Activity and recovery cycles and skill involvements of successful and unsuccessful elite rugby league teams: A longitudinal analysis of evolutionary changes in National Rugby League match-play?

(Belastungs- und Entlastungszyklen und Fertigkeitseinschlüsse erfolgreicher und erfolgloser Rugby-League-Mannschaften: eine Längsschnittanalyse evolutionärer Veränderungen in Spielen der National Rugby League )

We investigated changes in activity and recovery cycles and skill involvements: (1) during National Rugby league (NRL) match-play from 2004 to 2014 and (2) among successful and unsuccessful teams over the same period. Teams were divided into 4 tiers according to final ladder position: (A) 1st-4th, (B) 5th-8th, (C) 9th-12th and (D) 13th-16th. Total, mean and maximum ball-in-play time decreased, while recovery time increased from 2004 to 2014. Offensive and defensive skill involvements changed differentially over time with moderate to large reductions in the number of play-the-balls, offloads and missed tackles, and moderate to large increases in the number of passes, tackles made and ineffective tackles. The gap between Tier A and Tier D decreased for mean activity time and the proportion of short (<45 s) ball-in-play periods. Conversely, the gap between Tier A and Tier D increased for skill involvements, with Tier A completing more play-the-balls, and Tier D performing a greater number of offloads, and total, missed and ineffective tackles. Our results demonstrate the decreasing ball-in-play demands of NRL competition over 11 seasons. However, our data also highlight the narrowing gap in ball-in-play demands, and increasing gap in skill involvements between the top tier and bottom tier teams.
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Schlagworte: Rugby Belastungsgestaltung Leistungsstruktur Belastung
Notationen: Spielsportarten
DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2017.1288918
Veröffentlicht in: Journal of Sports Sciences
Veröffentlicht: 2018
Jahrgang: 36
Heft: 2
Seiten: 180-190
Dokumentenarten: Artikel
Sprache: Englisch
Level: hoch