Data Comparison between Elitè and Amateur soccer players by 20 Hz GPS data collection

Abstract: The athletic component in football is nowadays one of the most important factor to determinate the performance. This consideration is part of our study, which aims to evaluate and quantify the difference between the workload of an amateur footballer and an elite one. All this is allowed by match analysis made by GPS evaluation method for amateur and video tracking for elite. The examined teams were playing in 7th Italian league, and we used 10 GPS to track 6 games, 5 for each team. For every team and every game were analysed a forward, a central midfielder, a wide midfielder, a central defender and a full back (Age 25.3 ± 4.2, Weight 74.5 Kg ± 5.3, Height 1.76 cm ± 5.2). In our study, we used a 20 Hz GPS (thanks to Advanced Research Group in Sport, School of Health and Sport Science with K-Sport Universal, Italy) to detect performance data, and then we compared the outcome with matches performance data from elite players gather from scientific literature. Data analysis shows that elite players reach higher values in almost all parameters taken into account. In particular, they obtained higher value in meters per minutes, High Speed Distance (> 16 Km/h), High Metabolic Power Distance (> 20 W/Kg) and in high and very high and acceleration (2 m/s, 3 m/s, > 3 m/s) and deceleration (-2 m/s, -3 m/s, > -3 m/s). This study can be useful to select and catalogue player performance model, in order to better understand the real value of a player, and to help coaches and teams to identify talent, at least in physical values.