Session and drill-specific physical characteristics of youth women's football training

This study quantified and compared session and drill-specific physical characteristics between U10, U12, U14 and U16 youth women’s footballers. Data was collected during 80 training sessions using 10Hz GPS, totalling 825 training observations and 2,298 drill-specific observations from 116 players representing two of The English Football Association’s Emerging Talent Centres. Linear mixed modelling estimated session and drill-specific; total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR; >3.00 m∙s-1), very high-speed running (VHSR; >4.83 m∙s-1) and sprinting (SPR; >5.76 m∙s-1) distances (m), maximum velocity (m∙s-1), and number of accelerations and decelerations (>1 m∙s-2, >2 m∙s-2, >3 m∙s-2). During sessions, U16s covered more TD than U14s, whilst both U14s and U16s covered greater HSR, VHSR and SPR distances compared to U10s and U12s, and U10s performed more accelerations (>1 m∙s-2) than U12s and U14s, and more decelerations (>1 m∙s-2) than all other age-groups. All age-groups had higher physical outputs during SSGs compared to possession and technical drills. Differences in session physical characteristics observed between age-groups, and between and within age-groups for drill-specific physical characteristics, highlight that physical characteristics during training are age- and drill-dependent within youth women’s football. These findings have practical implications for informing coaching and talent development practices within youth women’s football.