Seasonal Variations of Haematological, Biochemical and Physical Performance Indices in Elite Beach Soccer Players abstract
Purpose: Haematological, hormonal, biochemical and physical performance parameters were altered after long-term soccer training in professional soccer players. These alterations can be influenced by different contextual factors such as playing surface, training load, duration of training and competition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in the haematological, inflammatory, antioxidant and physical performance of beach soccer players during the competitive season of the beach soccer. Method: The study examined 15 elite beach soccer players in Iranian beach soccer primer league (age 24.64 ± 4.01 y, weight 75.08 ± 8.15 kg, height 181.00 ± 5.17 cm, body mass index 22.76 ± 2.36) from the pre-season, mid-season and end-season. Measurements of haematological, inflammatory, antioxidants indices and aerobic / anaerobic power were repeated in the pre-season, mid-season and end-season. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine indicators change during league season. Results: Significant decrease in SOD (p = 0.001), TAC (p = 0.043) and anaerobic power (p ≤ 0.048) and significant increase in GPx (p = 0.001), ALT (p = 0.022) was observed from pre-season to the end of the season. LDH levels showed a significant increase in the mid-season compared to the pre-season (p = 0.042) and a significant decrease at the end of the season compared to the mid-season(p = 0.014). However, no significant changes were observed in other indices during the competition season(p ≥ 0.05). Conclusions: It is suggested that some physical and physiological fatigue markers ar increase during mid-season. Therefore, beach soccer players may be monitored continuously during the competition season in order to be able to provide the best training, nutrition and recovery systems for performance optimization. Coaches may use the interplay between biomarker alterations and physical performance changes to better manage workload and monitor fatigue during beach soccer training and competition.