ABSTRACT
Due to the length of the game, aerobic metabolism is the main energy source in soccer (Stølen et al., 2005). Although episodes of anaerobic effort occur on a smaller scale during the game, they play a decisive role in performance and can make the difference between winning and losing a game (Reilly, 2007). Total distance covered in youth soccer matches ranged from 5715–7672 m, and high-intensity distance was 1713 m in U12 and 2481 m in U16 (Harley et al., 2010). In addition, elite athletes performed more high-intensity running episodes during a match (Mohr et al., 2003) compared to their non-elite peers. Variation in physical and functional characteristics of young soccer players by position is not well documented and the literature does not systematically control for variation in body size when profiling players by field position. This study aims to examine variation of Peak Power (WAnT) by position before and after normalizing for body size.
