are investing in tracking systems that can quantify training and competition characteristics. It is expected that such information can support objective decision-making for the prescription and manipulation of training load. This narrative review aims...

Chapter 3 in Guzman, D., Young, M., & Howard, T. (Eds.). (2022). Strength Training for Soccer. Human Kinetics.

The aim of this study was to assess the measurement properties of external training load measures across three formats of standardised training games. Eighty-eight players from two English professional soccer clubs participated in the study spanning three consecutive seasons. External training load data was collected from three types of standardise...

High-Performance Training for Sports changed the landscape of athletic conditioning and sport performance when first published in 2014. Now the second edition builds on that groundbreaking work with the latest and most effective philosophies, protocols and programs for developing today’s athletes. High-Performance Training for Sports, Second Editio...

As sport and exercise medicine clinicians, we are constantly faced with challenging decisions. We contend with a diverse range of physical and psychological ailments, how to optimise rehabilitation, clear players to return to play and even the advancement of training to improve performance. Accordingly, clinicians often seek to provide evidence-bas...

The collection of tracking data will provide unfiltered information unless the context of the situation is accounted for, which can then enable a useful interpretation of the data. Management of this information requires an underpinning of reliable and valid analytical techniques to create knowledge that can impact the organization and their manage...

In recent years, the analysis of workload profiles within athletic populations has been a growth industry, however, the first objective motion analysis of soccer was first published in 1976 by Professor Tom Reilly (45). This study involved a manual coded notation system of a single player’s motion that was later validated with video analysis (45)....

Future of elite football 2030. We suggest that tactical evolutions of the future game, predicated on models of high-intensity pressing, counter-pressing, and counterattacking, will result in greater exposure to intense, short accelerations and decelerations, interspersed between more high-speed running moments. Accordingly, the creation of high-i...

Editorial Letter

Training load monitoring is a core aspect of modern-day sport science practice. Collecting, cleaning, analysing, interpreting, and disseminating load data is usually undertaken with a view to improve player performance and/or manage injury risk. To target these outcomes, practitioners attempt to optimise load at different stages throughout the trai...

During COVID-19 home confinement, athletes are likely exposed to some level of detraining (i.e. the partial or complete loss of training-induced morphological and physiological adaptations), as a consequence of insufficient and/or inappropriate training stimuli. Such changes may result in impaired performance and increased injury risk if, upon rest...

Introduction: Training and competition load can cause neuromuscular fatigue (NMF) and modified movement strategy such as an increase in the contribution of the medio-lateral [PlayerLoadTMML(%)] and decrease in the % vertical [PlayerLoadTMV(%)] vectors, to total PlayerLoadTM (accelerometer derived measurement in vertical, medio-lateral, and anterior...

The purpose of this paper is to outline evidence-based fundamentals of a monitoring system for athletes. This includes time- and cost-effective interventions across load monitoring, measuring wellness responses, and recovery strategies that can be employed regardless of budget size. Analysis approaches are included to outline how to analyze data co...

Chapter 12 Applied motion analysis a) Systems of Measurement in Time-Motion Analysis – a case study of soccer Athalie Redwood-Brown b) Some practical notes on GPS systems Michael T. Hughes, Jo Clubb and Ben Pollard