feature
football medicine & performance
INFLUENCING PERFORMANCE ON MATCH-DAY: A SPECIFIC LOOK AT SUBS, GOALKEEPERS AND HALF-TIME INTERVENTIONS FEATURE / DR MAYUR K RANCHORDAS While the implementation of training and preparatory practices occupies the majority of a practitioner’s workload, football matchday also provides opportunities to positively influence performance. Recently, a number of intervention opportunities relating to the practices of substitutes, goalkeepers and consideration of half-time strategies have been identified in the literature. Whilst practical and logistical constraints may often represent substantial hurdles to overcome, by considering match-day demands and responses on an individual player level, it is possible to tailor training, nutrition, and/or recovery treatments accordingly. The following article presents a commentary on how recent research focused on bespoke populations and scenarios may provide practitioners with opportunities to modify match-day protocols for enhanced performance in football players.
Substitutes Although exceptions exist (e.g., in the case of injury, or where providing playing time to certain individuals represents a key objective), substitutes are usually introduced at half-time or during the second-half of a match; a fact which presents several areas for consideration when seeking to optimise the treatment of this playing group[2-4]. For substitutions made with the aim of providing fresh energy to a team, it is vital that players entering the pitch are appropriately prepared to produce high and sustained physical outputs, with minimal risk of injury. The length of time elapsing between the end of the pre-match warm-up and eventual match-introduction has the potential to negatively affect a substitute’s ‘preparedness’[1-3] via mechanisms
www.fmpa.co.uk
potentially linked to progressive decreases in body temperature. For this reason, ensuring that substitutes engage in adequate warm-up and rewarm-up activity (potentially in conjunction with the use of passive heat maintenance techniques) prior to pitch-entry may be of utmost importance – especially in typical weather conditions in the UK. However, despite acknowledging that a substitute entering the pitch following inadequate preparations may negatively impact upon overall team performance[4], published and empirical observations suggest that many teams allow awaiting substitutes to autonomously determine the preparatory strategies adopted between kick-off and pitch-entry[2, 4], often resulting in minimal rewarm-up activity being performed[2, 4].
25