Training Load Management Ambiguities and Flawed Logic: Creating Consequences in Sport Training and Performance

Background: The modification and optimization of player load is not a new concept, however in recent years, the concept of ‘load management’ is one of the most widely studied and divisive topics in sport science and medicine.

Purpose: Discuss the challenges faced by sports when utilizing load monitoring, with a specific focus on the use of load management guidelines and policies/mandates, their consequences and how we move this field forward.

Challenges: Over-cautious load guidelines can hinder an athlete’s ability to physically prepare for sport. While guidelines can help protect athletes from training abuses, overzealous and over-cautious guidelines may restrict an athlete’s preparedness, decrease performance and increase injury risk. Poor methods and faulty logic do not allow for systematic scientific evaluations to support or inform guidelines.

Practical Solutions: Guidelines and mandates are developed through a systematic process, supported by research. To inform and support training load guidelines and mandates, improved research designs with clear research questions are required. Collaborating with statistical and epidemiological experts is essential. Another solution is implementing open science principles for all sport training load data and research to be freely shared and deposited in an open access repository, improving transparency.

Conclusion: Many current training load guidelines and mandates in sport come from good intentions; but are arbitrary without sound knowledge of the underlying scientific principles or methods. Without precise scientific enquiries, arbitrarily implementing training load interventions or guidelines can have implications for injury, performance and athlete development.