A Comparison of Training, Injury, Illness, Sleep, Wellbeing and Stress Between Developing Elite and Recreational Athletes.

ABSTRACT: The impact of National Governing Body talent development programmes on injury, illness, sleep, wellbeing and stress of developing elite athletes (DEA) is poorly understood. Therefore, we examined differences between age-matched DEA (n = 42, 25 females; Mage = 21.0; SD = 2.5) and recreationally active athletes (RAA, n = 79, 56 females; Mage = 21.2; SD = 2.8) on these variables over 14 weeks of training using a weekly online monitoring tool. Compared to RAA, DEA completed a greater proportion of planned training and competition without health problems or reducing training volume. Despite training more hours (DEA M = 17.1; SD = 5.1, RAA M = 6.0; SD = 3.2, p < 0.001), DEA reported similar recovery, higher readiness to train, more sleep, better sleep quality, higher wellbeing (DEA M = 68%; SD =

SUBMITTER: Lowery M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12640734 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature