Trial Review

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Trial registered on ANZCTR


Registration number
ACTRN12622000660785
Ethics application status
Approved
Date submitted
12/04/2022
Date registered
5/05/2022
Date last updated
5/05/2022
Date data sharing statement initially provided
5/05/2022
Type of registration
Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs
Public title
Determine the effectiveness of scientifically designed training programs for teenage athletes: Does this improve their fitness levels and reduce fatigue?
Scientific title
Managing the workloads of adolescent athletes: Do we need to periodise their training programs? A pilot study
Secondary ID [1] 306919 0
None
Universal Trial Number (UTN)
U1111-1277-1128
Trial acronym
Linked study record

Health condition
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:
Neuromuscular Function 326021 0
Wellbeing and Academic Stress 326022 0
Muscular Endurance 326023 0
Cardiovascular Endurance 326024 0
Muscular Strength 326025 0
Body Composition 326026 0
Condition category
Condition code
Injuries and Accidents 323329 323329 0 0
Other injuries and accidents
Public Health 323330 323330 0 0
Health promotion/education

Intervention/exposure
Study type
Interventional
Description of intervention(s) / exposure
Students attending Launceston Church Grammar School (LCGS) who play Australian Rules Football (ARF) or Soccer will be recruited to participate in an intervention study over a 10-week period that is proposed to occur as soon as Ethics Approval has been granted. Participants will be between 14 and 18 years of age (Grade 9 to 12) as that is the range of participants playing in the ARF or Soccer first teams at Launceston Grammar. It is expected that some participants will play at the school level only, some will play at the school and club level, and some participants will be state representatives for their specific age group. All participants will be part of the school's ARF or Soccer first team though. At the start of the 10-week data collection period, participants’ anthropometric measures will be taken, and six physical tests completed to determine baseline fitness and neuromuscular function levels. Participants will report their level of sports participation by completing a 2-question survey on the Teambuildr Strength and Conditioning Software (TeamBuildr, LLC). The questions will include:
1) How long have you been participating/training in ARF or Soccer?
2) At which level do you compete in ARF or Soccer? – with options including:
i) Socially only at school
ii) Competitively at school and club
iii) Development/State Representative
The participants will be randomly grouped into control and intervention groups, matched for age, physical characteristics, physical testing results, and the highest level they currently compete at in ARF or Soccer. The control group will complete their usual training program, led by LCGS coaches and Sports staff, while the intervention group will be provided with a 10-week periodised strength and conditioning training program with set weekly total distance and weekly high-speed running distance targets. The achievement of these targets will be monitored by collecting internal and external load data, with modifications made to the weekly training sessions to ensure individuals meet the required targets.

Participants will be provided with specific football or soccer activities and conditioning drills to complete during school football training sessions. This might include kick-passing drills where participants are required to kick the ball to a teammate and then run 50 meters to get to the next kicking position. Running/conditioning drills might include repeated sprint efforts where participants will complete sets of four to six repeated 50 to 60-meter sprint efforts, or longer but slower running efforts such as six by 200-meter running efforts.

Participants in the intervention group will be addressed both one-on-one and as a group during their scheduled school-based football or soccer training. Participants that need to perform additional training to meet their weekly training targets will be informed individually before the start of training and then addressed as a group during training.

The intensity of the exercises will depend on what the participants have completed in training during the week. For example, if participants have reached their high-intensity running distance targets for the week but still need to reach their total running distance target, then lower intensity exercises will be completed.

Participants will complete these extra sessions once a week during the Wednesday school football or soccer training sessions. The duration of these activities/sessions will vary depending on the distance required to be completed to reach the weekly targets, however, it is expected that these sessions will last between 10 to 20 minutes.

Both groups will provide internal workloads through reporting session-RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) load, while external workloads of all on-field training sessions and games will be measured using GPS tracking devices. Subjective wellbeing and academic stress, along with injury reporting will be monitored through the completion of a daily questionnaire developed elsewhere (McLean, Coutts, Kelly, McGuigan, & Cormack, 2010; Williams, Pendlebury, Thomas, & Smith, 2017). The participants will perform weekly neuromuscular function testing through the completion of a countermovement jump (CMJ) test. Participants will also complete the Behavioural Regulation of Sport Questionnaire (Clancy, Herring, & Campbell, 2017; Viladrich et al., 2013) pre-, during-, and post-intervention to determine any changes in motivation levels to participate in sports throughout the study. The six physical tests and anthropometric measures will be repeated after the 10-week intervention period to measure any changes in fitness levels, neuromuscular function, and body composition.
Intervention code [1] 323364 0
Treatment: Other
Comparator / control treatment
The control treatment involves not providing any program modification to the control group. That means the control group receives no treatment and will continue to perform or participate in their regular training routines.
Control group
Active

Outcomes
Primary outcome [1] 331065 0
Change in physical fitness characteristics as assessed by the six physical tests, which will include the sprint test, the 505 change of direction test, the countermovement jump test, the 1-minute push-up test, the 1-minute sit-up test, and the YoYo IR1 test.
Timepoint [1] 331065 0
10-weeks post the baseline fitness testing
Primary outcome [2] 331066 0
Change in neuromuscular function as assessed by countermovement jump test
Timepoint [2] 331066 0
Weekly countermovement jump test and after the 10-week intervention
Primary outcome [3] 331067 0
Changes in anthropometric characteristics will be assessed by measuring the changes in body mass index (BMI) which will be calculated by measuring the changes in body mass with digital scales and standing height with a portable stadiometer, changes in hip and waist circumferences measured with a measuring tape, and changes body fat percentage as estimated by measuring the sum of four skinfolds with a Harpenden calliper.
Timepoint [3] 331067 0
10-weeks post the baseline fitness testing
Secondary outcome [1] 408617 0
Primary outcome [4]: Change in wellbeing and academic stress which is a composite outcome. This is subjectively assessed through weekly completion of the subjective feeling of fatigue questionnaire developed by McLean et al. (2010) and adapted for this study, which assesses aspects of sleep quality, mood, stress, energy, muscle soreness, and academic stress on a 5-point Likert scale.
Timepoint [1] 408617 0
Primary outcome timepoint [4]: Weekly completion of the subjective wellbeing questionnaire

Eligibility
Key inclusion criteria
Students that are part of the Australian Rules Football boys' first team, Soccer boys' first team, or Soccer girls' first team at Launceston Grammar.
Successful completion of the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire for Everyone before partaking in the study.
Free of injury at the beginning of the trial.
Minimum age
14 Years
Maximum age
18 Years
Sex
Males
Can healthy volunteers participate?
Yes
Key exclusion criteria
Students that are not part of Launceston Grammar's boys' Australian Rules Football first team, boys' Soccer first team, or girls' Soccer first team.
Students under the age of 14.

Study design
Purpose of the study
Treatment
Allocation to intervention
Randomised controlled trial
Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)
Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)
Masking / blinding
Who is / are masked / blinded?



Intervention assignment
Other design features
Phase
Not Applicable
Type of endpoint/s
Statistical methods / analysis

Recruitment
Recruitment status
Not yet recruiting
Date of first participant enrolment
Anticipated
9/05/2022
Actual
Date of last participant enrolment
Anticipated
Actual
Date of last data collection
Anticipated
Actual
Sample size
Target
24
Accrual to date
Final
Recruitment in Australia
Recruitment state(s)
TAS

Funding & Sponsors
Funding source category [1] 311236 0
University
Name [1] 311236 0
University of Tasmania
Country [1] 311236 0
Australia
Primary sponsor type
University
Name
University of Tasmania
Address
Newnham Dr, Newnham TAS 7248
Country
Australia
Secondary sponsor category [1] 312595 0
None
Name [1] 312595 0
None
Address [1] 312595 0
None
Country [1] 312595 0

Ethics approval
Ethics application status
Approved
Ethics committee name [1] 310752 0
The University of Tasmania Human Research Ethics Committee
Ethics committee address [1] 310752 0
Office of Research Services
Private Bag 1
Hobart TAS 7001
Ethics committee country [1] 310752 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [1] 310752 0
01/04/2022
Approval date [1] 310752 0
22/04/2022
Ethics approval number [1] 310752 0

Summary
Brief summary
This trial aims to monitor and manage the workloads of adolescent athletes that participate in ARF or Soccer while observing the effects of these workloads on neuromuscular function and wellbeing. Using a parallel-group study design, we aim to investigate the effects that a periodised training program has on the physical performance, fatigue levels, and wellbeing of adolescent athletes attending Launceston Church Grammar School (Intervention group), compared to a Control group following their usual training programs. The findings of this research could be used to improve the periodisation of training programs for adolescent ARF or Soccer players and assist the development and transitioning of these adolescent athletes into elite adult ARF or Soccer athletes. Furthermore, the findings may assist in monitoring and managing future workloads of adolescent ARF or Soccer athletes through accurately altering weekly or daily training loads to ensure a safe workload ratio is maintained to maximise physiological adaptation. We hypothesise that participants following the periodised training program (intervention group) will display greater improvements in physical performance, reduced neuromuscular fatigue, and improved wellbeing compared to participants following their own training program (control group).
Trial website
Trial related presentations / publications
Public notes

Contacts
Principal investigator
Name 118742 0
Dr Nathan Pitchford
Address 118742 0
The University of Tasmania,
Newnham Dr, Newnham TAS 7248
Country 118742 0
Australia
Phone 118742 0
+61 03 6324 3245
Fax 118742 0
Email 118742 0
nathan.pitchford@utas.edu.au
Contact person for public queries
Name 118743 0
Dr Nathan Pitchford
Address 118743 0
The University of Tasmania,
Newnham Dr, Newnham TAS 7248
Country 118743 0
Australia
Phone 118743 0
+61 03 6324 3245
Fax 118743 0
Email 118743 0
nathan.pitchford@utas.edu.au
Contact person for scientific queries
Name 118744 0
Dr Nathan Pitchford
Address 118744 0
The University of Tasmania,
Newnham Dr, Newnham TAS 7248
Country 118744 0
Australia
Phone 118744 0
+61 03 6324 3245
Fax 118744 0
Email 118744 0
nathan.pitchford@utas.edu.au

Data sharing statement
Will individual participant data (IPD) for this trial be available (including data dictionaries)?
No
No/undecided IPD sharing reason/comment
To ensure participant identity remains anonymous, individual data will not be shared. Instead, overall group findings will be available at the completion of this trial and may be requested of the researchers.


What supporting documents are/will be available?

Doc. No.TypeCitationLinkEmailOther DetailsAttachment
15758Study protocol  theunis.pieters@utas.edu.au
15759Informed consent form  theunis.pieters@utas.edu.au
15760Other  theunis.pieters@utas.edu.au Participant information sheet, Participant FAQ she... [More Details]



Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually
No documents have been uploaded by study researchers.

Documents added automatically
No additional documents have been identified.