Understanding the presence of mental fatigue in English academy soccer players

Chris Thompson, Mark Noon, Chris Towlson, John Perry, Aaron Coutts, Liam Harper, Sabrina Skorski, Mitchell Smith, Steve Barrett, Tim Meyer

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    73 Citations (Scopus)
    136 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Research has demonstrated that induced mental fatigue impairs soccer-specific technical, tactical and physical performance in soccer players.The findings are limited by the lack of elite players and low ecological validity of the tasks used to induce mental fatigue, which do not resemble the cognitive demands of soccer. The current study collected survey data from English academy soccer players (n = 256; age groups - U14 – U23), with questions comprising of five themes (descriptors of physical and mental fatigue, travel, education, match-play and fixture congestion). The survey consisted of multiple choice responses, check boxes and blinded / unblinded (for duration based questions) 0-100 arbitrary unit (AU) slider scales. Listening to music (81.6% of players), using social media (58.3%) and watching videos (34.3%) were the most common pre-match activities. Pre-match subjective mental fatigue was low (18.7 ± 18.8 AU), and most frequently reported at the end of a match (47±26 AU) and remained elevated 24-hours post-match (36 ± 27 AU). Travel (29 ± 24AU), fixture congestion (44 ± 25 AU) and education (30±26 AU) demonstrated a low to moderate presence of subjective mental fatigue. These findings provide an overview of activities performed by English academy soccer players pre-match, and demonstrate that mental fatigue is experienced as a result of match-play.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1524-1530
    Number of pages7
    JournalJournal of Sports Sciences
    Volume38
    Issue number13
    Early online date25 Mar 2020
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2 Jul 2020

    Bibliographical note

    This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sports Sciences on 25/03/2020, available online:
    http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02640414.2020.1746597

    Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

    Keywords

    • mental fatigue
    • soccer
    • academy

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