Purpose: To gain knowledge on the beliefs and practices of football practitioners applying high-speed and sprint running exposure programming strategies.
Methods: One hundred and two football practitioners from twenty-two different countries, participated in a survey study consisting of a survey including five domains: demographic and professional characteristics (Who), importance of high-speed and sprint running exposure for physical capabilities development, preparation for competition, and injury prevention strategies (Why), exposure timing (When), methodological procedures for exposure monitoring and training scheduling (What), effectiveness of common training practices (How). Data were analyzed using a combination of descriptive statistics, generalized mixed-effects and multinomial logistic regression models.
Results: Data revealed five main findings: (1) overall agreement on the importance of exposure for physical capabilities development, preparation for competition, and injury prevention strategies; (2) different exposure timing and selective training scheduling for starting and non-starting players across typical and congested weeks; (3) lack of consensus on the conceptual constructs defining high-speed and sprint running metrics and the methodological procedures used for monitoring; 4) a probable association between match-related outcomes and exposure strategies used in training; and 5) a broad range of training methods considered as effective to elicit exposure.
Conclusions: This study provides actionable insights into the planning, implementing, and monitoring strategies for high-speed and sprint running exposure in football. While some conform with the evidence on high-speed and sprint running training in football, further research and professional debate is warranted to develop empirical knowledge and provide pragmatic recommendations helping practitioners in adopting evidence-informed decisions.