Science and football V: the proceedings of the 5th World Congress on Science and Football.

Edited by Thomas Reilly, Jan Cabri and Duarte Araújo.
Published by Routledge, 2005, pp 634.
ISBN: 978-0-415-48480-0 (paperback); 978-0-415-33337-5 (hardback); 978-0-203-41299-2 (electronic)

Target: Football elite and sub-elite sport science support

Appeal: Broad coverage necessary components sport science. As a sports physician it is not primarily targeted for me and so although it had components of interest, I would not personally purchase

In recent years, sport has by necessity evolved in many facets. Financial rewards have boomed. Information systems have fuelled intense exposure and scrutiny. Doping issues have come under intense publicity and accountability. All this intensifies need for sports to seek ethical advantage with evidence based front line measures.

To fulfill these demands is the immense expectation in sport science seeking that gain an edge in coaching, conditioning and medicine. To achieve this requires sport support services to be reliably informed. This is critical at the elite level to ensure peer parity and at the sub-elite level to provide exposure to elite concepts and portability to sub-elite programs as is practicable.

“Science and Football V: the proceedings of the 5th World Congress on Science and Football” is geared for sports science (conditioning and skill acquisition) rather than primarily sports medicine. It is ideal for coaching staff and strength and conditioning staff. Content is of sound background content for football medical support staff.

Authors are from a wide range of geographic national backgrounds, with strong emphasis on university sport science departments with particular interest in soccer reflecting its international predominance—but representing all codes. Content includes sections on biomechanics, fitness profiling, performance analysis, a small section on medical aspects, football conditioning, physiology and nutrition, paediatric issues and behavioural science.

Topics include coverage of those perennial “footballs”—stretching modes and benefits and relation to injury, warm-up, micronutrient levels and effect of diet and supplementation.

I believe this publication does deliver sound depth and a range of contemporary football sport science for coaching and conditioning support staff, as a summary for those fortunate enough to attend the conference, and as a reference for those particularly involved at the elite level of conditioning for high level teams. For those involved in sub-elite levels it provides an excellent insight into elite performance as a means of extracting ideas into the non-professional level.

Reviewer
P Baquie
Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre,
Melbourne
Victoria
Australia

Analysis
Presentation 5
Comprehensiveness 5
Readability 5
Relevance 4
Evidence base 4