Files and links (1)
morrison-et-al-2025-longitudinal-changes-in-strength-power-speed-and-body-mass-in-american-football-players-diminishing1.31 MB
Published Version (Advanced Access)CC BY-NC V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Longitudinal changes in strength, power, speed, and body mass in American football players: Diminishing returns as training age increases
International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, Vol.Advanced access
2025
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
The aims of this study were to: 1) detail the strength, power, speed, and body mass (i.e. physical qualities) of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 American football players by playing position across a four-year collegiate career, and 2) quantify the rate of change in physical qualities as athletes progress through their eligibility period. 2628 observations from 512 NCAA Division 1 American football players were collected during a standardised testing battery that took place across a 15-year period. One-repetition maximum bench press and back squat, 40-yard sprint, vertical jump, standing broad jump, and body mass were analyzed. Year-on-year changes in physical characteristics by the entire cohort and positional groups were analyzed using linear mixed models with Cohen's effect size (ES) ± 95% confidence intervals (CI). Improvements in physical qualities occurred over the four years, although the largest changes were evident in the first year, with the improvements becoming less pronounced each year. For example, across the cohort, large effects in the bench press (ES ±95%CI: 1.63 ± 0.18) and back squat (ES ±95%CI: 1.62 ± 0.18) occurred in the first year but only small changes occurred between years 3 and 4 (ES ±95%CI: 0.45 ± 0.16 and 0.26 ± 0.16, respectively). Collectively, this study demonstrates the longitudinal changes in strength, power, speed, and body mass of collegiate Division 1 American football players across different positional groups. Furthermore, it shows that physical qualities improve throughout the four years, but the year-on-year change becomes smaller each year and therefore suggests physical qualities become harder to increase/improve.
Details
- Title
- Longitudinal changes in strength, power, speed, and body mass in American football players: Diminishing returns as training age increases
- Authors
- Matthew Morrison (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems ScienceJ. Bryan Mann - Texas A&M UniversityDale B Read - Leeds Beckett UniversityFraser Thurlow - Australian Catholic UniversityNicholas Cowley - Australian Catholic UniversityKade Silverthorne - Australian Catholic UniversityEric McMahon - National Strength and Conditioning Association (United States)Jonathon Weakley - Australian Catholic University
- Publication details
- International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, Vol.Advanced access
- Publisher
- Sage Publications Ltd.
- DOI
- 10.1177/17479541251367154
- ISSN
- 2048-397X; 1747-9541
- Copyright note
- © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
- Data Availability
- The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study can be made available by the corresponding author on reasonable request.
- Organisation Unit
- Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science; School of Health - Sports & Exercise Science
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991155440102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
32 Record Views