Using Global Positioning System to Compare Training Monotony and Training Strain of Starters and Non-Starters across of Full-Season in Professional Soccer Players

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear author, first of all I would like to congratulate you on your research focus, which is of undoubted importance for the field of sport sciences and particularly for researchers and coaches in the field of soccer. Even though the article is well structured, it seems important that some corrections and/or additions are made in order to increase the potential of the article.

Below you can find specifically my comments that I hope will be useful to you and your colleagues.

Line - 39 - Dear author, it can reinforce the idea that football is characterized by intermittent and high-intensity efforts and provide supporting references for the first sentence. In addition, perhaps it is important to improve the linking of ideas from the first paragraph

line 62 -65 - maybe it would be important to add some support references here

Line 112 - You should try to completely rephrase the last paragraph. The main objective of the study may be clearer and more objective at this stage. In the way it is, it appears excessively detailed, which makes it difficult for the reader to read fluidly and understand it. I suggest the specifics of the analysis performed be provided later in the article.

Line 143 - perhaps you can specify in the light of the literature the division made for the competitive periods.

Line 197  -The results, although well described, are very extensive. maybe you can consider putting the results split at specific points. Perhaps this was important to make them clearer and more perceptible. Also some graphics are extremely difficult to read, increasing their size or resolution might be useful.

Line 367 - 477 - Regarding the discussion, although it is structured in order to answer the study questions, perhaps it would be important in addition to present some physiological and/or psychophysiological justifications that can help justify the results, I think this could be a differentiating point of the work. Also because it is mentioned in the conclusion that some physiological adaptations do not occur, but which ones are not specified. Also the conclusion can be improved.

Overall good work!

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewers,

Please find enclosed a revision of our manuscript, “Using Global Positioning System to Compare Training Monotony and Training Strain of Starters and Non-Starters Across of Full-Season in Professional Soccer Players”. We would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to revise and improve our manuscript. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments which have made the manuscript stronger. Changes to the original manuscript are highlighted in yellow, and an itemized point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments is presented below.

Best regards

The authors

 

AUTHORS’ RESPONSE TO THE REVIEWERS

Reviewer 1

Dear author, first of all I would like to congratulate you on your research focus, which is of undoubted importance for the field of sport sciences and particularly for researchers and coaches in the field of soccer. Even though the article is well structured, it seems important that some corrections and/or additions are made in order to increase the potential of the article.

Authors: We thank you for your valuable and positive comments on this manuscript.

Below you can find specifically my comments that I hope will be useful to you and your colleagues.

The positive comments from the reviewer are highly appreciated. We have considered all the suggestions and we believe that they have considerably contribute to improve the quality of our original submission.

Line - 39 - Dear author, it can reinforce the idea that football is characterized by intermittent and high-intensity efforts and provide supporting references for the first sentence. In addition, perhaps it is important to improve the linking of ideas from the first paragraph

Authors:  Thank you, we added the following information(Short sprints, fast acceleration or deceleration, twisting, jumping, kicking, and tackling are all features of soccer, which is one of the most popular sports in the world. It is widely considered that soccer has evolved through time to become faster, with more intensity and aggressive play than previously observed. Elite soccer is a complicated sport in which players' success is influenced by a variety of elements including physical fitness, psychological factors, player technique, and team tactics. Players' ability to compete might also be harmed by injuries and the consequences of past injuries)

line 62 -65 - maybe it would be important to add some support references here

Authors:  Thank you, added.

Line 112 - You should try to completely rephrase the last paragraph. The main objective of the study may be clearer and more objective at this stage. In the way it is, it appears excessively detailed, which makes it difficult for the reader to read fluidly and understand it. I suggest the specifics of the analysis performed be provided later in the article.

Authors: we agree with the reviewer´s comment. We have rewritten the last paragraph of the introduction as follows: the aim of this study was to describe the weekly average and changes in training monotony (TM) and training strain (TS) throughout different periods of the season in professional football players based on the number of accelerations and decelerations, and also to analyze the difference between starters and non-starters players in TM and TS.)

Line 143 - perhaps you can specify in the light of the literature the division made for the competitive periods.

Authors: Thank you for your attention, we have divided the periods of the season based on the pre-and competition season. We also divided the competition season into three equal parts (early-, mid- and end-season).

Line 197 -The results, although well described, are very extensive. maybe you can consider putting the results split at specific points. Perhaps this was important to make them clearer and more perceptible. Also some graphics are extremely difficult to read, increasing their size or resolution might be useful.

Authors:  Dear reviewer, the length of this section is due to the many tables and graphs that are provided to better describe the data, otherwise there is not much text here and it should be noted that the results section is divided into different zones based on ACC and DEC. is classified. The charts were drawn once again with GraphPad Prism software with a resolution of 1200 bpi. If you have any other suggestions for improving this section, we will be happy to do so.

Line 367 - 477 - Regarding the discussion, although it is structured in order to answer the study questions, perhaps it would be important in addition to present some physiological and/or psychophysiological justifications that can help justify the results, I think this could be a differentiating point of the work. Also because it is mentioned in the conclusion that some physiological adaptations do not occur, but which ones are not specified. Also the conclusion can be improved.

Authors: Dear reviewer, we have added several paragraphs in the conclusion and discussion section. Some of them are below.

(In the exercise science, fatigue is associated with a decrement in the ability of the muscles to produce force. Fatigue reduces muscle strength as well as player concentration and, therefore, it reduces athletes' overall performance. This, if not accompanied by sufficient recovery time, will further reduce the athlete's performance. This happens to the most used starter players when football matches are tight, so the coach has to use more replacement players.)

(According to the results of a recent study, it seems that TM and TS derived from Acc and Dec are suitable factors for monitoring the training and fitness of football players working in professional teams. The major finding of this study was that when the team leaves the pre-season preparation period and enters the competition season, the exercises performed do not provide the necessary workload for non-starter players. As a result, some physiological adaptations such as speed, agility, cardiorespiratory endurance, aerobic capacity, and anaerobic will not occur in these players due to the low workload of training, and not experiencing high workload in official matches and training.)

Overall good work!

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors. I have carefully read his manuscript. It is a well-written document with some interest for the specialized reader. However, it is not a new topic, since it has been widely studied in the scientific literature.

Thus, I have a series of important suggestions and doubts about this manuscript. 

I do not believe that the Persian Gulf Premier League is a professional league, much less that its players can be compared with professional players from England, Spain, Italy or France.
Also, I have many doubts about the need to use accelerations and decelerations below 3 m/s2. What do the acc and dec of 1 m/s2 contribute? Are they truly relevant for elite football players? I think they may be omitted. This seems to me to be an important point, and it would also help reduce the figures in the document.
Finally, the conclusions or practical applications do not contribute anything new to the scientific field.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewers,

Please find enclosed a revision of our manuscript, “Using Global Positioning System to Compare Training Monotony and Training Strain of Starters and Non-Starters Across of Full-Season in Professional Soccer Players”. We would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to revise and improve our manuscript. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments which have made the manuscript stronger. Changes to the original manuscript are highlighted in yellow, and an itemized point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments is presented below.

Best regards

The authors

 

AUTHORS’ RESPONSE TO THE REVIEWERS

Reviewer 2

Dear authors. I have carefully read his manuscript. It is a well-written document with some interest for the specialized reader. However, it is not a new topic, since it has been widely studied in the scientific literature.

Authors: We thank you for your valuable and positive comments on this manuscript.

Thus, I have a series of important suggestions and doubts about this manuscript. 

I do not believe that the Persian Gulf Premier League is a professional league, much less that its players can be compared with professional players from England, Spain, Italy or France.
Also, I have many doubts about the need to use accelerations and decelerations below 3 m/s2. What do the acc and dec of 1 m/s2 contribute? Are they truly relevant for elite football players? I think they may be omitted. This seems to me to be an important point, and it would also help reduce the figures in the document.
Finally, the conclusions or practical applications do not contribute anything new to the scientific field.

Authors: Dear reviewer, considering that the running distance of football players can indicate the workload in competitions, by comparing this variable between European leagues and Iranian leagues, we will remove the ambiguity about the professionalism of this league. According to the available statistics, the running distance covered in a match in the European Champions League ranges from 10 to 11.5 km. This value is not much different from the amount of running in the Asian Champions League, and it should be noted that there are always four teams from the top league of Iran in the Asian Champions League and have always been among the finalists of this competition. The running rate in the Bundesliga is about 11.5 km, in the English Premier League is about 11.1 km, and about 10 km in La Liga, while the running distance is about 10.5 km for the Iranian Premier League. According to the comparison provided in the Iranian Premier League, it can be compared with other prestigious leagues in terms of players' running, although the amount of players' running depends on the tactics used by the teams, playing position and style of play (Messi's running rate in Barcelona teams' match with Real Madrid reported 8 km). It is clear that many parameters must be considered to check the professionalism of a football league, and FIFA and AFC have introduced the Iranian Premier League as a professional league based on these parameters.

We were thinking about avoiding accelerations and decelerations below 3 m/s², but although we agree with the reviewer that these values are not very high, we decided to keep the data in order to be more informative for coaches. Because soccer has a higher frequency and number of accelerations and decelerations, the monotony and strain of the training load must be regulated throughout the microcycles.

We have modified the conclusions or practical application sections to emphasize the potential impact of our findings to the soccer field. As positively highlighted by the reviewers 1 and 3, we honestly believe that we provide important data for coaches working with professional soccer players. Given this information and the variability in TM and TS presented, coaches, practitioners, and scientists should keep a close eye on the imposed demands on their own group of players in order to better periodize and plan training sessions and impose the proper load on starters and non-starters players throughout the season. Finally, we present several limitations of the present study in the article. We hope you understand the difficulties of conducting large applied studies. We hope to get your consent as well.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments to the Author

First, thanks to the authors for submitting their work. This investigation examined Using Global Positioning System to Compare Training Monotony and Training Strain of Starters and Non-Starters Across of Full-Season in Professional Soccer Players

 In general, this investigation was well-conducted, and the novel results add to the body of literature in this area. On the other hand, the work investigates an interesting topic of analysis in the field of sports training in soccer. This study offers valuable insights compare training monotony and training strain of starters and non-starters across of full-season in professional soccer players in collegiate athletes. However, there are several changes that should be considered prior to publication. 

Abstract

Line17-18: It is best to state the objectives in the abstract as interconnected sentences

Lline 21-22: Target community of a selected team or of all players in the league

I mean, how many teams were selected from the players participating in this study?

Lline33: Please review the discussion and conclusion section in the abstract

Line 37: Check the keywords in the mesh

Introduction

Line 62: Please introduce TM here with the full name for the first time in the main text of the article

Line 64: please put more references in this part.

Line 77: Please introduce TS here with the full name for the first time in the main text of the article

Line82: please use the term “match” and standardize this term in the document

Line89: please put more references in this part.

Line 87-91: this sentence is too long, please rephrased to clarify the idea

Line 114: please put more references in this part.

Materials and methods:

Line136: Are players selected and eliminated based on previous studies? It is not mentioned here

Line 145: This section should be modified, end –season started in W31.   

Line159: please use the term “match” and standardize this term in the document

How to calculate Table 2 using GPS information and questionnaires is not stated in the method section.

Result:

Please add the Hedge’s g effect size and threshold's to the analysis.

The results are correctly described.

 

 

Discussion

Line 376-381: This paragraph is very confusing considering the stated goals it is better to rewrite it

It is better to state the duration of the league closure due to Covid 19 disease in the methodology section

Line 413: please put more references in this part.

Line471: Please add the limitations of the present study to the last paragraph of the discussion.

Line471-473: This paragraph is very confusing it is better to rewrite it

Conclusion

The practical work applicability can be improved

References

Template is correct.

 

 

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewers,

Please find enclosed a revision of our manuscript, “Using Global Positioning System to Compare Training Monotony and Training Strain of Starters and Non-Starters Across of Full-Season in Professional Soccer Players”. We would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to revise and improve our manuscript. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments which have made the manuscript stronger. Changes to the original manuscript are highlighted in yellow, and an itemized point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments is presented below.

Best regards

The authors

 

AUTHORS’ RESPONSE TO THE REVIEWERS

Reviewer 3

First, thanks to the authors for submitting their work. This investigation examined Using Global Positioning System to Compare Training Monotony and Training Strain of Starters and Non-Starters Across of Full-Season in Professional Soccer Players

 In general, this investigation was well-conducted, and the novel results add to the body of literature in this area. On the other hand, the work investigates an interesting topic of analysis in the field of sports training in soccer. This study offers valuable insights compare training monotony and training strain of starters and non-starters across of full-season in professional soccer players in collegiate athletes. However, there are several changes that should be considered prior to publication. 

Authors: We thank you for your valuable and positive comments on this manuscript.

Abstract

Line17-18: It is best to state the objectives in the abstract as interconnected sentences

Authors: Dear reviewer, thank you for your words

Lline 21-22: Target community of a selected team or of all players in the league

I mean, how many teams were selected from the players participating in this study?

Authors: Thank you, done

Lline33: Please review the discussion and conclusion section in the abstract

Authors: Dear reviewer, thank you for your feedback

Line 37: Check the keywords in the mesh

Authors: Thank you, done

Introduction

Line 62: Please introduce TM here with the full name for the first time in the main text of the article

Authors: Thank you, done

Line 64: please put more references in this part.

Authors: Dear reviewer, thank you for your feedback

Line 77: Please introduce TS here with the full name for the first time in the main text of the article

Authors: Thank you, we checked out and defined all of them.

Line82: please use the term “match” and standardize this term in the document

Authors: Thank you, revised.

Line89: please put more references in this part.

Authors: Dear reviewer, we added more related references there.

Line 87-91: this sentence is too long, please rephrased to clarify the idea

Authors: We wrote them shorter and in better language.

Line 114: please put more references in this part.

Authors: Thank you, added.

Materials and methods:

Line136: Are players selected and eliminated based on previous studies? It is not mentioned here

Authors: Thank you, we mentioned the relevant details in more detail.

Line 145: This section should be modified, end –season started in W31.

 Authors: Thank you, done

Line159: please use the term “match” and standardize this term in the document

Authors: Thank you for your attention, it was done

How to calculate Table 2 using GPS information and questionnaires is not stated in the method section.

Authors: dear reviewer, we have added the above sections of the text explain how to calculate TM and TS.

we have indicated: The TM and TS are considered as external workload. TM is obtained by dividing the average daily work by the standard deviation of daily work. The TS is obtained by multiplying the training uniformity in the workload.)

Result:

Please add the Hedge’s g effect size and threshold's to the analysis.

Authors: dear reviewer, due to the length of the text, these statistics have been provided in a table (see Table X), but not in the text in order to reduce the length of our results section.  Note that one of the reviewers advised us to reduce the length of the text in the results section..

The results are correctly described.

 Authors: thank you

 

Discussion

Line 376-381: This paragraph is very confusing considering the stated goals it is better to rewrite it

It is better to state the duration of the league closure due to Covid 19 disease in the methodology section

Authors: Thank you for your attention, it was done

Line 413: please put more references in this part.

Authors: Thank you for your attention, it was done

Line471: Please add the limitations of the present study to the last paragraph of the discussion.

Authors: Thank you Mentioned in the penultimate paragraph

Line471-473: This paragraph is very confusing it is better to rewrite it

Authors: Thank you, we revised it.

Conclusion

The practical work applicability can be improved

Authors: Thank you, the requested description was added

References

Template is correct.

 Authors: thank you

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors, thank you for your prompt response to the comments made on the last review carried out. In fact, after substantially improving the manuscript in light of the suggestions made, I no longer have any reservations about the manuscript. Good job. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors

You have done a good job of improving the quality of this paper. I want to support the publication of this manuscript