Differences in Soccer Heading Injuries between Male and Female Soccer Players May Be Due to Equal Ball Weight Causing Differences in Relative Impacts

The road to excellence in women's football: a retrospective cohort study over the last 30 years with Swiss national players

OBJECTIVES

This study examines the training (age at club entry, hours in club practice, free play, other sports) and environmental characteristics (popularity, media coverage, school and parental support) influencing the development of female Swiss national team players in elite football over a three-decade period.

METHODS

A retrospective questionnaire was completed by 84 participants, who were divided into three cohorts based on their first game with the Swiss national team (C1 = until 2000, n = 24; C2 = 2001-2010, n = 29; C3 = 2011-2022, n = 31). ANOVAs were employed to compare the cohorts regarding training and environmental variables.

RESULTS

The findings demonstrate better perceived environmental conditions, stagnating volume of free play and other sports in childhood, decreasing age at club entry, and increasing club practice and total training volume across cohorts.

CONCLUSION

Practical implications highlight talent development avenues in unstructured settings during free time and in the micro-structure of club practice.

Scaling Demands of Soccer According to Anthropometric and Physiological Sex Differences: A Fairer Comparison of Men's and Women's Soccer

Spectators frequently harass female soccer players, and women’s soccer is frequently compared negatively to men’s soccer by writers who make the comparison without the backing of any data and without taking into account anthropometric and physiological differences between the sexes. This affects female soccer players’ self-confidence negatively and contributes to an undeservedly negative image of women’s soccer. In the present paper, we argue that most differences between men’s and women’s soccer can be explained by women having to adapt to rules and regulations that are suited for men and their physical attributes. Thus, games are much more demanding for women. Furthermore, we argue that if men had to play with a degree of adaptation similar to that which women do today, they would have to alter their style of play radically. As support for our argument, we scale game demands for male and female soccer players according to anthropometric and physiological differences in order to highlight the differences, and use these to predict what would be the most appropriate adaptations. Finally, we show that our predictions are largely supported by the scarce pool of comparable data across the sexes.