Abstract
Female soccer players are exposed to specific physical demands during matches, which vary according to the standard of play. Existing studies have largely focused on quantifying the distances covered for professional and international level players. This approach is limited in scope regarding the broader aspects around physical demands and is detached from development pathway models. An understanding of the demands across all standards will provide valuable insights about appropriate player development and help ensure physical readiness for the demands of the sport. The aim of this perspective paper is to describe the physical demands experienced during women's soccer matches across the developmental spectrum. A combination of evidence from the literature and data from the author's research (JDV) is presented. Specifically highlighted are the trends for locomotor distances, acceleration and deceleration frequency, and metabolic power metrics for youth (≤U17), college (NCAA/U20), professional (domestic) and international standards of women's soccer. In addition, the changes in match demands between levels of play are used to help illustrate gaps that must be overcome in order to successfully achieve physical readiness to compete at higher levels. The evidence demonstrates the importance of training appropriate attributes to prepare female soccer players who are striving to play at progressively higher standards.
Highlights
Female soccer players are exposed to specific physical demands during matches, which vary according to the level/standard of play
Researchers and sport scientists have generally focused on the highest-level teams in order to develop strategies aimed at optimizing the physical readiness of these players and winning League titles, World Championships, or Olympic medals
A literature search of Pubmed and Google Scholar was conducted using a combination of the following terms: women’s soccer, match demands, running distance, metabolic power, acceleration, deceleration, youth soccer, college soccer, professional soccer, elite soccer, and international soccer
Summary
Female soccer players are exposed to specific physical demands during matches, which vary according to the level/standard of play. It is difficult to make direct comparisons within the published literature and subsequently create a cohesive view across the entire developmental spectrum for match demands. Recognizing these limitations, the aim of the current perspective paper is to describe match demands of women’s soccer across the developmental spectrum in two ways. By presenting and comparing (when possible) published studies and second, by including data from the author (JDV) that uniquely spans youth, college, professional, and international women’s soccer matches. The benefit of including these data is that they were collected using identical technology (5 Hz GPS) and applied the same thresholds for all reported variables–direct comparisons can be made across all standards of play within this dataset
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