(51) RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FEMALE COLLEGIATE SOCCER ATHLETES’ PERCEPTIONS OF STRESS TO ACCELEROMETER DATA

Introduction: Collegiate athletes have the challenge of navigating stressors from their sport to academics, relationships, and life. Soccer is stressful sport that requires great coordination, conditioning, and power of the athletes that play it. How the stress of the sport relates to stress the athletes perceive is important.

Purpose: To analyze weekly training volumes and intensity that soccer athletes encounter throughout a competitive season.

Methods: 35 Division I collegiate women’s soccer players participated in this tracking (age 20.4±1.4 years old, height 1.67±.07m, weight 62.4±8.2 kg, Mean±SD, 7 forwards, 9 midfielders, 14 defenders, 4 goalies). Athletes wore accelerometer sensors for each of the training and game sessions. Sensors recorded position at 10 Hz and derived velocity and distance covered. Athletes filled out daily questionnaires asking them for their soreness (Likert scale 1-10), rating of perceived exertion, stress, mental effort, sleep quality, sleep quantity (hours), source of highest stress (athletics, academics, stress free, other), steps per day, resting heart rate upon waking in the morning, and meals eaten on a given day. Sensor data was analyzed for total distance covered (m), player load calculated through conventional means, and active minutes. Data was analyzed for correlations between all of the variables on a weekly average basis. Correlations between values was assessed with significance set at an alpha of p< .05 (*).

Results: Average daily stress for the athletes was 3.10±1.70, the greatest source of stress for the athletes was athletics 31.7% of the time, followed by academics 27.1% and then other 25.8%, the remainder was “stress free”. Athletic stress was the major source of stress overall in 6 of the 13 weeks of the season with the highest points being the preseason (58.2% and 50%) and then the final week of season (37.8%). Significant correlations were observed between soreness and hours of sleep (r=-.45*), resting heart rate (r=.81*), RPE (r=.95*), mental effort (r=.73*), distance (r=.78*), active time (r=.80*), and player load (r=.86*). Significant correlations between stress and distance covered (r=-.44), active time (r=-.47*), and player load (r=-.46*). RPE was significantly correlated with mental effort (r=.89*), distance ( r=.88*), active time (r=.88*), and player load (.90*). Mental effort was correlated with distance (r=.88*), active time (r=.85*), and player load (r=.80*). Player load, distance, and active time all related to one another at (r >.96*).

Conclusions: Having athletes rating their perceived exertion can be used as a good indicator of total effort the athletes have given in a training session. Mental effort and Soreness can be used as moderate indicators of athletic stress.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Having athletes rate their session RPE can be a method to indicate the total stress that they have undergone in the given session and per week. Mental effort is another good proxy, and soreness has some utility, but is much weaker of a relationship.

Acknowledgements: None