Match demands of female team sports: a scoping review

Abstract

This scoping review aimed to characterize and quantify the external load demands of professional female team sports, in terms of total distance [TD], moderate-speed [MSR] and high-speed running [HSR], sprint, accelerations [ACC], and decelerations [DEC]. A search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science until 15/04/2023. The Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for Nonrandomized Studies (RoBANS) was used. Eighty-six articles were eligible for inclusion in this review, with 40 in soccer, 23 in rugby (6 rugby union, 3 rugby league, and 14 rugby sevens), 8 in field hockey, 8 in basketball, 6 in handball, and 1 in futsal. Soccer is the most investigated sport, and players perform ~9500 m TD, of which ~580 m is performed in HSR, and with a great number of ACC, DEC, and sprints. Rugby league and union players cover a greater distance (~5450 m) when compared to rugby sevens (~1550 m); however, rugby sevens is more demanding in terms of high-intensity actions. Field hockey players perform ~5400 m TD with high-intensity and sprint actions. Women’s indoor sports are less studied, and basketball players cover ~5300 m TD, of which 7% is performed in MSR. Handball players perform ~3500 m TD and cover ~423 m in MSR and ~141 m in HSR, and futsal players perform ~5 m × min −1 in HSR and they do a great number of high-intensity activities (HSR, ACC, and DEC). Considering the high physical demands experienced by female athletes, professionals could use the present results for training and return to competition schedules.

Comparative analysis of standard and contrast elastic resistance band training effects on physical fitness in female adolescent handball players

“…Strength and power are pivotal in enhancing handball performance. The sport demands explosive actions such as throwing, jumping, sprinting, and tackling [ 2 – 4 , 28 ]. Developing strength and power empowers players to generate greater force and speed, resulting in more forceful throws, higher jumps, and swifter movements on the court [ 2 – 4 , 28 ].…”

“…The sport demands explosive actions such as throwing, jumping, sprinting, and tackling [ 2 – 4 , 28 ]. Developing strength and power empowers players to generate greater force and speed, resulting in more forceful throws, higher jumps, and swifter movements on the court [ 2 – 4 , 28 ]. In this context, both training programmes, CEB and SEB, showed notable improvements in various performance traits.…”

The Evolution of Physical Performance throughout an Entire Season in Female Football Players

“…Men football players cover, on average, about 10 km of distance per game, with high intensity runs of 2 to 3 s (120–150 times per game) [ 4 , 5 ]. On the other hand, women football players cover a total distance between 4 and 13 km per game, from which 0.2–1.7 km are covered at high-speed [ 6 ].…”

Exploración de las métricas de carga externa en el balonmano de equipo: Un estudio del Campeonato Europeo Masculino Sub-20

“…Moreover, metrics that mix two types of motion (e.g. displacement and velocity) have also been used, like the distance covered at certain velocity thresholds, where the high-speed running distance is the most used metric (Ezquerra-Condeminas et al, 2024;Pérez-Armendáriz et al, 2024). Lately, researchers have introduced compound metrics based on the rate of change in acceleration, called jerk in classic physics, as a way to quantify the change in the force exerted on the body (Eager et al, 2016).…”