International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2014, 9, 377 -377 http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/IJSPP.2014-0123 © 2014 Human Kinetics, Inc.
www.IJSPP-Journal.com EDITORIAL
We Call It Football! A few months ago our colleagues Stephen Seiler and Ralph Beneke wrote an editorial introducing a special issue of the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (IJSPP) with a focus on Winter Olympics sports.1 That issue, containing an extraordinary collection of original investigations, invited commentaries, and brief reports on winter sports, was published in the lead-up to the XXII Olympic Winter Games, held in Sochi, Russian Federation. All the skiing, snowboarding, skating, sliding, shooting, jumping, stone-throwing, and ice-sweeping action is now over, and it is time for us to turn our attention to the grass, the grass of the football fields of Brazil! The sport that we and most of the world call football, but some call soccer, is played with the feet and all other body parts except for the arms and hands; the ball is a sphere; millions of people around the world are crazy about it; and the biggest event in the sport will start in 100 days as we write these lines: the 2014 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Brazil from June 12 to July 13. Twelve stadiums, 32 teams, 64 matches, 736 extraordinary athletes, millions of spectators. . . . And what about sport science? Are football-related sport-science research and support up to the task? The first editorial that I, Iñigo, wrote for IJSPP was titled “Challenges of Team-Sport Research.” In it, I mentioned that team-sport-related studies represented only about 20% of the articles published in the first 6 issues of the journal, and I encouraged “all sport scientists working closely with team sports to address the difficulties inherent in team-sport research and submit their research on this somewhat forgotten but extremely exciting area of sports physiology and performance.” 2(p222) Sports scientists appear to have taken up the challenge, as 38% of the peer-reviewed papers published
in IJSPP in 2013 were directly related to team sports. However, only 8% were specific to association football (ie, soccer). That small percentage, however, is markedly increased in the journal’s special issue you are now viewing. The papers that make up this issue deal with various aspects of football physiology and performance, including testing, fatigue, match analysis, and trainingload monitoring. However, there is still a need for studies in team sports (not just football) with a practical impact, but, at the same time, with a rigorous methodological approach. The majority of the papers published in this special issue are descriptive in nature. Although that is absolutely fine, what we expect and seek for the future is an increase of applied studies to develop interventions that can be implemented in the field. Experimental studies are certainly difficult in team sports, but this is probably the way to go to keep moving forward. Therefore, while in the past the editorial team of IJSPP encouraged authors to submit team-sport studies, we now encourage sport scientists to submit methodologically sound interventions that should have a real and stronger influence on field practice. Iñigo Mujika and Franco Impellizzeri Associate Editors, IJSPP
References 1. Seiler S, Beneke R. I is for international and S is for sport! Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2014;9:2–4. http://dx.doi. org/10.1123/IJSPP.2014-1002 2. Mujika I. Challenges of team-sport research. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2007;2:221–222.
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www.IJSPP-Journal.com EDITORIAL
We Call It Football! A few months ago our colleagues Stephen Seiler and Ralph Beneke wrote an editorial introducing a special issue of the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (IJSPP) with a focus on Winter Olympics sports.1 That issue, containing an extraordinary collection of original investigations, invited commentaries, and brief reports on winter sports, was published in the lead-up to the XXII Olympic Winter Games, held in Sochi, Russian Federation. All the skiing, snowboarding, skating, sliding, shooting, jumping, stone-throwing, and ice-sweeping action is now over, and it is time for us to turn our attention to the grass, the grass of the football fields of Brazil! The sport that we and most of the world call football, but some call soccer, is played with the feet and all other body parts except for the arms and hands; the ball is a sphere; millions of people around the world are crazy about it; and the biggest event in the sport will start in 100 days as we write these lines: the 2014 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Brazil from June 12 to July 13. Twelve stadiums, 32 teams, 64 matches, 736 extraordinary athletes, millions of spectators. . . . And what about sport science? Are football-related sport-science research and support up to the task? The first editorial that I, Iñigo, wrote for IJSPP was titled “Challenges of Team-Sport Research.” In it, I mentioned that team-sport-related studies represented only about 20% of the articles published in the first 6 issues of the journal, and I encouraged “all sport scientists working closely with team sports to address the difficulties inherent in team-sport research and submit their research on this somewhat forgotten but extremely exciting area of sports physiology and performance.” 2(p222) Sports scientists appear to have taken up the challenge, as 38% of the peer-reviewed papers published
in IJSPP in 2013 were directly related to team sports. However, only 8% were specific to association football (ie, soccer). That small percentage, however, is markedly increased in the journal’s special issue you are now viewing. The papers that make up this issue deal with various aspects of football physiology and performance, including testing, fatigue, match analysis, and trainingload monitoring. However, there is still a need for studies in team sports (not just football) with a practical impact, but, at the same time, with a rigorous methodological approach. The majority of the papers published in this special issue are descriptive in nature. Although that is absolutely fine, what we expect and seek for the future is an increase of applied studies to develop interventions that can be implemented in the field. Experimental studies are certainly difficult in team sports, but this is probably the way to go to keep moving forward. Therefore, while in the past the editorial team of IJSPP encouraged authors to submit team-sport studies, we now encourage sport scientists to submit methodologically sound interventions that should have a real and stronger influence on field practice. Iñigo Mujika and Franco Impellizzeri Associate Editors, IJSPP
References 1. Seiler S, Beneke R. I is for international and S is for sport! Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2014;9:2–4. http://dx.doi. org/10.1123/IJSPP.2014-1002 2. Mujika I. Challenges of team-sport research. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2007;2:221–222.
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