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Peak movement and collision demands of professional rugby league competition
Johnston, Rich D. Weaving, Dan Hulin, Billy T. Till, Kevin Jones, Ben Duthie, Grant
Johnston, Rich D.
Weaving, Dan
Hulin, Billy T.
Till, Kevin
Jones, Ben
Duthie, Grant
Abstract
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, 1, 2, and ≥3 collisions per min occurred. Linear mixed effect models and Cohen’s effect size statistic (± 90%CI) were used to determine the differences in movement profiles when collisions occurred. Compared to no collision periods, as frequency of collisions per minute increased, there were progressive reductions in running speed for most positional groups. The addition of 1 or more collisions per min resulted in average effect size reductions in match speed of −0.14 for NRL forwards, −0.89 for NRL backs, −0.48 for ESL forwards, and −2.41 for ESL backs. ESL forwards had the highest frequency of peak periods involving 3 or more collisions per min, 22% of all periods, followed by NRL forwards (14%), NRL backs (10%) and ESL backs (8%). This study highlights the peak movement and collision demands of professional rugby league competition and allows practitioners to develop training drills that reflect worst case scenarios.
Keywords
GPS, microtechnology, activity profiles, moving average, contact, acceleration
Date
2019
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Sports Sciences
Book
Volume
37
Issue
18
Page Range
2144-2151
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled