Validity of Daily and Weekly Self-Reported Training Load Measures in Adolescent Athletes

• Published in: Journal of strength and conditioning research Vol. 31; no. 4; pp. 1121 - 1126
• Main Authors: Phibbs, Padraic J, Roe, Gregory, Jones, Ben, Read, Dale B, Weakley, Jonathon, Darrall-Jones, Joshua, Till, Kevin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Copyright by the National Strength & Conditioning Association 01-04-2017; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Ovid Technologies
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Athletes; Athletes - statistics & numerical data; Correlation analysis; Football - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Male; Physical Exertion; Reproducibility of Results; Self Report; Sports training; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teenagers
• ISSN: 1064-8011; 1533-4287
• DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001708

ABSTRACTPhibbs, PJ, Roe, G, Jones, B, Read, DB, Weakley, J, Darrall-Jones, J, and Till, K. Validity of daily and weekly self-reported training load measures in adolescent athletes. J Strength Cond Res 31(4)1121–1126, 2017—The primary aim of the study was to assess the level of agreement between the criterion session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE30min) and a practical measure of a self-reported Web-based training load questionnaire 24 hours after training (sRPE24h) in adolescent athletes. The secondary aim was to assess the agreement between weekly summated sRPE24h values (∑sRPE24h) and a weekly Web-based training diary (sRPEweekly) for all field-based training accumulated on a subsequent training week. Thirty-six male adolescent rugby players (age, 16.7 ± 0.5 years) were recruited from a regional academy. Measures of sRPE30min were recorded 30 minutes after a typical field-based training session. Participants then completed the sRPE24h via a Web-based training load questionnaire 24 hours after training, reporting both session duration and intensity. In addition, on a subsequent week, participants completed the sRPE24h daily and then completed the sRPEweekly at the end of the week, using the same Web-based platform, to recall all field-based training session durations and intensities over those 7 days. Biases were trivial between sRPE30min and sRPE24h for sRPE (0.3% [−0.9 to 1.5]), with nearly perfect correlations (0.99 [0.98–0.99]) and small typical error of the estimate (TEE; 4.3% [3.6–5.4]). Biases were trivial between ∑sRPE24h and sRPEweekly for sRPE (5.9% [−2.1 to 14.2]), with very large correlations (0.87 [0.78–0.93]) and moderate TEE of 28.5% [23.3–36.9]. The results of this study show that sRPE24h is a valid and robust method to quantify training loads in adolescent athletes. However, sRPEweekly was found to have a substantial TEE (28.5%), limiting practical application.