Descrição:
The aims of this study was to compare the variation in physical capabilities in profession-al football players, stratifying the results by chronological age and identify the age-related peak performance.
The data presented here correspond to official matches from brazilian elite athletes (serie A).
Match performance data (N = 5,203 cases) were collected from 98 male professional football players belonging to the Brazilian First Division team during the 2020 to 2024 seasons. Data corresponding to 295 official matches from the five seasons were analyzed. The season (with the first official match) started in January and ended in November or December. Players were divided into four positions: Striker, Fullback, Winger, and Mid-field. Goalkeepers were excluded from this analysis due to the different nature of their movement pattern.
This study was approved by the São Judas Tadeu University Ethics Committee (Number 6.507.950). This is a retrospective study that assessed data from two seasons of an elite team in the first division of Brazilian football, and it complied with the ethical standards of the University and followed the guidelines of the Declaration of Hel-sinki.
Data collection instruments
The catapult system (VECTOR7) with global and local positioning system devices (GPS, GLONASS & SBAS 18Hz; LPS, Catapult ClearSky 10Hz) combined with inertial sensors such as accelerometer (3D +/- 16G; sampled at 1kHz, provided at 100Hz), gyro-scope (3D 2000 degrees/second @ 100Hz), and magnetometer (3D ±4900 µT @100Hz) were used to collect data for all games. All three inertial sensors collected data on acceleration, force, rotation, and body orientation.
The variables presente here are the following:
-Usinng Inertial Movement Analysis (IMA) method was used to access explosive efforts such as: (1) jumps (>40 cm), acceleration (-45 to 0, 0 to 45 degrees), deceleration (135 to 180, -180 to -135 degrees), change of direction (COD) to the left (-135 to -45 degrees) or to the right (45 to 135 degrees).
-In addition, the total explosive effort (the sum of the jump, acceleration, decelera-tion, and COD) was recorded as the IMA explosive effort. IMA was used to derive RHIE (Repeat High-Intensity Efforts: the player performed three explosive efforts in ≤ 60 sec-onds) and RHIE block recovery time (the amount of time to recover and perform another RHIE).
The intensity threshold of IMA event was set when the action occurs at > 3m/s2, thus characterizing an explosive action.
-The running distance producing metabolic power (W· kg−1) was also collected at different intensities (>20 and >55W· kg−1).
-The player load was collected as the sum of the accelerations of the tri-axial accelerometer.
-GPS methods were used to collect total distance (m), relative distance (m/min), running distance >20km/h (m), >25km/h (m), and >30km/h. In addition, the number of sprints (running >25 km/h) and the maximum speed (km/h) achieved during the match or training session were recorded.
-The team had six coaches throughout the seasons and used the following player po-sitions: Fullback, Striker, Winger, and Midfield. (2025-06-24)