FITNESS & INJURY PREVENTION RESOURCES

Note: most of the resources below are published on the book: Coaching children in & though futsal: a parents/coach guide (Bryant & Berdejo-del-Fresno, 2018) that you can download for free following the next link: HERE!

STRETCHING EXERCISES

CORE STABILITY EXERCISES

FOAM ROLLER PROTOCOL

  

ASKLING L-PROTOCOL

PROPRIOCEPTION PROTOCOL

INTERVAL TRAINING & HIIT SESSIONS

STRENGTH ROUTINE

Note: most of the resources above are published on the book: Coaching children in & though futsal: a parents/coach guide (Bryant & Berdejo-del-Fresno, 2018) that you can download for free following the next link: HERE!

BLOOD FLOW RESTRICTION DURING FUTSAL TRAINING INCREASES MUSCLE ACTIVATION & STRENGTH

Very glad to announce the publication of a new scientific paper. This time, it is about futsal and strength training. Please see below the its abstract:

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of leg blood flow restriction (BFR) applied during a 3-a-side futsal game on strength-related parameters. Twelve male futsal players were randomly assigned into two groups (n = 6 for each group) during 10 training sessions either with or without leg BFR. Prior to and post-training sessions, participants completed a series of tests to assess anabolic hormones and leg strength. Pneumatic cuffs were initially inflated to 110% of leg systolic blood pressure and further increased by 10% after every two completed sessions. In comparison with baseline, the resting post-training levels of myostatin (p = 0.002) and IGF-1/MSTN ratio (p = 0.006) in the BFR group changed, whereas no change in the acute level of IGF-1 and myostatin after exercise was observed. Peak torque of knee extension and flexion increased in both groups (p < 0.05). A trend of increased neural activation of all heads of the quadriceps was observed in both groups, however, it was statistically significant only for rectus femoris in BFR (p = 0.02). These findings indicated that the addition of BFR to normal futsal training might induce greater neuromuscular benefits by increasing muscle activation and augmenting the hormonal response.

TITLE: Blood Flow Restriction During Futsal Training Increases Muscle Activation and Strength

AUTHORS: Amani-Shalamzari Sadegh, Farhani Farid, Rajabi Hamid, Abbasi Ali, Sarikhani Ali, Paton Carl, Bayati Mahdi, Berdejo-del-Fresno Daniel, Rosemann Thomas, Nikolaidis Pantelis Theodoros, Knechtle Beat
 
JOURNAL: Frontiers in Physiology    

VOLUME: 10     

YEAR: 2019

PAGES: 614  
   
DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00614   

ISSN: 1664-042X

Click HERE for full paper download.

BENCHMARK54 - AN AMAZING TOOL TO MONITOR INJURIES & PERFORMANCE

Few weeks after I took charge of the International Futsal Academy (IFA) as new Head of Coaching & Sports Science I had a fantastic meeting in Loughborough University with Dr Laurence Heslop, co-founder of Benchmark54. In that meeting we agreed the use of the Benchmark54 platform within the IFA teams for the season 2014-2015 at free cost (thank you very much Dr. Heslop, I still appreciate it).

Now, almost 5 years after, working for Bay Area Futsal Club in California (USA), I have decided to review this fantastic platform that has grown amazingly. 

Benchmark54 system is multi-sport and multi user. It has four main attributes which allow you to manage your team across all disciplines and improve the integration between departments. Benchmark54 provides a fully comprehensive electronic medical record system with all the tools you would expect. Also, Benchmark54 helps you with the player load management as it tracks all activities and intensity in training and matches and your own specific GPS parameters in one place. Thirdly, the system helps sports science data record and analysis. Finally, Benchmark54 has a research driven data dashboard that brings all the data together, with inbuilt calculations and powerful ways to visualise data (data visualisation and analysis).

Benchmark54 allow you to:

• Add training data, attendance, duration and intensity. Upload GPS files and automatically match data.
• Record physiological, wellbeing, fitness and screening data.
• Add all injuries and illness and indicate effect on availability.
• Link injuries & illness with other data (load and other physiological measure for example).
• Track performance, injury incidence, team and individual player stats through their automated injury analytics dashboard.
• Review the year-on-year performance against historical data & league wide comparative data.
• Be part of their growing research community. Raining the standards in team sports medicine.

In the video above for example you can observe the training load, the monotony and the strain on one specific day. Also, you can observe the acute: chronic ratio and where the players are placed (high risk zone for soft tissue injury, moderate risk zone for soft tissue injury or sweet spot).

Finally, in the picture below you can see a whole month players availability, all the training sessions and their duration, games and minutes played, if players were missing and their reason...

This is only a briefly and small example of what Benchmark54 can provide to your organisation to know more about injury analytics and the power of data to support more effective athlete monitoring and injury prevention and management. 

UEFA B FUTSAL: FITNESS MODULE

The Fitness Module that I have delivered this morning in the UEFA B Futsal Course can be downloaded from the link below. 

It has been a great experience and I hope you have enjoyed the day. In the presentation you have all the drills, exercises and games that I have performed and other ones. I tried to pick the ones that I thought were more relevant and you would like to see more. As I said, if you have any question about anything, any suggestion, feedback or recommendation for the future ones, do not hesitate and contact me.

I would like to finish saying a big thank you to all the players who took part in the session from Liverpool Futsal Club, the U19 Midlands CoE, and especially to my 2 fantastic goalkeepers in L'boro Futsal Club, Tom Dennis and Mark Croft or Mark Croft and Tom Dennis (the order does not matter and you really deserve what you are achieving this season, thank you!!!), without you the session had not been the same.

UEFA B FUTSAL - FITNESS MODULE DOWNLOAD HERE

COMBINED ELECTROSTIMULATION & PLYOMETRIC TRAINING

The “Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness” has recently published one of our papers. The full reference and its abstract are below:

• Effect of combined electrostimulation and plyometric training on 30 meters dash and triple jump. Benito-Martínez, E., Martínez-Amat, A., Lara-Sánchez, A. J., Berdejo-del-Fresno, D., Martínez-López, E. J. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. 2013 August; 53(4):387-395.

Aim: The aim of this paper was to analyze the effects of training combining plyometrics (PT) and neuromuscular electrostimulation (ES) on speed training and triple jump. The study consisted on the application of an electrostimulation protocol and plyometric jumps to four groups of young athletes (Control, G II, G III and G IV).

Methods: Eighty-four young athletes took part in the study (40 girls and 44 boys). All of them were sprinters (100 and 200 meters dash, and 100 and 110 hurdles meters), their mean age, weight and height being 15.9±1.4 years old, 58.53±8.05 kg, and 1.68±0.07 m, respectively. After 8 weeks of training, a 30-meter sprint launched test –time being measured by photoelectric cells – and a triple jump test from static position were completed. Repeated measures ANCOVA were used.

Results: The only group that improved significantly in the speed test (P<0.001) relative to the control group was G IV. In the triple jump test, improvements were significant, (P<0.05) and (P<0.01), in G II and G IV, respectively, relative to the control group. The results of ES + PT combined training offered no significant differences in either speed test and triple jump by gender.

Conclusion: The most effective training aimed at improving the speed of 30 m is simultaneous combined training. Regarding triple jump, the results showed significant improvements in the performance of athletes who used both simultaneous combined training and used ES followed by plyometrics. However, no significant improvement was observed after PT training prior to ES.

COMBINED ELECTROSTIMULATION & PLYOMETRIC TRAINING

This new post is just to let you know that a new paper has been published in the Journal of Human Sport & Exercise, with ISSN 1988-5202. Its whole reference is as follows: 

•  Benito-Martínez, E.,Lara-Sánchez, A.J., Berdejo-del-Fresno, D. and Martínez-López, E.J. Effects of  combined electrostimulation and plyometric training on vertical jump and speed tests. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise. 2011; 6(4):603-615.

 Since I thought it may be of interest to some of you, here you can see the abstract:

The aim of this study was to determine the performance evolution of a group of athletes after 8 weeks of training that combined electrostimulation (NM ES) and plyometrics (PT). 78 medium level sprinter athletes participated, 40 women and 38 men (age, 15.9±1.4 years old, body mass index, 20.5±1.68 kg/m2; weight 58.53±8.05 kg; height, 1.68±0.07 m). The sample was randomized into four groups [Control (PT only), NM ES + PT, PT + NM ES, and Simultaneous (plyometric jumps were performed through the passage of current). Improvements were obtained in the Abalakov jump of 3.57% (p<0.01), 13.51% (p<0.001), 1.23% (p<0.01), and 0.77%, and in the sprint of 0.45%, 3.87% (p<0.05), 4.56% (p<0.01) and 7.26% p<0.001 for the control group, NM ES + PT group, PT + NM ES group, and Simultaneous group, respectively. It was concluded that a) improvement in vertical jump requires the application of the NM ES prior to PT; b) the sprinter athlete must combine the workout simultaneously or apply the ES after the PT training; and c) in sportspeople that require improvement in both the vertical jump and speed tests (e.g. basketball) the simultaneous method is not recommended, the order of application of NM ES and PT being non-determinant. Finally, the time needed to obtain significant improvement in strength training through a combination of NM ES and PT is substantially lower (15 days) than the time needed to improve speed (30 days).