A random forest approach to explore how situational variables affect perceived exertion of elite youth soccer players

The aim of this study was to explore how situational variables affect youth soccer players’ perceived exertion (RPE) after official matches. Thirty-five elite youth male players (14.33 ± 0.86 years; 173.49 ± 6.16 cm; 63.44 ± 5.98 kg) who belonged to two different teams of a professional club partici...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Marqués Jiménez, Diego, Sampaio, Jaime, Calleja González, Julio María, Echeazarra Escudero, Ibon
Format: article
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universidad del País Vasco
Repository:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/65764
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/65764
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:situational variables
RPE
soccer
Description
Summary:The aim of this study was to explore how situational variables affect youth soccer players’ perceived exertion (RPE) after official matches. Thirty-five elite youth male players (14.33 ± 0.86 years; 173.49 ± 6.16 cm; 63.44 ± 5.98 kg) who belonged to two different teams of a professional club participated in this study. Data collection was conducted during two seasons (2016–2017, 2017–2018) and included 60 official matches (30 official matches per team). Ten minutes after each match players rated their RPE and using a modified Borg CR-10 scale. A Random Forest Regression was used to quantify the importance of match-related situational variables in RPE. Afterwards, a linear mixed model analysis was applied to identify the variability in RPE among the situational variables. The game-playing time, the player status (starter or substitute) and the player identity were the strongest predictors of RPE. Moreover, the match outcome and the final scoreline showed significant effects on both starter and substitute players but the main effect of the quality of the opponent was only identified in starter players (p < 0.05). These results allow practitioners to know how situational variables interact and modulate RPE after official matches and help them to prescribe and adapt the players’ training content and load before and after matches.