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ABSTRACT
The aim of the present study was to examine reliability and construct convergent validity of Player Load™ (PL) from trunk-mounted accelerometry, expressed as a cumulative measure and an intensity measure (PL · min–1). Fifteen male participants twice performed an overground football match simulation that included four different multidirectional football actions (jog, side cut, stride and sprint) whilst wearing a trunk-mounted accelerometer inbuilt in a global positioning system unit. Results showed a moderate-to-high reliability as indicated by the intra-class correlation coefficient (0.806–0.949) and limits of agreement. Convergent validity analysis showed considerable between-participant variation (coefficient of variation range 14.5–24.5%), which was not explained from participant demographics despite a negative association with body height for the stride task. Between-task variations generally showed a moderate correlation between ranking of participants for PL (0.593–0.764) and PL · min–1 (0.282–0.736). It was concluded that monitoring PL® in football multidirectional actions presents moderate-to-high reliability, that between-participant variability most likely relies on the individual’s locomotive skills and not their anthropometrics, and that the intensity of a task expressed by PL · min–1 is largely related to the running velocity of the task.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Ian Poole for the valuable contribution in the development of the MATLAB custom software adopted in this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.