Comparison Of External Load Across Multi-day Tournaments In Female Youth Volleyball Athletes

PURPOSE: Several volleyball tournaments within the USA Volleyball system are played across multiple consecutive days, in which athletes may participate in approximately 10 matches playing the best of three sets, averaging 3-4 matches per day for each athlete. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences in external load of female youth volleyball athletes across days and by position during multi-day tournaments. METHODS: Youth female volleyball athletes (n = 22, 16.4 ± 0.4 years) wore an accelerometer during competitive matches of two- and three-day tournaments. External load was measured via kinetic energy (KE, J/lb), total jumps (TJ), total high jumps (HJ, > 51 cm), average jump height (cm), and percentage of high stress movements relative to total movements (stress %). Data were collected from two teams across twelve tournaments (six per team) and analyzed as an average per match played. Data were analyzed across tournament days and among the four volleyball positions: setters, pin hitters, middles, and defensive specialists/liberos. RESULTS: There was a difference in performance by position (p < 0.001), but no difference by tournament day (p = 0.300) or an interaction between the two (p = 0.881). The range in external load across the multiple days was 484.8-558.0 J/lb for KE, 27.3 to 31.2 TJ/match, 37.5-37.9 cm/jump, 5.2-6.5 HJ/match, and 20.1-20.7% of high stress movements/match. There were positional differences for total jumps (p = 0.041) and average jump height (p < 0.001), where setters (49.2 ± 24.3 jumps) jumped more than defensive specialists/liberos (13.0 ± 6.8 jumps, p = 0.005);and middles (45.8 ± 4.1 cm) jumped higher than all four positions (setters: 28.8 ± 3.6 cm, pin hitters: 41.3 ± 4.2 cm, and defensive specialists/liberos: 27.0 ± 4.1 cm, p = 0.000-0.044). CONCLUSIONS: It appears that the athletes recovered sufficiently between days of play such that their external load was not affected. The level of competition tends to become more evenly matched as the tournament progresses, so it may be that there was less physical demand early in the tournaments due to unequal competition levels compared to the final day of the tournament. Coaches should consider competition level, position, and recovery when deciding on play time across multi-day tournaments.