Intensity Classification of Drills for a Collegiate Women’s Lacrosse Team: An Observational Study

Abstract

Background: Balancing training load helps prevent injury and maximize performance, but coaches do not often know the load or intensity of drills when making selections for practice. Objective: This study aimed to classify the drills of a women’s collegiate lacrosse team into low, moderate, and high intensity categories. Methods: Twenty-five participants wore global positioning system (GPS) devices and heart rate (HR) monitors daily during team practice and scrimmage matches. The data collected was trimmed to reflect only the time the players practiced and then organized by drill. Mean HR, distance rate, and training impulse (TRIMP) scores were used to classify drills into tertiles: low, moderate, and high intensity. Results: A total of 56 unique drills were analyzed over 33 training days, with 24 drills considered moderate intensity, 17 drills were high intensity, and 15 drills were low intensity. By position, 17 drills were low intensity for the midfielders, followed by 16 for the attacker, and 12 for the defenders and goalies. The defenders had the highest number of moderate intensity drills with 27, followed by the attackers with 24, midfielders with 21, and goalies with 17. Lastly, midfielders and goalies had the highest number of high intensity drills with 18, followed by attackers with 17, and defenders with 16. Conclusions: These results will help the coaching and training staff manage workloads and potentially reduce risk of injury and overtraining by giving insight into the demands of each drill they require of their athletes.