• Corpus ID: 55932592

Aerobic Fitness Relation to Match Performance of Japanese Soccer Referees

@inproceedings{Ishihara2015AerobicFR,
  title={Aerobic Fitness Relation to Match Performance of Japanese Soccer Referees},
  author={Yoshihiko Ishihara and Hisashi Naito and Hayao Ozaki and Masafumi Yoshimura},
  year={2015}
}

• Yoshihiko Ishihara, H. Naito, +1 author Masafumi Yoshimura
• Published 2015
• Education

Soccer referees enforce the game rules. They are responsible for controlling player behaviour during match play (Castagna et al., 2007). Therefore, they are obliged to be in the best position to view a play by keeping up with players and making appropriate decisions (Weston et al., 2010, 2012). Recent reports have described that the risk of incorrect decisions was lowest when the distance from a foul was as short as 11–15 m (Mallo et al., 2012). The mean distance from a foul during a match (i.e., 15 m) coincides with this suggested distance (Krustrup & Bangsbo 2001; Krustrup et al., 2009; Weston et al., 2010, 2011a). To be within an appropriate distance from foul plays, referees must demonstrate and maintain a high level of aerobic fitness. For example, soccer referees cover 10–12 km during a match, with 10–20 % of it covered by high-intensity running (HIR ≥ 15 km·h-1) (Krustrup & Bangsbo 2001; Krustrup et al., 2009; Weston et al., 2012). These match activity profiles are similar to those required of players (Castagna et al., 2007; Weston et al., 2011b). Especially, the distance covered at HIR has been regarded as an important requisite for referees, given the intermittent nature of soccer (Krustrup & Bangsbo 2001; Krustrup et al., 2009). Previous studies have demonstrated that, for experienced Italian elite-level referees, both the maximal oxygen uptake (V 4 O2max) and running speed at blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol·L-1 (onset of blood lactate accumulation; OBLA) are correlated with the total distance covered. Actually, V 4 O2max is regarded as a slightly better predictor of the total distance than OBLA is (Castagna et al., 2002; Castagna & D'Ottavio 2001). Neither V 4 O2max nor the speed at OBLA (s-OBLA) is correlated with the distance covered at HIR. For these studies, however, video images were used to calculate running speeds. Consequently, the accuracy might be limited. Therefore, further investigations of the correlation between the aerobic fitness parameters (V 4 O2max Aerobic Fitness Relation to Match Performance of Japanese Soccer Referees