Open Access
Open access
volume 52 issue 4 pages 933-948

Training During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices of 12,526 Athletes from 142 Countries and Six Continents

Jad Adrian Washif 1
Abdulaziz Farooq 2
Isabel Krug 3
D. B. Pyne 4
LEE A. TAYLOR 6, 7, 8
Del P. Wong 9
Iñigo Mujika 10, 11
Cristina Cortis 12
Monoem Haddad 13
Omid Ahmadian 14
Mahmood Al Jufaili 15
Ramzi A. Al-Horani 16
Abdulla Al-Mohannadi 17
J. Steinacker 18, 19
Achraf Ammar 20, 21
Fitim Arifi 22, 23
Abdul Rashid Aziz 24
Mikhail Batuev 25
C Martyn Beaven 26
Ralph Beneke 27
Arben Bici 28
Pallawi Bishnoi 29
Lone Bogwasi 30, 31, 32
Daniel Bok 33
Omar Boukhris 18, 34
Daniel A. Boullosa 35, 36
João Brito 38
Roxana Paola Palacios Cartagena 39
Anis Chaouachi 40, 41
Stephen CW Cheung 42
H. Chtourou 18, 34
Germina Alina Cosma 43
Tadej Debevec 44, 45
Matthew D. DeLang 46
Dellal Alexandre 47, 48
Gürhan Dönmez 49
Tarak Driss 21
Juan David Peña Duque 50
Cristiano Eirale 51
Mohamed Elloumi 52
Carl Foster 53
Andrea Fusco 12
OLIVIER GALY 55
P. Gastin 56
Nicholas Gill 26, 57
OLIVIER GIRARD 58
Cvita Gregov 33
Shona Halson 59
Omar Hammouda 60, 61
Ivana Hanzlíková 26
Bahar Hassanmirzaei 62, 63
Thomas Haugen 64
Kim Hébert-Losier 26
Hussein Muñoz Helú 65
Louis J. Holtzhausen 2, 32, 68, 69
Olivier Hue 70
ANTONIO DELLO IACONO 71
Johanna K. Ihalainen 72
Carl A James 1
Saju Joseph 74
Karim Kamoun 40
Mehdi Khaled 75
Karim Khalladi 2
Kwang Joon Kim 76
LIAN-YEE KOK 77
Lewis MacMillan 78
Leonardo Mataruna 79, 80, 81
Ryo Matsunaga 82, 83
Shpresa Memishi 84
DANLADI I. MUSA 86
Hoàng Minh Thuận Nguyễn 87
Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis 88
Adam Owen 89, 90
J. Padulo 91
Jeffrey Cayaban Pagaduan 92
Nirmala K.P. Perera 93, 94, 95
L Pillay 32, 97
Arporn Popa 98
Avishkar Pudasaini 99
Alireza Rabbani 100
Tandiyo Rahayu 101
Mohamed Romdhani 18
Paul Salamh 102
Abu-Sufian Sarkar 103
Andy Schillinger 104
Stephen K Seiler 105
Heny Setyawati 101
Navina Shrestha 99, 106
Fatona Suraya 101
Montassar Tabben 2
Khaled Trabelsi 34, 107
Axel Urhausen 108, 109, 110
Maarit Valtonen 111
Johanna Weber 112, 113
Rod Whiteley 2, 114
Adel Zrane 115, 116, 117
Yacine Zerguini 118, 119
Piotr Żmijewski 120
ØYVIND SANDBAKK 121
Helmi Ben Saad 122, 123
Karim Chamari 2
1
 
Sports Performance Division, Institut Sukan Negara Malaysia (National Sports Institute of Malaysia), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
14
 
Medical Committee of Tehran Football Association, Tehran, Iran
18
 
Physical Activity, Sport & Health Research Unit (UR18JS01), National Sport Observatory, Tunis, Tunisia
22
 
Physical Culture, Sports and Recreation, College Universi, Pristina, Kosovo
24
 
Sport Science and Sport Medicine, Singapore Sport Institute, Sport Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
29
 
Physiotherapy Department, Minerva Punjab Academy and Football Club, Mohali, India
30
 
Department of Orthopedics, Nyangabgwe Hospital, Francistown, Botswana
31
 
Botswana Football Association Medical Committee, Gaborone, Botswana
38
 
Portugal Football School, Portuguese Football Federation, Oeiras, Portugal
40
 
Tunisian Research Laboratory, Sport Performance Optimisation, National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports (CNMSS), Tunis, Tunisia
46
 
Right to Dream Academy, Old Akrade, Ghana
47
 
Sport Science and Research Department, Centre Orthopédique Santy, FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Lyon, France
50
 
Al Hilal Football Club, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
51
 
Paris Saint Germain FC, Paris, France
55
 
Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Research in Education, EA 7483, University of New Caledonia, Nouméa, New Caledonia
57
 
New Zealand All Blacks, New Zealand Rugby, Wellington, New Zealand
63
 
Iran Football Medical Assessments and Rehabilitation Center, IFMARC, Tehran, Iran
64
 
School of Health Sciences, Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway
65
 
Department of Economic-Administrative Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Occidente, Los Mochis, México
68
 
Weil-Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Doha, Qatar
73
 
Medical Board Member, International Netball Federation, Manchester, UK
74
 
High Performance Director, Sports Authority of India, Bangalore, India
75
 
SEHA, Singapore, Singapore
78
 
Sport Science Department, Fulham Football Club, Fulham, London, UK
80
 
Department of Sport Management, Faculty of Management, Canadian University of Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
82
 
Antlers Sports Clinic, Kashima, Japan
87
 
Ho Chi Minh City University of Sport, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
90
 
Seattle Sounders Football Club, Seattle, USA
93
 
Sports Medicine, Australian Institute of Sport, Bruce, Australia
99
 
Medical Department, All Nepal Football Association (ANFA), Lalitpur, Nepal
102
 
Krannert School of Physical Therapy, University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, USA
103
 
Bashundhara Kings, Nilphamari, Bangladesh
104
 
Miskawaan Health Group, Bangkok, Thailand
106
 
Physiotherapy Department, BP Eyes Foundation CHEERS Hospital, Bhaktapur, Nepal
109
 
Luxembourg Institute of Research in Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and Science, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
111
 
Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Jyvaskyla, Finland
112
 
Institute for Sports Science, CAU of Kiel, Kiel, Germany
117
 
High Institute of Sports, Tunis, Tunisia
118
 
FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence Algiers, Algiers, Algeria
119
 
Medical Committee, Confederation of African Football, Giza, Egypt
Publication typeJournal Article
Publication date2021-10-23
scimago Q1
wos Q1
SJR3.887
CiteScore19.1
Impact factor9.4
ISSN01121642, 11792035
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
Abstract
Our objective was to explore the training-related knowledge, beliefs, and practices of athletes and the influence of lockdowns in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Athletes (n = 12,526, comprising 13% world class, 21% international, 36% national, 24% state, and 6% recreational) completed an online survey that was available from 17 May to 5 July 2020 and explored their training behaviors (training knowledge, beliefs/attitudes, and practices), including specific questions on their training intensity, frequency, and session duration before and during lockdown (March–June 2020). Overall, 85% of athletes wanted to “maintain training,” and 79% disagreed with the statement that it is “okay to not train during lockdown,” with a greater prevalence for both in higher-level athletes. In total, 60% of athletes considered “coaching by correspondence (remote coaching)” to be sufficient (highest amongst world-class athletes). During lockdown, < 40% were able to maintain sport-specific training (e.g., long endurance [39%], interval training [35%], weightlifting [33%], plyometric exercise [30%]) at pre-lockdown levels (higher among world-class, international, and national athletes), with most (83%) training for “general fitness and health maintenance” during lockdown. Athletes trained alone (80%) and focused on bodyweight (65%) and cardiovascular (59%) exercise/training during lockdown. Compared with before lockdown, most athletes reported reduced training frequency (from between five and seven sessions per week to four or fewer), shorter training sessions (from ≥ 60 to < 60 min), and lower sport-specific intensity (~ 38% reduction), irrespective of athlete classification. COVID-19-related lockdowns saw marked reductions in athletic training specificity, intensity, frequency, and duration, with notable within-sample differences (by athlete classification). Higher classification athletes had the strongest desire to “maintain” training and the greatest opposition to “not training” during lockdowns. These higher classification athletes retained training specificity to a greater degree than others, probably because of preferential access to limited training resources. More higher classification athletes considered “coaching by correspondence” as sufficient than did lower classification athletes. These lockdown-mediated changes in training were not conducive to maintenance or progression of athletes’ physical capacities and were also likely detrimental to athletes’ mental health. These data can be used by policy makers, athletes, and their multidisciplinary teams to modulate their practice, with a degree of individualization, in the current and continued pandemic-related scenario. Furthermore, the data may drive training-related educational resources for athletes and their multidisciplinary teams. Such upskilling would provide athletes with evidence to inform their training modifications in response to germane situations (e.g., COVID related, injury, and illness).
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Washif J. A. et al. Training During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices of 12,526 Athletes from 142 Countries and Six Continents // Sports Medicine. 2021. Vol. 52. No. 4. pp. 933-948.
GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy
Washif J. A. et al. Training During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices of 12,526 Athletes from 142 Countries and Six Continents // Sports Medicine. 2021. Vol. 52. No. 4. pp. 933-948.
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BibTex (up to 50 authors) Copy
@article{2021_Washif,
author = {Jad Adrian Washif and Abdulaziz Farooq and Isabel Krug and D. B. Pyne and Evert Verhagen and LEE A. TAYLOR and Del P. Wong and Iñigo Mujika and Cristina Cortis and Monoem Haddad and Omid Ahmadian and Mahmood Al Jufaili and Ramzi A. Al-Horani and Abdulla Al-Mohannadi and J. Steinacker and Achraf Ammar and Fitim Arifi and Abdul Rashid Aziz and Mikhail Batuev and C Martyn Beaven and Ralph Beneke and Arben Bici and Pallawi Bishnoi and Lone Bogwasi and Daniel Bok and Omar Boukhris and Daniel A. Boullosa and Nicola L Bragazzi and João Brito and Roxana Paola Palacios Cartagena and Anis Chaouachi and Stephen CW Cheung and H. Chtourou and Germina Alina Cosma and Tadej Debevec and Matthew D. DeLang and Dellal Alexandre and Gürhan Dönmez and Tarak Driss and Juan David Peña Duque and Cristiano Eirale and Mohamed Elloumi and Carl Foster and Emerson Franchini and Andrea Fusco and OLIVIER GALY and P. Gastin and Nicholas Gill and OLIVIER GIRARD and Cvita Gregov and others},
title = {Training During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices of 12,526 Athletes from 142 Countries and Six Continents},
journal = {Sports Medicine},
year = {2021},
volume = {52},
publisher = {Springer Nature},
month = {oct},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01573-z},
number = {4},
pages = {933--948},
doi = {10.1007/s40279-021-01573-z}
}
MLA
Cite this
MLA Copy
Washif, Jad Adrian, et al. “Training During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices of 12,526 Athletes from 142 Countries and Six Continents.” Sports Medicine, vol. 52, no. 4, Oct. 2021, pp. 933-948. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01573-z.