Bozzini, Brittany. Athlete-monitoring to assess performance, biomarker responses, and training load in female collegiate athletes. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-c1gs-9h28
DescriptionNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sports face unique challenges to success. Unlike their professional counterparts, collegiate athletes experience the stress of the sport coupled with academic demands, frequent travel, and other additional stressors that coaches and training staff must account for when assessing the training and recovery needs of their athletes. Therefore, athlete-monitoring methods that can be used to evaluate an athlete’s capabilities and limitations, determine adaptations to a training program, and assess fatigue status become crucial in order to optimize performance and decrease injury risk, especially in the collegiate setting. In addition female athletes are at an increased-risk for certain hormonal-related issues due to their sex that may have long-term impacts on performance and overall health. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to provide insight into the use of athlete-monitoring methods for the female athlete in order to optimize performance and health. In addition, this dissertation seeks to evaluate and characterize training loads, performance, and biomarkers throughout the competitive season in NCAA women’s soccer and beach volleyball teams.