Recovery Techniques Used by Team Sport Athletes

Across the world, team sport athletes compete at different levels, from local to national and international competition. This study provides an overview of the techniques used by team sport athletes to recover from physical stress and injuries. It also identifies the perceived level of recovery by athletes at different competition levels.

Team sports are played to achieve a specific physical goal, usually fitness. Each member of a team has a role to play, such as the captain. The team also needs to work together to achieve their goal. This means that team sport athletes need to understand the social cues of other players.

Teams are formed by selecting the best players to be the captains. The captain’s duty is to lead the group and set the tone for the team. The captain may also carry a banner and have the responsibility to challenge the team to improve. The team must put the mission of the team before their own needs. The captain is also responsible for setting the tone of the group and ensuring that teammates are focused on achieving their goal.

Team sport athletes are trained for 0-30 hours a week. The majority of athletes are based in regional Australia. They compete at local, state, and regional levels. They compete in 0-600 minutes of competition per week.

The vast majority of acceleration variables were measured using count-based metrics. This is not surprising, given the practicality of counts as a metric for capturing the external acceleration load of team sport athletes. However, this study did not provide any data on the filtering processes used for acceleration events. Only 9% of studies included an absolute acceleration variable. This may be due to different manufacturers of tracking devices.

Most of the studies included were conducted by the same research group. In addition, most studies were paper-based surveys, with competitors from a range of team sports providing their consent. Some of the sports included were soccer, basketball, polo, and rugby union. Only one team sport was not represented, golf.

In summary, the results suggest that team sport athletes use a wide range of recovery techniques to recover from physical stress and injuries. The techniques include active land-based recovery and pool-based recovery. While these are widely used, there is no clear understanding of why these techniques are employed. Some coaches have stated that recovery strategies should be used in a systematic manner. Regardless, future research should delve into the calculation of acceleration/deceleration events in team sports.

The study also outlined the various types of acceleration events that were commonly measured in team sport research. While the results do not provide a comprehensive list of acceleration events, they provide a valuable snapshot of the perceptions of recovery in elite and sub-elite levels of team sport competition. The researchers noted that the methods used to process these events were often inconsistent, but not limited to.

In order to conduct this study, the researchers contacted 59 sporting teams via email or phone. The coaches of these 59 teams were then contacted. They were asked to complete a survey on recovery techniques that their athletes used. They were also surveyed after each game.