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Physiological characteristics of female soccer players and health and performance considerations: a narrative review

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posted on 2021-04-13, 08:02 authored by Rebecca Randell, Tom CliffordTom Clifford, Barry Drust, Samantha L Moss, Viswanath B Unnithan, Mark BA De Ste Croix, Naomi Datson, Daniel Martin, Hannah Mayho, James M Carter, Ian Rollo
Female soccer has seen a substantial rise in participation, as well as increased financial support from governing bodies over the last decade. Thus, there is an onus on researchers and medical departments to develop a better understanding of the physical characteristics and demands, and the health and performance needs of female soccer players. In this review, we discuss the current research, as well as the knowledge gaps, of six major topics: physical demands, talent identification, body composition, injury risk and prevention, health and nutrition. Data on female talent identification are scarce, and future studies need to elucidate the influence of relative age and maturation selection across age groups. Regarding the physical demands, more research is needed on the pattern of high-intensity sprinting during matches and the contribution of soccer-specific movements. Injuries are not uncommon in female soccer players, but targeting intrinsically modifiable factors with injury prevention programmes can reduce injury rates. The anthropometric and physical characteristics of female players are heterogeneous and setting specific targets should be discouraged in youth and sub-elite players. Menstrual cycle phase may influence performance and injury risk; however, there are few studies in soccer players. Nutrition plays a critical role in health and performance and ensuring adequate energy intake remains a priority. Despite recent progress, there is considerably less research in female than male soccer players. Many gaps in our understanding of how best to develop and manage the health and performance of female soccer players remain.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

Sports Medicine

Volume

51

Pages

1377–1399

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Rights holder

© The Authors

Publisher statement

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Springer under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2021-03-22

Publication date

2021-04-12

Copyright date

2021

ISSN

0112-1642

eISSN

1179-2035

Language

  • en

Depositor

Dr Tom Clifford. Deposit date: 12 April 2021

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