Research article - (2021)20, 101 - 109
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52082/jssm.2021.101
Minimal Agreement between Internal and External Training Load Metrics across a 2-wk Training Microcycle in Elite Squash
Carl James1,, Aishwar Dhawan2, Timothy Jones1, Christopher Pok1, Vincent Yeo3, Olivier Girard4
1Institut Sukan Negara (National Sports Institute) Bukit Jalil Sport City, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2EDGE10 Group Ltd 10 D Printing House Yard, Hackney Road, London, UK
3School of Sports, Health and Leisure, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore
4School of Human Sciences (Exercise and Sport Science) The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

Carl James
✉ Institute Sukan Negara, (National Sports Institute), Bukit Jalil Sport City, Sri Petaling 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email: carlalexanderjames@gmail.com
Received: 22-10-2020 -- Accepted: 16-12-2020
Published (online): 01-03-2021

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationships between internal and external training load metrics across a 2-week ‘in-season’ microcycle in squash. 134 on-court and 32 off-court ‘conditioning’ sessions were completed by fifteen elite squash players with an average (±SD) of 11 ± 3 per player. During every session, external load was captured using a tri-axial accelerometer to calculate Playerload; i.e., the instantaneous rate of change of acceleration across 3-dimensional planes. Internal load was measured using heart rate (HR), global (sRPE) and differential RPE (dRPE-Legs, dRPE-Breathing). Additionally, HR was used to calculate Banister’s, Edward’s and TEAM TRIMPs. Across 166 training sessions, Playerload was moderately correlated with TRIMP-Banister (r = 0.43 [95% CI: 0.29-0.55], p < 0.001) and TRIMP-Edwards (r = 0.50 [0.37-0.61], p < 0.001). Association of Playerload with TRIMP-TEAM (r = 0.24 [0.09-0.38], p = 0.001) was small. There was a moderate correlation between sRPE and Playerload (r = 0.46 [0.33-0.57], p < 0.001). Association of sRPE was large with TRIMP-Banister (r = 0.68 [0.59-0.76], p = 0.001), very large with TRIMP-Edwards (r = 0.79 [0.72-0.84], p < 0.001) and moderate with TRIMP-TEAM (r = 0.44 [0.31-0.56], p < 0.001). Both dRPE-Legs (r = 0.95 [0.93-0.96], p < 0.001) and dRPE-Breathing (r = 0.92 [0.89-0.94], p < 0.001) demonstrated nearly perfect correlations with sRPE and with each other (r = 0.91 [0.88-0.93], p < 0.001). Collection of both internal and external training load data is recommended to fully appreciate the physical demands of squash training. During a training microcycle containing a variety of training sessions, interpreting internal or external metrics in isolation may underestimate or overestimate the training stress a player is experiencing.

Key words: Squash, training load, accelerometry, RPE, heart rate

Key Points
  • In elite squash, little agreement was observed between HR-based, internal load metrics and the accelerometer-derived, external metric Playerload during a 2-week training microcycle.
  • Across a squash training microcycle, interpreting internal or external loads in isolation, may underestimate or overestimate training load.
  • Differential RPE training loads did not reveal stronger relationships with other metrics than sRPE-TL alone, which may be appropriate surrogate for HR monitoring across a squash microcycle.








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