Player Session Rating of Perceived Exertion: A More Valid Tool Than Coaches' Ratings to Monitor Internal Training Load in Elite Youth Female Basketball.

Abstract

To monitor elite youth female basketball training to verify whether players' and coaches' (3 technical coaches and 1 physical trainer) session rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE) has a relationship with Edwards' method. Heart rate of 15 elite youth female basketball players (age 16.7 [0.5]y, height 178 [9]cm, body mass 72 [9]kg, body mass index 22.9 [2.2]kg·m-2) was monitored during 19 team (268 individual) training sessions (102 [15]min). Mixed effect models were applied to evaluate whether s-RPE values were significantly (P ≤ .05) related to Edwards' data, total session duration, maximal intensity (session duration at 90-100% HRmax), type of training (ie,strength, conditioning, and technique), and whether differences emerged between players' and coaches' s-RPE values. The results showed that there is a relationship between s-RPE and Edwards' methods for the players' RPE scores (P = .019) but not for those of the trainers. In addition, as expected, both players' (P = .014) and coaches' (P = .002) s-RPE scores were influenced by total session duration but not by maximal intensity and type of training. In addition, players' and coaches' s-RPE values differed (P < .001)-post hoc differences emerged for conditioning (P = .01) and technique (P < .001) sessions. Elite youth female basketball players are better able to quantify the internal training load of their sessions than their coaches, strengthening the validity of s-RPE as a tool to monitor training in team sports.