Dissociations between coaches’ fatigue rating, athletes’ perceived fatigue, and objective training load

Abstract

Players’ fatigue after practice is an important indicator of the actual training status for the coach. However, fatigue is not a unitary construct; it has objective (physiological) and perceived (experiential) aspects, which are not necessarily strongly related. The present study aimed to assess the association between coaches’ and athletes’ perception of fatigue and objectively assessed training load (TL). Participants were 61 elite players of five sport teams of two sports (basketball and football) and their coaches. Players’ and coaches’ perception of fatigue and objective data on TL provided by the Polar Team Pro system was obtained for 276 practice sessions overall. The association between coaches’ and athletes’ fatigue rating was .43 ( p < .001), between coaches’ fatigue rating and TL was .5 ( p < .001), and between athletes’ fatigue rating and TL was .45 ( p < .001). Linear regression with TL as the criterion variable and coaches’ and athletes’ fatigue rating as predictor variables explained 32.8% of the total variance. As the discordance between coaches’ estimation of fatigue, athletes’ perceived fatigue, and objective TL appears substantial, coaches should always take into consideration the latter two indicators. Future research with a translational focus is needed to help coaches to find an optimal balance among various indicators of fatigue in the determination of the load for the subsequent training sessions.