Authors : Patil Y .
Page Nos : 445-490
Description :
Performance assessment in elite football players: field level test versus spiroergometry. The
purpose of this study was to demonstrate that elite football players with the same anaerobic threshold
calculated from the lactate performance curve during a fiel
d level test may have substantially different
values describing endurance performance capacity determined from spiroergometric laboratory tests. A
group of 28 male elite football players underwent a field level test and a spiroergometric laboratory test. A
subgroup of players with the same anaerobic threshold was selected, and the endurance performance
capacity obtained from spiroergometric measurements during treadmill level tests were compared
descriptively within this subgroup. Among the three players wi
th the same anaerobic threshold, test
duration for the treadmill level test and consequently also the maximal lactate value achieved during the
test varied substantially. The tests were aborted after 5 min at 4.4, 4.8 and 4.0 m•s
-
1 for players 1, 2 and
3,
respectively. VO2
-
values at V4 were 87 %, 75 % and 96 % of their personal VO2
-
peak, respectively.
Maximum lactate concentrations were 8.8, 9.2 and 5.3 mmol•L
-
1, respectively. Peak relative VO2 values
were 55.0, 61.6 and 59.7 ml•min
-
1•kg
-
1, respectively. Th
e result of this study clearly show that
conventional field level tests yield insufficient information on underlying physiological and metabolic
mechanisms of endurance performance capacity. Taking result of spiroergometric tests into account is
critical f
or designing and evaluating player
-
specific training programs aimed at optimizing each player’s
performance.
