Laura E. Juliff

Netball Australia · High Performance

Mental fatigue has been shown to negatively influence physical, technical and tactical aspects of sporting performance. However, mental fatigue is not routinely monitored or managed in elite sport and it is not clear whether mental fatigue occurs and/or changes across the varied contextual demands experienced by elite athletes in training, preparat...

Purpose: Mental fatigue is emerging as an important consideration for elite sporting performance, yet it is rarely monitored. The present study assessed changes in mental fatigue in professional team-sport athletes across 2 seasons and examined the relationship between mental fatigue and other athlete self-report measures of well-being. Methods:...

Purpose: Night games are a regular occurrence for team sport athletes, yet sleep complaints following night competitions are common. The mechanisms responsible for reported sleep difficulty in athletes is not understood. Methods: An observational cross-over design investigating a night netball game and a time matched rest-day in twelve netball a...

The recognition that sleep is one of the foundations of athlete performance is increasing both in the elite athlete arena as well as applied performance research. Sleep, as identified through sleep deprivation and sleep extension investigations, has a role in performance, illness, injury, metabolism, cognition, memory, learning, and mood. Elite ath...

Objectives: Actical(®) actigraphy is commonly used to monitor athlete sleep. The proprietary software, called Actiware(®), processes data with three different sleep-wake thresholds (Low, Medium or High), but there is no standardisation regarding their use. The purpose of this study was to examine validity and bias of the sleep-wake thresholds for...

Sleep is often regarded as the single best recovery strategy available to an athlete, yet little is known about the quality and quantity of sleep in athletes during multi-day competitions. The present study objectively evaluated sleep characteristics of athletes during a national netball tournament. Using wrist actigraphy monitors and sleep diaries...

Contrast water therapy is a popular recovery modality in sport; however, appropriate facilities can often be difficult to access. Therefore, the present study examined the use of contrast showers as an alternative to contrast water therapy for team sport recovery. In a randomized, cross-over design ten elite female netball athletes (mean ± SD; age:...

Objectives Anecdotally many athletes report worse sleep in the nights prior to important competitions. Despite sleep being acknowledged as an important factor for optimal athletic performance and overall health, little is understood about athlete sleep around competition. The aims of this study were to identify sleep complaints of athletes prior to...