The Effectiveness of Different Training Methods in Soccer for Repeated Sprint Ability: A Brief Review

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature on the effect of exercise programs on the Repeated Sprint Ability (RSA) performance of soccer players. PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were searched for original research articles. The inclusion criteria for a study were to include different groups of intervention in soccer players and present the protocol’s characteristics and the study’s results. Twenty-one (21) studies met the criteria. For each study, the effect size (ES) and 95% confidential interval (CI) were calculated and evaluated as trivial, small, moderate or large. The results showed that in adults, the various programs showed from trivial (e.g., ES 0.185; 95% CI ± 0.089) to large beneficial effects (ES 2.92; 95% CI ± 0.29). At developmental ages, the beneficial effect was from trivial to moderate (ES 0.163; 95% CI ± 0.174, ES 0.787; 95% CI ± 0.074). Concerning the interventional programs, studies carried out by sprint and Small-Sided Games (SSG) interventions presented a large ES, while studies that carried out RSA exercises presented moderate ES. A variety of stimuli can improve the RSA performance of soccer players by causing trivial-to-large improvements. However, more effective are interventional exercises that include stimuli related to repeated sprint ability.