Centre for Sport Studies, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28943 Fuenlabrada, Spain.
Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Camilo José Cela University, 28943 Madrid, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Nov 27;17(23):8815. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17238815.
The maximum running speed that a football player can attain during match play has become one of the most popular variables to assess a player's physical talent. However, the influence of a player's maximum running speed on football performance has not yet been properly investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of a player's peak/maximum running speed on the team's ranking position at the end of a national league. A second aim was to investigate differences in maximum running speed among playing positions. To fulfil this aim, the peak/maximum running speeds of 475 male professional football players were recorded for 38 fixtures of the Spanish first-division league () from the 2017-2018 season (7838 data points). Players' peak running speeds in each match were assessed with a validated multicamera tracking system and associated software (Mediacoach). Players' maximum running speed was established as the fastest running speed they attained during the entire season. Most players (53.5% of the total) had a maximum running speed in the range of 32.0-33.9 km/h, with only three players (0.6%) with a maximum running speed of over 35.0 km/h. Overall, forwards were faster than defenders and both types of players were faster than midfielders (33.03 ± 1.35 > 32.72 ± 1.32 > 32.08 ± 1.63 km/h; < 0.001). There was no association between teams' maximum running speed and ranking position at the end of the league ( = -0.356, = 0.135). The correlations between teams' maximum speeds and ranking position were low for defenders ( = -0.334, = 0.163), midfielders ( = 0.125, = 0.610), and forwards ( = -0.065, = 0.791). As a result, the variance in the ranking position at the end of the season explained by a team's maximum speed was of only 7.5%. Finally, as an average for all teams, players' peak running speeds remained stable at ~30.7 ± 0.6 km/h throughout the whole season. These results suggest that successful and less successful football teams have squads with players able to obtain similar maximum running speeds during match play throughout the season. Hence, players' maximum running speeds have a poor association with the team's ranking position at the end of the Spanish professional national league.
足球运动员在比赛中能达到的最高跑动速度已成为评估其身体天赋的最受欢迎的变量之一。然而，运动员的最高跑动速度对足球表现的影响尚未得到恰当的研究。本研究的目的是确定运动员的最高跑动速度对联赛结束时球队排名位置的影响。第二个目的是研究不同场上位置的最大跑动速度差异。为了实现这一目标，记录了来自 2017-2018 赛季西班牙甲级联赛的 38 场比赛中 475 名男性职业足球运动员的最高/最大跑动速度（7838 个数据点）。使用经过验证的多摄像机跟踪系统和相关软件（Mediacoach）评估每个比赛中的球员最高跑动速度。运动员的最大跑动速度被确定为整个赛季中他们达到的最快跑动速度。大多数运动员（总人数的 53.5%）的最大跑动速度在 32.0-33.9 公里/小时范围内，只有 3 名运动员（0.6%）的最大跑动速度超过 35.0 公里/小时。总的来说，前锋比后卫快，而这两种类型的球员都比中场球员快（33.03 ± 1.35 > 32.72 ± 1.32 > 32.08 ± 1.63 公里/小时； < 0.001）。球队的最大跑动速度与联赛结束时的排名位置之间没有关联（ = -0.356， = 0.135）。防守队员（ = -0.334， = 0.163）、中场队员（ = 0.125， = 0.610）和前锋（ = -0.065， = 0.791）的球队最大速度与排名位置之间的相关性较低。因此，球队的最大速度对赛季结束时的排名位置的解释方差仅为 7.5%。最后，作为所有球队的平均值，球员的最高跑动速度在整个赛季中保持稳定，约为 30.7 ± 0.6 公里/小时。这些结果表明，成功和不成功的足球队都有能够在整个赛季的比赛中获得相似的最高跑动速度的球员。因此，球员的最大跑动速度与西班牙职业国家联赛结束时球队的排名位置相关性较差。
