ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Physical Activity in the Prevention and Management of Disease
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1602127
Physical Demands and Movement Characteristics of Veteran Football Players
Provisionally accepted
- 1Imperial College London, London, England, United Kingdom
- 2Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany
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The purpose of this study was to investigate physical demands and movement characteristics of veterans' football (VF) players. VF players were recruited from West and South London Leagues.A 15-meter shuttle run test was used to assess maximum heart rate (HRmax) and continuous heart rate was monitored to evaluate the cardiocirculatory strain during matches. Video analysis was performed to analyze movement characteristics: step counts, number of passes and sprints, changes of directions (COD), and standing time.Results: A total of 91 male VF players (age: 45 ± 6 years, BMI: 26.3 ± 4.0 kg/m 2 ) participated. Mean heart rate was 147 ± 14 min -1 corresponding to 80 ± 8 % of HRmax and 57 ± 14 % of match time was completed above 80 % HRmax. Sprints were completed more frequently by midfielders (90 ± 10) compared to forwards (34 ± 6, p<0.001) and defenders (50 ± 10, p<0.01). Standing time in forwards (740 ± 87s) and defenders (649 ± 111s) was significantly higher (p<0.001) than in midfielders (181 ± 17s). During 86 ± 36 min match time, players covered 5790 ± 963 steps; equating to approximately 6 km, made 120 ± 59 COD and 128 ± 62 passes.In conclusion, the cardiocirculatory strain in VF football seems to be considerably high. Therefore, one VF match appears to be sufficient to meet the minimum of current guidelines on health promoting activities. Position-specific differences in VF are evident for midfielders, who are potentially exposed to higher physical demands across all field positions.
Keywords: veterans' football1, cardiocirculatory strain2, heart rate zones3, field positions4, movement patterns5, step count6, exercise intensity7, video-analysis8
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Graf, Egger, Kotecha, Saleh and Meyer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Florian Egger, Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, 66123, Saarland, Germany
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