Tim Meyer

Universität des Saarlandes | UKS

Background: Refugees with exposure to multiple traumatic events are at high risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Narrative exposure therapy (NET) is an effective treatment for the core symptoms of PTSD, but it does not reliably reduce depressive symptoms. Endurance exercise on the other hand was consistently foun...

Objectives This study aimed to examine the importance assigned to assessing and considering biological maturation in thematic areas of player development and provide an overview of current practices in German football academies regarding its consideration in training and competition. Methods An online survey was sent to 56 elite German football ac...

Background The main task of applied sport science is to inform decision-making in sports practice, that is, enabling practitioners to compare the expectable outcomes of different options (e.g. training programs). Main Body The “evidence” provided may range from group averages to multivariable prediction models. By contrast, many decisions are stil...

Aim: This descriptive epidemiological study aimed to quantify the incidence, characteristics and costs of head, neck and dental injuries in non-professional football players. Methods: Injury data were coded (using Orchard Sports Injury and Illness Classification System) from a de-identified insurance database containing three seasons (2018-2020)...

Given the scientific and public concern regarding the short-, medium- and long-term consequences of heading on brain health, being proactive about developing and implementing guidelines that help reduce the burden (volume, impact magnitude and injury risk) of heading in young and beginner players appears justified. This narrative review explores th...

Background/aim: As hotter environmental conditions become more frequent, football teams are competing in high temperatures more regularly. Although hotter temperatures reduce exercise performance, reports of their influence on running and gameplay performance during competitive matches remain scarce. Methods: One Major League Soccer team was ob...

Decision-making processes for return to play after injuries require forecasting the potential outcome (e.g., re-injury risk). In football, (re-)injury risk is influenced by a combination of physical, mental, and contextual factors. To predict (re-)injury risk, highly complex and flexible data-driven methods are a natural preference. For a data-driv...

Background Standardized training prescriptions often result in large variation in training response with a substantial number of individuals that show little or no response at all. The present study examined whether the response in markers of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) to moderate intensity endurance training can be elevated by an increase in...

Objectives The present study aimed to assess the perception and change of mental and physical fatigue and to examine acute effects of mental recovery strategies in air rifle athletes across simulated competition days with two consecutive competition bouts. Design We conducted a randomized counterbalanced crossover study. Method 22 development air...

Background Standardized training prescriptions often result in large variation in training response with a substantial number of individuals that show little or no response at all. The present study examined whether the nonresponse in markers of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) to moderate intensity endurance training can be overcome through an incr...

The study aim was to assess whether match-derived external-to-internal load ratios are a valid and reliable tool to measure physical fitness. Sixteen elite youth soccer players (17 ± 1 years) performed two maximal fitness tests. Subsequently, players participated in three intra-squad soccer matches in three consecutive weeks. Three GPS-based parame...

Background This study describes the implementation of a standardised, prospective injury database covering the entire 1st male German football league (“Bundesliga”) based on publicly available media data. For the first time, various media sources were used simultaneously as the external validity of media-generated data was low in the past compared...

SARS-CoV-2 testing is dominated by PCR to guide treatment and individual as well as public health preventive measures. Among 1700 football (soccer) players and staff of the German Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 who were regularly tested by PCR twice weekly, 98 individuals had a positive PCR (May 2020 to mid-January 2021). A subset of these were retest...

Ohne Kenntnisse der Anatomie des menschlichen Körpers sowie jener physiologischen Prozesse, die während sportlicher Belastung ablaufen, ist ein grundlegendes Verständnis des Trainings und der Leistungsfähigkeit von Athleten kaum denkbar. Auch Genese und Prävention von Sportverletzungen werden erst auf einer derartigen Basis plausibel.

Wenn wissenschaftliche Disziplinbezeichnungen sich aus zwei Begriffen zusammensetzen, bezeichnet meist der zweite Teil des Wortes die Mutterdisziplin. Dazu passt, dass die Sportmedizin ihren Ursprung im klinischen Bereich der Sportlerversorgung hat, am sichtbarsten in der Sporttraumatologie. Dennoch zählen traditionell auch leistungsphysiologische...

Background: Playing football is associated with a high risk of injury. Injury prevention is a priority as injuries not only negatively impact health but also potentially performance. Various multi-component exercise-based injury prevention programs for football players have been examined in studies. Objective: We aimed to investigate the efficac...

Zusammenfassung. Der Athlete Sleep Behavior Questionnaire ist ein englischsprachiger Fragebogen zur Erhebung des individuellen Schlafverhaltens von Sportler_innen. Ziel dieser Studie war die Übersetzung des Athlete Sleep Behavior Questionnaire ins Deutsche sowie die wissenschaftliche Validierung dieser deutschen 18-Item-Version, dem Fragebogen zum...

Background Refugees with exposure to multiple traumatic events are at high risk for developing trauma-related mental disorders, including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression. Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) is an effective treatment for the core symptoms of PTSD, but many studies did not find that it significantly reduces depressiv...

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the responsiveness of commonly used measurement instruments to a short training camp by examining the time course of psychophysiological responses in high-level youth soccer players. Methods: Monitoring was carried out in 14 U15 male soccer players of 1 professional youth academy. Players provided data 3 days...

To assess the players' risk of a subsequent injury after sustaining concussive injuries and their return-to-competition in German professional men's football. A prospective injury database in the 1st Bundesliga was created encompassing 7 seasons (2014/15-2020/21). Cox proportional hazard model analyzed whether a concussive injury increased the risk...

This systematic review provides a synthesis of research investigating submaximal protocols to monitor changes in cardiocirculatory fitness in running-based sports. Following PRISMA guidelines, 2,452 records were identified and 14 studies, representing 515 athletes, satisfied the eligibility criteria. While most studies found large associations betw...

Aims: Data on sports-related sudden cardiac arrest (SrSCA) among young adults in the general population are scarce. We aimed to determine the overall SrSCA incidence, characteristics, and outcomes in young adults. Methods and results: Prospective cohort study of all cases of SrSCA between 2012 and 2019 in Germany and Paris area, France, involvin...

Recently an individualization algorithm has been developed and shown to significantly improve diagnostic accuracy of creatine kinase (CK) and urea in endurance sports and Badminton. In this study, applicability and benefit of this algorithm was evaluated using repeated measures data from 161 professional German soccer players monitored during the 2...

Positional tracking data allows football practitioners to derive features that describe patterns of player behavior and quantify performance. Existing research using tracking data has mostly focused on what occurred on the pitch, such as the determinants of effective passing. There have yet to be studies attempting to use findings from data science...

The prevention of infections is essential to athletes’ health and performance. Even mild infections can severely affect athletic performance and the eligibility to train and compete. One of the most effective means of avoiding severe infections are vaccinations. However, like the general population, athletes frequently do not receive the recommende...

Acute illnesses affecting the respiratory tract are common and form a significant component of the work of Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) clinicians. Acute respiratory illness (ARill) can broadly be classified as non-infective ARill and acute respiratory infections (ARinf). The aim of this consensus is to provide the SEM clinician with an overvi...

Introduction The coronavirus lockdown in 2020 resulted in a worldwide suspension of professional sports. The first major professional football league to restart after the lockdown was the German Bundesliga. This study investigates whether the injury incidence increased after the restart of the season with only 9 days of regular preparation time and...

PurposeThe aim of this study was to assess the short-term responsiveness of measurement instruments aiming at quantifying the acute psycho-physiological response to load in high-level adolescent soccer players.Methods Data were collected from 16 high-level male youth soccer players from the Under 15 age group. Players were assessed on two occasions...

Identifying players or circumstances associated with an increased risk of injury is fundamental for successful risk management in football. So far, time-constant and volatile risk factors are generally considered separately in either a screening (constant) or a monitoring (volatile) approach each resulting in a restricted set of explanatory variabl...

This study describes an approach to evaluate the off-ball behaviour of attacking players in association football. The aim was to implement a defensive pressure model to examine an offensive player's ability to create separation from a defender using 1411 high-intensity off-ball actions including 988 Deep Runs (DRs) DRs and 423 Change of Directions...

Acute respiratory illness (ARill) is common and threatens the health of athletes. ARill in athletes forms a significant component of the work of Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) clinicians. The aim of this consensus is to provide the SEM clinician with an overview and practical clinical approach to non-infective ARill in athletes. The Internationa...

Zusammenfassung Trotz der Dominanz orthopädisch-unfallchirurgischer Krankheitsbilder im Fußball sind auch internistische Erkrankungen bei Fußballspieler/-innen von hoher sportmedizinischer Relevanz. Die vorliegende Übersichtsarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Prävention wichtiger Pathologien der inneren Organe im Fußball.

Introduction Many professional football players sustain at least one severe injury over the course of their career. Because detailed epidemiological data on different severe injuries in professional football have been missing so far, this study describes the frequency and return-to-competition (RTC) periods of different types of severe football inj...

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, compulsory masks became an integral part of outdoor sports such as jogging in crowded areas (e.g. city parks) as well as indoor sports in gyms and sports centers. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the effects of medical face masks on performance and cardiorespiratory parameters in athletes. Method...

Background Higher neck strength has been postulated to reduce head impact magnitude during purposeful heading in football.Objectives This pilot trial explored the effect of a neck exercise programme on (1) neck strength and (2) head impact magnitude during heading in male and female adolescent football players.Methods Boys and girls (aged 12–17 yea...

While sample sizes in elite sports are necessarily small, so are the effects that may be relevant. This conundrum is complicated by an understandable reluctance of athletes to comply with extensive study requirements. In Bayesian analyses, pre-existing knowledge (e.g., from sub-elite trials) can be formally included to supplement scarce data. Moreo...

We aimed to analyze the number and type of contacts involving the risk of respiratory disease transmission during football match play. We analysed 50 matches from different playing levels. Two reviewers evaluated the contacts of all players in each match. We focused on between-player contacts, crowding, actions with potentially increased aerosol an...

Purpose: To analyse the association of seasonal best time, distance and different performance levels with end-spurt behaviour in one swimming season. Methods: Race results in 800 m and 1500 m pool freestyle swimming in the season 2018/2019 including 14,930 races and 2,650 swimmers were obtained. The end-spurt for each race was determined by means...

Objective: It is unclear whether and to what extent COVID-19 infection poses health risks and a chronic impairment of performance in athletes. Identification of individual health risk is an important decision-making basis for managing the pandemic risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 in sports and return to play (RTP). Methods: This study aims 1) to a...

The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic led to a lockdown in team sports in March 2020. Because the risk of virus transmission seems to correlate with the duration of close contacts, data on contact times are necessary to assess the risk of virus transmission in sports. In this study, an optical tracking system was used to determine contact times between pl...

Objective: It was intended to quantify cardiocirculatory stress and risk of professional football (soccer) coaches during competition. Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting: Medical screening examination and measurements during match. Participants: Seventeen coaches and 11 assistant coaches of the 2 highest German football leagu...

Purpose: To assess the short-term reliability of measurement instruments to quantify the acute psychophysiological response to load in adolescent soccer players in relation to biological maturity. Methods: Data were collected from 108 U12 to U17 soccer players on 2 consecutive weeks (pre, n = 32; at, n = 34; and post, n = 42 estimated peak heigh...

Given increased rates of breakthrough infection, German and other national authorities recommend heterologous booster vaccinations for Ad26.COV.2 vaccinated individuals, although data on immunogenicity and reactogenicity are lacking. We therefore recruited fifteen individuals who received the Ad26.COV.2 vaccination followed by a heterologous booste...

Background Players´ compliance with injury prevention programs (IPP) can significantly affect the effectiveness of such programs in injury reduction. Objective To evaluate players’ compliance with an individualized IPP to compared to the established FIFA 11+ IPP. Design Cross-sectional study Setting Semi-professional football. The data was obtai...

Background The Covid-19 pandemic caused a forced lockdown longer than the normal annual season break in Iranian football leagues. Return to football after such a long break without organized team training might increase the rate of injuries. Objective To investigate the effectiveness of a home-based injury prevention program (IPP) on reducing inju...

Objective To investigate the risk of transmission among potentially infectious SARS-CoV-2-positive football players while participating in training or matches at amateur, youth and professional levels. Methods Between August 2020 and March 2021, football players who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and participated in matches or training during the...

Purpose: Previous research investigating the impact of induced mental fatigue in football (soccer) has demonstrated associated performance decrements in physical, technical, tactical and decision-making performance. A common limitation amongst this research is the protocols used to induce mental fatigue which provides low ecological validity, and t...

Background There is growing concern surrounding the role of repetitive sub-concussive head impacts, such as football heading, on brain health.Objectives Three questions were addressed while only considering studies that observed heading exposure directly: (1) how frequently does heading occur within football training and matches, (2) what are the b...

SARS-CoV-2 testing using PCR is currently used as screening test to guide isolation and contact tracing. Among 1,700 players and staff of the German Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 who were regularly tested twice weekly, 98 individuals had a positive PCR. Among those, 11 asymptomatic cases were identified who only had a transient single positive PCR of...

Objectives To describe the perceived load, fatigue and recovery profiles during congested and non-congested schedules in international football tournaments. Design Retrospective single-cohort observational study Methods Internal load (session-rating of perceived exertion [s-RPE]) and perceived ratings of fatigue, muscle soreness, psychological st...

Muscle injuries of the hamstrings are among the most frequent in football and a main cause for significant time away from training and competition. The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the loss of muscle volume in recreational football players three and six weeks after initial trauma. We hypothesized that significant muscle volum...

Background The assessment of biological maturity status plays an important role in talent identification and development programs. Aim To compare age at predicted adult height and BAUS skeletal age as indicators of biological maturity status in youth soccer players using a construct-validity approach. Subjects and methods Participants were 114 pl...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a mixed-method recovery intervention (MMR) consisting of active recovery, stretching, cold-water immersion, and massage on physical, technical, physiological, and perceptual recovery during and after a five-day simulated tennis tournament. Nine competitive male tennis players (age, 24.6±4.2 ye...

The purpose of this study was to investigate blood-based biomarkers and their regulation with regard to different recovery-stress states. A total of 35 male elite athletes (13 badminton, 22 soccer players) were recruited, and two venous blood samples were taken: one in a ‘recovered’ state (REC) after a minimum of one-day rest from exercise and anot...

Outscoring the opponent is the primary goal in football. In order to optimise scoring opportunities, it is important to understand the physical and tactical performance preceding such events. This observational study explored whether running behaviour prior to goal scoring opportunities (GSOs) in football related to the subsequent outcome (goal or...

Das Regenerationsmanagement im Leistungssport umfasst die Abschätzung von Ermüdungszustand und Regenerationsbedarf (Teil 1 dieser Beitragsreihe in Ausgabe 4/2021, S. 4-8) sowie den Einsatz regenerationsfördernder Maßnahmen (Teil 2 dieser Beitragsreihe). Zur Unterstützung der Regenerationsprozesse werden in der Sportpraxis verschiedene Regenerations...

Das Regenerationsmanagement im Leistungssport umfasst die Abschätzung von Ermüdungszustand und Regenerationsbedarf (Teil 1 dieser Beitragsreihe) sowie den Einsatz regenerationsfördernder Maßnahmen (Teil 2 dieser Beitragsreihe). Die Erfassung des Regenerationsbedarfs erfolgt durch die Dokumentation der externen Trainings- und Wettkampfbelastung, der...

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has affected worldwide sports competitions and training in both amateur and professional leagues. We thus aimed to investigate changes in different training modalities in elite and amateur football players following COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Methods: In this cross-sectional study we applied a Likert scale-bas...

We aimed to analyze the number and type of contacts involving the risk of respiratory disease transmission during football match play.We analysed videos of 50 matches from different levels of play (professional, amateur, youth). Two reviewers evaluated the contacts of all players in the field of view in each match. We focused on between-player cont...