Edinburgh Napier University

  This research project will be embedded within the daily practices of a professional football club at both senior and academy level. The aim of this project will be to bring objectivity and scientific rigor to an existing, in-house, physical profiling protocol encompassing a series of football-specific outcome measures. Following a review of the literature to verify the rationale for the inclusion of each of the protocol’s components, empirically, the objectives of this programme of study will be to establish the validity and reliability of the included outcome measures. Subsequently, positional-specific normative data for each of the outcome measures will be developed. Data will be collected across the developmental and professional pathway to provide an age/maturation and positional-specific physical profile of elite football players.
Key to the success of this project will be the day-to-day delivery of sport science support, strength and conditioning and monitoring of academy and professional players to build relationships, collect data and manage physical profiling databases/visualisation.