Deceleration Training in Team Sports: Another Potential ‘Vaccine’ for Sports-Related Injury?

Abstract

High-intensity horizontal decelerations occur frequently in team sports and are typically performed to facilitate a reduction in momentum preceding a change of direction manoeuvre or following a sprinting action. The mechanical underpinnings of horizontal deceleration are unique compared to other high-intensity locomotive patterns (e.g., acceleration, maximal sprinting speed), and are characterised by a ground reaction force profile of high impact peaks and loading rates. The high mechanical loading conditions observed when performing rapid horizontal decelerations can lead to tissue damage and neuromuscular fatigue, which may diminish co-ordinative proficiency and an individual’s ability to skilfully dissipate braking loads. Furthermore, repetitive long-term deceleration loading cycles if not managed appropriately may propagate damage accumulation and offer an explanation for chronic aetiological consequences of the ‘mechanical fatigue failure’ phenomenon. Training strategies should look to enhance an athlete’s ability to skilfully dissipate braking loads, develop mechanically robust musculoskeletal structures, and ensure frequent high-intensity horizontal deceleration exposure in order to accustom individuals to the potentially damaging effects of intense decelerations that athletes will frequently perform in competition. Given the apparent importance of horizontal decelerations, in this Current Opinion article we provide considerations for sport science and medicine practitioners around the assessment, training and monitoring of horizontal deceleration. We feel these considerations could lead to new developments in injury-mitigation and physical development strategies in team sports.

Training Management of the Elite Adolescent Soccer Player throughout Maturation

“…As such, the goal of the MDT should be to push athletic boundaries and inspire athletes to unlock their true potential [93]. Furthermore, a performance-oriented approach may in fact present as a dual benefit in progressing athletic performance while simultaneously reducing injury risk [94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101]. Resultantly, practitioners should aim to evaluate the effectiveness of their programmes by establishing global and specific key performance indicators (KPIs) [93].…”

“…Injury patterns in youth athletes follow a specific aetiology according to their stage of maturation [105], which will have implications for how these stressors interact with the youth athlete at both the acute and chronic level [149]. In addition, the intermittent and multi-directional nature of soccer means the variation in stimuli and response will impart varying degrees of physiological and musculoskeletal demands [61,98,99,150]. For example, neuromuscular fatigue driven by high-speed activity may cycle more transiently within the physiological system [151] and numerous investigations have found associations between acute weekly rapid increases in high-speed running volumes and increased risk of soft tissue injury [109,110,[152][153][154].…”

Infographic. Video analysis of match hamstring injury patterns in professional male football (soccer) teaches us about the need for demand-specific multicomponent exercise-based risk reduction programmes

“…These characteristics should be considered with their influence on force-generation capacity, innervation pattern as well as protecting factors to external loading demands for individualisation of preventive measures. In addition, analysis of sprint kinematics, lumbo-pelvic control and running technique during deceleration in change of direction demands should be addressed as promising modifiable factors for risk mitigation of hamstring injuries in professional football 5 8 9. Furthermore, research is needed to verify an appropriate training frequency, volume and moment to schedule in the microcycle of the mentioned various training methods.…”

The Physiological and Perceptual Responses to Concurrent Training in Soccer Players

“…However, whilst Playerload TM is considered a marker of the total 'mechanical stress' imposed on players and calculated from the 1000 Hz accelerometer as a summation of acceleration in each anatomical plane of motion (Cummins et al, 2013;Beenham et al, 2017), it is recognised that capturing additional GPS metrics during SSG training across this thesis may have been beneficial to facilitate comparisons between the experimental chapters, which is a limitation and discussed in section 7.4. In particular, high-intensity changes in velocity may impose distinct physiological and mechanical stresses on players (Harper, Carling, & Kiely, 2019); the metabolic cost during acceleration is greater than continuous speed running (di Prampero et al, 2005;Osgnach et al, 2010) and high-intensity decelerations involve eccentric muscle contractions with a high force braking ground reaction component (McBurnie et al, 2022). These actions are well known to predispose the lower limb musculature to structural damage, such as myofibrillar, cytoskeletal, and Z-line disruption, which is thought to manifest as LFF and impair the E-C coupling process (Clarkson & Sayers, 1999;Fridén & Lieber, 2001;Prasartwuth et al, 2006).…”

“…Firstly, the metabolic cost during acceleration is known to be greater in comparison to running at a continuous speed (di Prampero et al, 2005;Osgnach et al, 2010). In addition, decelerations involve a high force braking ground reaction component and eccentric muscle contractions (McBurnie et al, 2022), which are well known to predispose the lower limb musculature to structural damage, such as myofibrillar, cytoskeletal, and Z-line disruption (Clarkson & Sayers, 1999;Fridén & Lieber, 2001). This mechanical disruption is thought to primarily manifest as low-frequency fatigue (LFF), impairments in the E-C coupling process, and may reduce CNS function through afferent feedback (reviewed in section 2.5.2.1).…”