Training for Optimal Sports Performance and Health

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, which is titled "Training for Optimal Sports Performance and Health” .

A complete and regular set of different areas of sports science are required to achieve optimal sports performance. Exercise physiology is one of the most important and practical fields in sport science that provide information for strength and conditioning coaches in sports teams. For this reason, identifying the physical demands of sports must be a priority for professional coaches. Each sport differs in its physical demands, with a wide range of skills at varying levels of intensity. Athletes are primarily involved in kinds of running, kicking, jumping, sprinting, and changing of direction; these physical abilities require maximum strength, maximal oxygen uptake, anaerobic power, and the neuromuscular system. In order for athletes and sports teams to achieve optimal performance in these physical indicators, the coach must be able to do several things for the athletes and their teams, including the following: (i) fitness assessments—step-by-step evaluations of athletes in different training phases in the competition season and pre-season; (ii) conditioning specific for sports—this means a variety of exercises for running at different speeds, acceleration, deceleration, and exercises in simulated field conditions such as small sided game (SSG); (iii) strength training—this section should include a set of resistance exercises, including weight training, dumbbells, barbells, and functional training; (iv) explosive power, speed, and change of direction development—at this stage, the correct techniques of jumping with one and a pair of legs, jumping on different boxes, sled run, band resisted running, and agility ladders drills; (v) and, almost the most important part that should be prioritized by coaches in all training seasons, is to be able to manage the training load, recovery between training sessions and match, injury prevention, and rehabilitation of players through monitoring, which can be of external load to all types of running, metabolic power, and body load, internal load to the rating of perceived exertion or heart rate and, finally, the well-being status of players using various tools such as the Hooper index questionnaire.

Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to identify the training strategies to achieve the desired performance in competitions for athletes, individually or as a team and considering different ages and sports, which can (1) be considered and studied as periodization and programming for training in different periods of the season; (2) keep or lead the athlete to the desired performance by managing the training load; (3) monitor the athlete’s wellness status for preventing the development of over-training syndrome and non-functional overreaching statuses as well as to achieve the desired performance and prevent performance distortion; (4) quantify the relationship between fitness assessments with training loads and well-being status; and (5) examine the role of different types of training such as SSG, agility, speed, and resistance training in different age groups in different teams.

We eagerly anticipate your sensational papers!

Dr. Hadi Nobari
Prof. Dr. Juan Pedro Fuentes García
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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