RONAN KAVANAGH, DR. RYLAND MORGANS, DR. JILL ALEXANDER

In professional football, the management of high-speed running (HSR) is crucial for enhancing performance and preventing injuries (Buchheit, 2019). Traditionally, HSR and sprint distance (SD) were defined by fixed speed thresholds of 5.5 metres per second (m/s) and 7 m/s respectively (Akenhead & Nassis, 2016). The quantification of high-velocity metrics, however, has long been debated, leading to a recent shift from absolute to relative thresholds to better reflect individual player capabilities (Abt &
Lovell, 2009; Harper et al., 2020). Varying methodological approaches employed to individualise high-speed thresholds such as anaerobic threshold have been reported. This can be difficult to implement in team environments with large squads (Baker & Heaney, 2015). Thus, another marker, namely percentage of maximal sprinting speed (MSS) has been employed to further individualise high-intensity distance in team athletes (Gabbett, 2015). Hunter et al. (2015) found that utilising a single physical marker to determine multiple speed zones can lead to erroneous interpretations of players activities. Thus, maximal aerobic speed (MAS) has recently gained significant interest and has been defined as a practical and time efficient method to assess aerobic capacity in team sport athletes (Baker et al., 2015). Time spent above MAS has been shown to correlate with improvements in aerobic fitness (Fitzpatrick et al., 2018).