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Soccer players perform a variety of training drills to develop the physical, technical and tactical qualities required for match-play. The role of coaches in prescribing training suggests that players may not always meet physical targets set by conditioning staff. To quantify the physical outputs elicited by different training drill types, 183 professional soccer players were monitored over 8 seasons using Microelectromechanical Systems during normal training, yielding 65,825 drill observations [362 ± 341 observations·player−1]. Linear mixed models assessed the influence of drill type, head coach and playing position on physical output. Drills lasted ~14 min, eliciting total distances and high speed running of ~1000 m and 40 m, respectively. Conditioning drills elicited substantially greater relative high-speed running [18.8 ± 27.2 m.min−1] and Sprint [3.5 ± 9.4 m.min−1] distances than all other drill types. The proportion of training drill types used and external outputs elicited per drill were affected by the head coach. Midfielders recorded the highest total distance [77.3 ± 36.1 m.min] and PlayerLoad™ [8.29 ± 3.54] of any playing position, whilst the lowest outputs were recorded by goalkeepers. This study provides reference data for practitioners when seeking to manipulate training prescription to achieve physical output targets whilst also meeting the team’s technical and tactical objectives.

To mitigate the effects of climate change, the European Commission created a Strategic Energy Technology Plan committing to forming 100 Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) by 2025. These are considered to potentially be major instruments for decarbonization in a just transition. This plan has led to some districts being defined as PEDs, although none have fully met the criteria to be a PED yet. Research shows that new forms of energy ownership and production, as could potentially be found in PEDs, could help reduce energy poverty, which affects a significant segment of the population, as households can reduce their energy expenditure as well as improve their energy behavior. This paper set out to shed light on the PED landscape, investigating the barriers and opportunities to PED creation in Spain and its potential to mitigate energy poverty. We conducted a literature review on community-owned energy in Spain, followed with expert interviews (energy researchers, stakeholders, and NGOs) who focus on sustainability issues in Spain. Results show a number of barriers (lack of knowledge and awareness, and lack of trust from consumers) and opportunities connected with the creation of PEDs. In conclusion, policymaker engagement and support play a key role in successfully implementing PEDs.

Within the EU, energy poverty is believed to affect at least 9.8% of households. Energy poverty can be broadly defined as a households' inability to meet its energy needs. This is a problem that affects all European countries, but narrow interpretations of data based on notions of material deprivation may lead to energy poverty being overlooked or not considered an issue by policymakers. The EU Energy Poverty Advisory Hub makes a number of essential points when it comes to the measurement, definition, and potential policies and measures to deal with energy poverty. We build on this, using the term energy vulnerability in order to encompass the segment of population identified as living in energy poverty as well as those at risk of becoming energy poor in the future. We use a capabilities approach with a doughnut economics framework to expand on the concept of energy vulnerability as a form of capabilities deprivation, allowing for greater recognition of those that are affected in the present and intergenerationally. This framework is applied using mixed methods consisting of both a Swiss-wide survey of 1,486 people and 8 semi-structured interviews with energy stakeholders to investigate the knowledge gap on energy vulnerability in Switzerland. The framework may be applied and have wider repercussions for other parts of the world where energy poverty is not directly addressed, and where using the term of energy vulnerability may help direct policies in a more dynamic and responsive manner. Furthermore, this article identifies some limitations of basing energy vulnerability definitions on data which focuses on material deprivations as this may risk overlooking those that are vulnerable due to other reasons such as building energy efficiency. We find that levels of energy poverty/vulnerability are higher than estimated in official statistics, highlighting the need for tailored policies both in Switzerland and elsewhere. Levels of energy vulnerability in Switzerland may not be reflected elsewhere, but certainly draw attention to the potential misrecognition of energy vulnerability which may be more widespread than previously believed. We examine existing policies that may help to reduce energy vulnerability, as well as suggest other potential mitigation methods.

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