Establishing a Duration Standard for the Calculation of Session Rating of Perceived Exertion in Ncaa Division I Men’s Soccer

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the best predictor of training and/or match load using session RPE. Design and Methods: 20 NCAA DI male soccer players participated in the study during the 2014 and 2015 competitive seasons. Players completed 15.20 ± 1.05 matches for a total of 304 individual data points and 29.90 ± 1.89. training sessions for a total of 598 individual data points. GPS variables (total distance, High-intensity running distance, and Player load) were analyzed with session RPE using Pearson product-moment correlations. To evaluate various methods of session RPE, “match duration” was recorded using eight different definitions: total match duration including warm-up and half-time, total match duration and warm-up, total match duration and half-time, total match duration only, minutes played including warm-up and half-time, minutes played and warm-up, minutes played and half-time, and minutes played only. A one-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to determine if differences existed between the eight session RPE calculations. Results: Results from the ANOVA showed that all session RPE measures were significantly different from one another (P \u3c 0.05). Very large correlations were reported between session RPE calculated using minutes played and total distance (0.81), while session RPE calculated using match duration showed less magnitude (0.57). Conclusions: Minutes played should be used to calculate session RPE as it was found to most closely reflect the actual workloads incurred during competitive matches