ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1662240
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Sports Science: Latest Findings and New Scientific Proposals- Volume IIIView all 15 articles
Periodization for Success -In-Season External Training Loads Relative to Competition Load in American Football
Provisionally accepted
Quincy R. Johnson1,2*
Yang Yang1,2
Dimitrije Cabarkapa1,2,3
Dayton Sealey4
Shane Stock4Dalton Gleason4Clay Frels4Madi Rink1,2
Andrew C. Fry1,2- 1University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States
- 2Jayhawk Athletic Performance Laboratory, Lawrence, United States
- 3D2 Labs, Novi Sad, Serbia
- 4University of Nebraska Kearney, Kearney, United States
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Despite an exponential development in performance monitoring technologies, the physical performance demands of sport remain an understudied topic in scientific literature. Thus, the primary purpose of this study was to quantify and compare the training loads (TL) of a collegiate American football team between in-season practices and official games by general position group, event type, and to assess the interaction between the two. Twenty-seven NCAA Division-II athletes volunteered to participate in this investigation. In-season TL during 32 practices (categorized as days before game day; GD minus) and 11 conference games were recorded using global positioning system technology. Collected data included total duration, total distance, yards traveled per minute, hard running distance, hard running efforts, 2-dimensional (2D) load, and 3-dimensional (3D) load. A factorial analysis of variance revealed significant main effects in TL for event type (p < 0.001) and position groups (p < 0.001), and an interaction effect between the two (p < 0.001). Unique microcyclic characteristics were observed for each measure of interest. Relative to game values (100%), values for training duration (+25 to -12%; GD-4 to GD-1), yards per minute (+15 to -11%), total distance (+37 to -3%), hard running distance (+33 to -7%), hard running efforts (+33 to -12%), 2D-load (+40 to -7%), and 3D-load (+44 to -3%) were significantly greater than game values on distinct days during the week. These findings can improve the current understanding of practice demands relative to games, which may support more optimal sport-specific periodization approaches within American football.
Keywords: Sport science, Health, performance, GPS, athlete monitoring
Received: 08 Jul 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Johnson, Yang, Cabarkapa, Sealey, Stock, Gleason, Frels, Rink and Fry. 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: Quincy R. Johnson, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States
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