Monitoring player fitness, fatigue status and running performance during an in-season training camp in elite Gaelic football

Objectives: To examine selected perceptual and physiological measures to monitor fitness, fatigue and running performance during an in-season training camp in elite Gaelic football. Methods: Twenty-two elite Gaelic football players were monitored for training load, perceived ratings of wellness, heart rate variability (HRV; LnSD1), heart rate recovery (HRR), exercise heart rate (HRex), lower limb muscular power (CMJ) and global positioning system (GPS) variables. The Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 (Yo-YoIR1) was assessed pre and post the training camp. With specific small-sided games (SSG) used as a measure of running performance.  Results: During the camp, HRex decreased (−12.2%), HRR increased (+10.3%), CMJ decreased (−8.1%) and pretraining LnSD1 (+14.1%) increased during the camp period. Yo-YoIR1 performance (+19.7%), total distance (TD) (+9.4%), high-speed distance (HSD) (+12.1%) and sprint distance (SPD) (+5.8%) within SSG improved as the camp progressed. Δ HRex and Δ HRR were correlated with Δ Yo-YoIR1 (r = 0.64;–0.55), ΔHSD (r = 0.44; −0.58) and Δ SPD (r = 0.58; −0.52).There were large correlations between Δ wellness and Δ Yo-YoIR1 (r = 0.71), Δ TD (r = 0.68) and Δ SPD (r = 0.68).  Conclusions: Daily variations in training load measures across the camp period were shown to systematically impact player’s physiological, performance and wellness measures.