This investigation examined the effects of a congested match schedule on gait complexity in collegiate female soccer players. Participants were 7 female collegiate players. Each day, training and match loads were recorded during a 6‐day period that included two competitive matches (separated by 66 hours) using a GPS, acceleration, and heart rate monitoring, and perceptual recovery scores. Gait was examined before each training session, during a 400 m run at comfortable pace. Spatiotemporal characteristics were computed using continuous wavelet transform, and gait complexity was assessed with detrended fluctuation analysis. High match load (HML) players played more minutes than the low match load (LML) players (78.6 ± 4.9 vs 15.8 ± 4.9 minutes, P < 0.05) and covered more total distance (TotDist) between the initial and final session (31970.5 ± 13190.9 vs 22905.5 ± 1673.1 m, P < 0.05). During this period, greater accumulated TotDist and recovery scores were associated with decreases in the gait fractal scaling index (r = −0.5 to −0.83), despite little change in spatiotemporal characteristics. This study indicates increased load during a 6‐day period of training and matches alters gait complexity. It is possible that some aspect of central and/or peripheral fatigue alters motor control leading to less structured gait variability.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.