Sports medician and science in soccer

Editorial

Sports medician and science in soccer

Can you name one sporting event that attracts more worldw ide attention than the FIFA World Cup?Didn’t think so.Soccer(football)is the most w idely played sport in the world and national passions run deep.It is not surprising that the World Cup garners the number of viewers,news articles, critiques,arguments,analysis,blogs,tweets,sponsors,and yes,money than any other sport.An estimated one in 5—6 people on the planet tuned into the final match;that’s market penetration.

The last20 years has seen an explosion ofacadem ic interest in the game.A research article on soccer before 1970 was a rarity.Then there was a steady rise in interest in the game, mostly descriptive reports on physical profi les and fi tness supported by some injury research.The last 20 years has seen not only a rapid rise in soccer-based investigations,but also increase in the quality of research.Academ icians are no longer content w ith simple descriptive studies,case studies,and opinion pieces that represent the lowest levels of evidence. Every month it is possible to find large scale randomized controlled trials,systematic reviews,and meta-analyses;the pinnacles of scientific evidence.The game and the players are being studied in m inute detail to squeeze that last bit of information needed to improve performance and in the selection and development of players.The female player is where the most future grow th w illoccur and there is interest is soccer as, according to FIFA’s Medical Assessmentand Research Centre,“a health enhancing leisure activity”to be enjoyed throughout the lifespan.

With such an event and the ever-expanding interest in soccer,the editors of theJournalof Sportand Health Science (JSHS)solicited a special issue w ith articles on a number of different issues related to soccer performance and development to celebrate the 2014 FIFA World Cup and promote research in soccer.The goal was not a series of papers that compared different training methods or the tacticaladvantages of one formation overanother.The decision was made to geta w ider view of the game in the hopes that such information m ight stimulate others to get off the research sidelines and to get into the game.We included a study of effects of playing soccer on public health.Although soccer is the most popular sport in the world,the effects of playing this sport on health are still largely unknown.Understanding the effects of playing soccer on health w ill not only promote soccer as a sport but also allow scientists and clinicians to appropriately direct people playing this sport for clinical purposes.We also included a group of articles related to soccer training.1—6These articles discussed overall principle and practices of training in soccer,1physical demands of women’s soccer games and characteristics women soccer players,2age effects on performances in soccer,3vibration training in collegiate soccer players,6and stress hormonal analysis in elite soccer players.4These are important topics of training in modern soccer.We finally included a group of articles on injury prevention in soccer.7—9These articles discussed concussion management,8current ACL injury prevention programs,7and potential effects of different playing surface on the risk of lowerextremity injuries.9Concussion and ACL injury are two of the most highly visible injuries in soccer.7,8This group of articles provided significant information for understanding and preventing these injuries in soccer to make game safer and more health.Some of the studies in this special issue were directly supported by FIFA.

There is so much more to uncoverand it is oursincere hope that these articles just m ight spark fi res in scientific research out there.Who knows?Those sparks could result in the next big leap in soccer performance thateventually reaches an even broader audience.

The contributors to this special issue include many well recognized sports scientists.Dr.Barry Drust is an exercise physiologist at Liverpool John Moore University,and sports science consultant for Liverpool Football Club.Dr.Vanessa Martı´nez-Lagunas is a formernational team player for Mexico and is an exercise physiologist specialized in physiology in women’s soccer and a FIFA instructor.Dr.Donald Kirkendall is also an exercise physiologist who worked w ith US Soccer and FIFA for many years.Dr.W illiam Garrett is an orthopedic surgeon and team physician for US Soccer who has rich experiences in treating knee injuries in sports.Dr.Jason M ilhalk is a sports scientist w ith expertise in research on concussions in sports.Drs.Gerda Strutzenberger and Bing Yu are biomechanists w ith tremendous expertise in sports injury related research.Dr.Ross Cloak is a sports scientist specialized in strength and conditioning.Dr.Jon Fulford is a biologist w ith great interests in muscle biology.We would like to thank allthe contributors for their tremendous efforts to make this special issue special.

1.Morgans R,Orme P,Anderson L,Drust B.Principles and practices of training for soccer.J Sport Health Sci2014;3:251—7.

2.Martı´nez-Lagunas V,Niessen M,Hartmann U.Women’s football:player characteristics and demandsof the game.J SportHealth Sci2014;3:258—72.

3.Kirkendall DT.The relative age effecthas no influence on match outcome in youth soccer.J Sport Health Sci2014;3:273—8.

4.M ichailidis Y.Stress hormonal analysis in elite soccer players during a season.J Sport Health Sci2014;3:279—83.

5.Connolly LJ,Scott S,Mohr M,Erm idis G,Julian R,Bangsbo J,et al. Effects of small-volume soccer and vibration training on body composition, aerobic fi tness,and muscular PCrkinetics for inactive women aged 20—45.J Sport Health Sci2014;3:284—92.

6.Cloak R,Nevill A,Sm ith J,Wyon M.The acute effects of vibration stimulus following FIFA 11+on agility and reactive strength in collegiate soccer players.J Sport Health Sci2014;3:293—8.

7.Dai B,Mao D,Garrett WE,Yu B.Anterior cruciate ligament injuries in soccer:loading mechanisms,risk factors,and prevention programs.J Sport Health Sci2014;3:299—306.

8.M ihalik JP,Lynall RC,Teel EF,Carneiro KA.Concussion management in soccer.J Sport Health Sci2014;3:307—13.

9.StrutzenbergerG,Cao HM,Koussev J,PotthastW,Irwin G.Effectof turfon the cutting movementof female footballplayers.J SportHealth Sci2014;3:314—9.

Donald T.Kirkendall,Guest Editor

Center for Learning Health Care,Duke Clinical Research Institute,Durham,NC 27715,USA

E-mail address:Donald_kirkendall@yahoo.com

Bing Yu,Guest EditorDivision of Physical Therapy,University ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill,Chapel Hill,NC 27599,USA

E-mail address:byu@med.unc.edu

17 September 2014

Peer review under responsibility of Shanghai University of Sport.

2095-2546/$-see front matter CopyrightⒸ2014,Shanghai University of Sport.Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.A ll rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2014.10.002