13/03/2023
📖 This is the main conclusion of a study from 2019 conducted by Rodríguez-Osorio et al., who compared different loads on a 6-week training protocol of resisted sprints with change of direction (1).
The subjects where tested before and after in different change of direction drills, 30 meters sprint and countermovement jump.
Individuals who had a load of 12,5% body weight during the 6 weeks of training, showed better results in all the tests, compared to those with no load or with 50% body weight load.
🧠 The conclusions of this study seems quite obvious, specially if we recall the SAID principle (specificity). Being football a sport where change of direction, short sprints and jumping are among the main actions, makes sense that if we add load to the training drills, the performance will increase.
🧠 It is, however, noticeable that if the load is too high (50% body weight) it hinders the performance. With such high load, only countermovement jump and 10 meters sprint improved after the 6 weeks.
📖 Other studies also refer that the SAID principle is a key pillar in training, and therefore, football drills should simulate the biomechanical and physiological demands of the sport (2,3).
References:
1) Rodríguez-Osorio et al. (2019), Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2019 Sep 1; 14(8):1022-1028.
2) Born et al. (2016) J Sports Sci Med 15: 314–319, 2016
3) Zamparo et al. (2014) Int J Sports Physiol Perform 9: 1033–1039, 2014
