Since March and the dawning realisation of the seriousness of Covid-19, 2020 has presented challenges for sport scientists. At the elite end of the profession, event cancellations, postponements and lockdowns inhibited training and monitoring plans. For those that use exercise as a health intervention, social restrictions interrupted programmes and the worry of increasing sedentary behaviour caused concern particularly among older and isolated groups. In this blog, Sport Science Agency will take a look back at some of the key developments that have shaped sports science in 2020.
The mask and an empty stadium came to symbolize the year in sport
Exercise and Health
In response to Covid-19, the UK entered a national lockdown in March. As the Prime Minister, flanked by his senior medical and scientific advisers, addressed the nation it became apparent just how important exercise is considered in terms of wider health. Across a number of European nations, lockdowns prohibited people from leaving their homes, restricting exercise options considerably. In the UK, the advice allowed and encouraged people to exercise for an hour a day in an attempt to maintain general health. The European Journal of Sport Science called together a number of experts to discuss the issue of restricting exercise and activity as a consequence of lockdowns. Some of the research findings are stark. a theoretical model showed in adults over the age of 60, four weeks of inactivity could lead to a 24% increased risk of mortality over the next 14 years, exactly the sort of outcomes that sport science professionals are seeking to avoid.
The Prime Ministers admitted his own “nasty experience” of Covid-19 could be attributed to him being “too fat”. On the 27th July, the government unveiled its new ‘Better Health’ campaign specifically targeted at reducing the health impact of obesity. This included expanding the prescription of exercise and social activities in order to combat issues of obesity.
For exercise professionals, an increased emphasis on the importance of activity is long overdue. Covid-19 helped to shine a light on the importance of regular exercise in order to support our wider health needs.
Training at Home
When professional sport was suspended across the UK it presented club and athlete sport science teams with a dilemma. Within football, without a fixed return date and limited options in terms of overseeing and evaluating training, clubs had to organise quickly. Some decided to let the players break, for a few weeks before implementing remote training. Others opted to try and maintain the fitness of players and developed a mix of digital team sessions and individual running-based sessions.
In the absence of live sport, training data and footage become a central tenet of clubs content output. Clubs and players began to share team yoga, cycling or indoor HIIT sessions that fans could try to mimic. These sessions provided a base level of fitness and no doubt helped maintain a level of team camaraderie, but more advanced and specific levels of training were needed to maintain elite levels of conditioning.
In order to monitor players training at home, many sport science teams provided sport specific GPS units. The advantage of these units is the quality of data they provide and the software for data analysis. However, these systems require specific expertise and with large squads feeding disparate data remotely for interpretation, feedback can become very time consuming and therefore difficult to manage. Many clubs, therefore, moved to easier-to-use tracking and monitoring via sports watches and sharing via Strava. While these options are less accurate, particularly when recording players at high-speeds, for what was needed during this maintenance phase, they were able to provide ample data for easy tracking and player feedback.
No fans
When sport did return, it did so in the absence of fans. Numerous theories were put forward regarding how this may affect the players and their performances. Sports science research has looked at the impact fans have, particularly on team sport previously. However, with what was to be an extended period of competition taking place behind closed doors, 2020 provided an opportunity to further understand how fans influence performance.
Often commentators speculated as to the impact empty stadia would have from players benefiting due to reduced pressure from the removal of an expectant crowd to an inability to find that ‘edge’ associated with the atmosphere players were used to.
A wide-ranging study looking at 23 professional leagues across 17 countries during the behind closed doors 2019/2020 season, backed previous research examining the importance of a crowd. The findings concluded that it is not the psychological impact on players, but the referees who are most influenced by crowds (Bryson et al 2020).
At the elite level, it might only take a few minor refereeing decisions to impact the outcome of a game. The learning from these findings is that elite sport must ensure that it is supporting its officials in an attempt to remove the impact of the crowd. The increased and developing introduction of VAR in football is a positive step giving referees ‘room’ to review some decisions. However, with this new knowledge perhaps more importantly is adapting training to help officials understand how they can be influenced by fans during games. With more support, referees can work towards eliminating the influence of the crowd and therefore improving the quality of officiating.
Injury
As training and eventually sport began to return following lockdowns, the spectre of injury began to dominate the sports science conversation. The first major European football league to return was the German Bundesliga. Almost instantly reported injuries increased and high-profile players such as Dortmund’s Erling Braut Håland, limped out after just two games following the return.
The Premier League is widely acknowledged to be the most physically demanding of the major European leagues both in terms of high-intensity running and distance covered. This means physical demand on players is high and therefore, so is the risk of injury if not conditioned for the demands. To highlight this point, sports scientists turned to research from America during a shortened NFL pre-season back in 2011. The findings showed a four-fold increased risk of injury.
To combat the potentially heightened injury risk, Premier League teams voted to increase the number of substitutions permitted from three to five. This was done to support reduced player load, increased recovery and therefore support enhanced player welfare.
A study conducted by UEFA’s Elite Club Injury Study group following the 2019/2020 season, actually showed a 10 % drop in muscle injuries following the resumption of play. The authors admitted they expected to see an increase in injuries but instead felt the rest that players enjoyed during lockdown may have been of benefit and therefore contributed to the comparative injury decline.
The debate regarding injury and player welfare goes on. The 2020/21 season has seen injury numbers increase by 39% compared to the same period last season. Unlike other major leagues, the Premier League, following a club vote, has reverted from allowing five to only three substitutions. This year’s challenges have brought injury prevention and recovery to the fore as it gained increased media attention. Keeping players fit, healthy and available for selection has been shown to be a major factor in performance success. Now injury and player availability has become a regular topic of fan conversation expect player welfare and injury prevention to only increase in importance over the coming years.