Impaired Player–Coach Perceptions of Exertion and Recovery During Match Congestion

Abstract

During intensified phases of competition, attunement of exertion and recovery is crucial to maintain performance. Although a mismatch between coach' and players' perceptions of training load is demonstrated, it is unknown if these discrepancies also exist for match exertion and recovery. Purpose: The aims of this study are to determine match exertion, subsequent recovery and to investigate to what extent the coach is able to estimate players' match exertion and recovery. Methods: Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and Total quality of recovery (TQR) of 14 professional basketball players (age 26.7±3.8 y, height 197.2±9.1 cm, weight 100.3±15.2 kg, body fat 10.3±3.6 %) were compared with observations of the coach.During an in-season phase of 15 matches within 6 weeks, players gave RPE after each match.TQR scores were filled out before the first training session after the match. The coach rated observed exertion (ROE) and recovery (TQ-OR) of the players. Results: RPE was lower than ROE (15.6±2.3 and 16.1±1.4; p=0.029). Furthermore, TQR was lower than TQ-OR (12.7±3.0 and 15.3±1.3; p<0.001). Correlations between coach' and players' exertion and recovery were r=.25 and r=.21, respectively. For recovery within 1 day the correlation was r=.68 but for recovery after 1-2 days no association existed. Conclusion: Players perceive match exertion hard to very hard and subsequent recovery reasonable. The coach overestimates match exertion and underestimates degree of recovery. Correspondence between coach and players is thus not optimal. This mismatch potentially leads to inadequate planning of training sessions and performance decrease during fixture congestion in basketball.

Recovery and Performance in Sport: Consensus Statement

“…Since recovery-related activities often take place outside the formal training setting, the evaluation of individual differences appears to be extremely difficult for coaches and may even result in a mismatch between coaches' and athletes' perception of recovery. 35 It seems that coaches tend to overestimate the need for recovery of their athletes. This misjudgment increases the longer athletes and coaches are separated, which highlights the importance of coordinated and prospective recovery monitoring.…”

Formative feedback for the coach reduces mismatch between coach and players’ perceptions of exertion

“…Future research could investigate different feedback templates and assess if the improved agreement between coach and players is temporary or permanent by including a follow-up measurement in a retention period. To improve the agreement between RIE and RPE, feedback could be extended with the degree of recovery from a previous training session (Doeven et al 2017). The coach could then integrate both the previous training load and the individual recovery to better estimate the response to future training.…”

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“…Most studies concluded that coaches overestimated the training load reported by athletes (Doeven, Brink, Frencken, & Lemmink, 2017;Murphy, et al, 2014;Rabelo et al, 2016). However, these studies monitored the subjects for long periods or the entire season and this can be a problem, mainly for collective sports where there is dispute for position among the players, thus, we hypothesize that athletes report less effort in order to appear in better physical condition.…”