Differences in player position running velocity at lactate thresholds among male professional German soccer players

This study investigated the differences in running velocities at specific lactate thresholds among male German soccer players. One hundred fifty-two professional (3rd league: n=82; 4th league: n=70) male soccer players (mean {+/-} SD; age: 24.7 {+/-} 4.38 years, body mass: 80.7 {+/-} 7.36 kg, body height: 1.83 {+/-} 0.06 m) volunteered for the investigation. Players were categorized as goalkeepers, central defenders, central midfielders, wings and forwards. Players completed a treadmill test, at incremental speeds, to determine running velocity at different blood lactate concentrations (v2=2 mmol/l; v4=4 mmol/l; v6=6 mmol/l). Results indicate that, wings displayed the lowest body mass (76.2 {+/-} 6.08 kg) and body height (1.79 {+/-} 0.06 m). In contrast, goalkeepers were the tallest athletes in the whole sample (1.90 {+/-} 0.03 m), forwards were the heaviest players (85.4 {+/-} 6.03 kg). In addition, we detected the largest difference between positions for running velocity at the lactate threshold v2 (p=0.002). The running data revealed that only the goalkeepers had significantly lower velocities at the lactate thresholds compared to the field players. The central midfielders showed the highest performance level at the lactate thresholds (v2: 12.5 {+/-} 1.20 km/h; v4: 15.2 {+/-} 1.14 km/h; v6: 16.6 {+/-} 1.13 km/h). In conclusion, this study provides soccer and position-specific reference data for the performance of male professional German soccer players in order to evaluate the running performance in a valid way. In this context, it is necessary to extend the database for the second and first league. Furthermore, it is important to assess the running performance during competition matches over the entire season in order to validate the endurance test performance data.