High-speed running in professional football: monitoring and training in élite adult players

Gualtieri, Antonio (2025) High-speed running in professional football: monitoring and training in élite adult players. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Football involves two 45-minute halves requiring bursts of high-intensity activity interspersed with low-intensity movements. In the last years, the high-speed and sprint distance demand of the game increased significantly, requiring the players to be prepared for sprinting more than before. However, no standard thresholds exist for high-speed and sprint running, hindering comprehensive analysis and consistency across studies and safe ranges for running loads for elite teams playing twice weekly remain unclear. Considering the gaps reported, the aims were (1) establishing high-speed running thresholds for training, (2) comparing high-speed loads between starting and non-starting players during congested fixtures, (3) analysing running distribution across congested microcycles, and (4) quantifying peak game intensity periods.

All the existing literature was reviewed, and, given the lack of consensus, practitioners might use FIFA’s thresholds such as 19 km·h-1 and 23 km·h-1 for females and 20 km·h-1 and 25 km·h-1 for males. Relative thresholds should be considered for specific training sessions to reach near to maximal velocity exposure accounting for players’ maximum velocity capacity. Custom sprinting thresholds can better address the needs of players who are exposed to significantly lower loads during congested fixture periods because of the low match exposure. In fact, coaches seem to be influenced by shorter microcycles in their training proposal, preferring sessions with a reduced muscle impact when fewer days are available and decreasing training loads as match day approaches. Finally, zooming in the quantification of the peak match demand, resulted important to appropriately prepare players using football-specific drills reflecting each playing role peculiarity. In this regard, it was found that during the most intense minute of the match midfielders cover the most distance, centre-backs the least high-speed distance, and sprint distances are consistent across roles, reflecting team dynamics during the most demanding passage of the match.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	06 Nov 2025 09:43
Last Modified:	06 Nov 2025 09:43
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100911
DOI:

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