Félix Romero

Introduction: The study is aimed to identify sociodemographic and professional characteristics related to the careers of former Portuguese football players. Methodology: The sample consisted of 84 Portuguese former players (48.8 ± 8.2 years old) with at least 8 years of professional experience, who finished their careers between 1988 and 2018. Quantitative data was collected from a validated semi-structure interview guide. Results and Discussion: Former Portuguese players had a career of 15.2 ± 3.1 years with more 6.4 ± 2.2 years of youth federated formation. Significant statistical differences were seen between former players with different competitive levels (t(71)=3.843; p=0.001) and international status (t(82)=-2.740; p=0.008). During their careers, 36% accomplish academic formation and 61.9% pursued technical education. Academic habilitation was statistically significant relationships with competitive level (χ2(1)=9.655; ρ=0.002) and international status (χ2(1)=6.930; ρ=0.008), unlike what happened with technical qualification (p>0.05). The majority of former players marry (83.3%) and have children during the career (82.2%). The divorce rate is 15%. Residential mobility is high (8.1 ± 5.55 years). The professional incomes were considered high or very high and 16.7% of former players developed addictions during their career. Conclusion: Former players with higher competitive levels and international status tend to have longer careers. Conversely, they tend to invest less in academic formation. The results reveals that the football career is brief and presents stress and risk factors, mainly at higher competitive levels. The findings contribute to a better understanding and discussion of the professional careers of former Portuguese football players.

Background/Objectives: Football players have a high injury risk due to the physical demands of their profession, which can negatively affect their quality of life (QoL) in the long term. The aim of this study is to characterize the severe injuries that former Portuguese football players suffered throughout their professional careers and investigate the resulting impacts on the physical domain of QoL after retirement. Methods: This study includes 84 former Portuguese football players (48.8 ± 8.2 years) who underwent reform between 1988 and 2018 and played in professional leagues (15.2 ± 3.2 years of career duration), namely, first division leagues (n = 43) and secondary division leagues (n = 41). Quantitative and qualitative interview data are used by a validated interview guide and from results of the physical domain obtained by the application of the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref). Results: Former players had 2.1 ± 1.5 severe injuries throughout their careers. The most common injuries involve the knee (47.5%) and foot/ankle (17.2%), with the anatomical area of the knee as the most likely to require surgical intervention (60%). The association between tactical-positional status and the incidence of severe injuries is significant, with defenders sustaining less severe injuries throughout their careers. This study found a statistically significant linear model (F(1.82) = 8.089, p < 0.006) that explains 7.9% of the variation in the physical domain of QoL (R2ajuste = 0.079). For each severe injury sustained throughout a career, there is an estimated decrease of 2.7 values in QoL perception in the physical domain. Conclusions: The higher the number of severe injuries sustained during a career, the lower the perception of QoL in the physical domain of former players in their post-career. These findings highlight the need to optimize training programs and injury prevention and recovery protocols for long-term QoL improvement in the physical domain of football players.

Background: The demands of playing professional football can have an impact on an individual’s quality of life (QoL), which may remain into retirement. Given limited evidence exists regarding the QoL in former football players, this study aimed to assess QoL among Portuguese former players according to career duration, career end period, competitive level, tactical-positional status, international status, academic qualifications, serious injuries in career, and current professional football connection. Methods: The study included 84 Portuguese former football players (48.8 ± 8.2 years old) who transitioned to retirement between 1988 and 2018. The WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was used to assess QoL perceptions, and the Portuguese version was validated. Results and Discussion: The former players have positive QoL indicators, both in general and across the four domains, namely in terms of the physical, psychological, and social relationship and environment. There were no statistically significant differences in QoL between the defined categories for career end period, competitive level, tactical-positional status, international status, and current professional football connection. Likewise, there was no significant correlation between QoL and career duration. In contrast, there were significant differences in general QoL (p < 0.023) and in the physical domain (p < 0.001) between former players with different academic qualifications. A significant correlation was found between the number of severe injuries sustained in a career and QoL in the physical domain (R = −0.300, p = 0.006). Conclusions: There are no concerning QoL results presented by former players. However, the number of severe injuries sustained during the career was associated with a lower QoL, while holding higher academic qualifications demonstrated higher general and physical QoL. Studies with larger samples should be conducted to confirm these trends.

Load management is an extremely important subject in fatigue control and adaptation processes in almost all sports. In Olympic Weightlifting (OW), two of the load variables are intensity and volume. However, it is not known if all exercises produce fatigue of the same magnitude. Thus, this study aimed to compare the fatigue prompted by the Clean and Jerk and the Snatch and their derivative exercises among male and female participants, respectively. We resorted to an experimental quantitative design in which fatigue was induced in adult individuals with weightlifting experience of at least two years through the execution of a set of 10 of the most used lifts and derivatives in OW (Snatch, Snatch Pull, Muscle Snatch, Power Snatch, and Back Squat; Clean and Jerk, Power Clean, Clean, High Hang Clean, and Hang Power Clean). Intensity and volume between exercises were equalized (four sets of three repetitions), after which one Snatch Pull test was performed where changes in velocity, range of motion, and mean power were assessed as fatigue measures. Nine women and twelve men participated in the study (age, 29.67 ± 5.74 years and 28.17 ± 5.06 years, respectively). The main results showed higher peak velocity values for the Snatch Pull test when compared with Power Snatch (p = 0.008; ES = 0.638), Snatch (p < 0.001; ES = 0.998), Snatch Pull (p < 0.001, ES = 0.906), and Back Squat (p < 0.001; ES = 0.906) while the differences between the Snatch Pull test and the derivatives of Clean and Jerk were almost nonexistent. It is concluded that there were differences in the induction of fatigue between most of the exercises analyzed and, therefore, coaches and athletes could improve the planning of training sessions by accounting for the fatigue induced by each lift.

The aim of the study was to quantify the individual player area (IPA) that emerges during football matches at youth levels, considering different numerical relations and pitch zones. Two hundred and twenty-eight players, divided by U15, U17 and U19, participated in the study. Jonckheete-Terpstra and Kruskal Wallis nonparametric tests were used to compare the IPA according to variations in players’ age, numerical relations and pitch zones considered for analysis. All ages and numerical relation results revealed the highest IPA in the zones closer to the goal and were lower in the middle of the pitch. For 3 × 3 to 10 × 10 numerical relations, the IPA was higher in the U15 and lower in the U17. The greater differences between the age groups concerned numerical relations of 6 × 6 to 10 × 10 (p ≤ 0.001). The effect size was moderate between the U15 and U17 in numerical relations of 8 × 8 to 10 × 10. Results suggest that the manipulation of IPA during training sessions should respect players’ age and be adjusted considering the numerical relation and the tactical purpose of coaches.

This study evaluates the effects of the use of backpack load and trekking poles on field track walking energy expenditure. Twenty male volunteer pole walkers (age: 22.70±2.89 years; body mass: 77.90±11.19 kg; height: 1.77±0.06 m; percentage of body fat: 14.6±6.0%) walked at a self-selected pace on a pedestrian field track over a period of more than six months. Each subject was examined at random based on four walking conditions: non-poles and non-load, with poles and non-load, non-poles and with load, with poles and with load. Heart rate, oxygen uptake and energy expenditure were continuously recorded by a portable telemetric system. Non-load walking speed was lower during walking with poles when compared with no poles (p≤0.05). Oxygen uptake, energy expenditure and heart rate varied significantly across different conditions. Our results suggest that the use of trekking poles does not influence energy expenditure when walking without an additional load, but it can have an effect during backpack load walking. Moreover, our results indicate that the use of trekking poles may not be helpful to lower the exertion perceived by the subjects when walking with an additional load.

Is the Portuguese Karate practice safe?

This study aims to describe the daily physical activity (PA) of a sample of adults over the course of 1 year and to examine if there are any changes in achieving PA recommendations when assessed at different periods of the year. Participants, 257 women (age: 58.99±18.93 years, BMI: 26.75±4.57 kg m⁻²) and 178 men (age: 49.22±20.39 years, BMI: 26.81±3.51 kg m⁻²), wore an accelerometer 4–7 days. Periods of data collection were defined as T1 (September to December), T2 (January to April) and T3 (May to July). From T1 and T2, men from 20 to 39 years significantly increased values of daily average ct.min⁻¹ (U=506, p=0.012), due to an increase in moderate‐to‐vigorous PA by 15.96 min (U=455, p=0.003). Achievement of the two PA recommendations varied throughout the year and among the gender/age groups. Results from this study showed that women generally maintain their level of PA throughout the year, whereas men show some variation, and that there are periods of the year when individuals are more likely to be involved in PA, or perform lower‐intensity activities, especially older age groups. Also, recommendations of minimum PA are not accomplished in a constant way throughout the year. PA interventions should be conducted while being mindful of the time of year in which they will take place in order to help maintain a consistent PA level throughout the year to ensure health benefits from PA.