Relationships between muscular performance and markers of well-being in elite rugby union players

Regular testing can be used to track athletes’ changes in performance
over time. However, testing should not be limited to physiological
characteristics alone, but also encompass perceived psychological status and
well-being. Foster (1998) suggests monitoring of subjective well-being may
serve to prevent deterioration in the practice of physical tasks. The relationship
between psychological and physiological measures in professional team sport
is not fully investigated. St Clair Gibson et al. (2003) proposed that fatigue
may be the mental representation of physiological changes characterizing
emotions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine relationship
between psychological self-assessment of well-being and physiological
parameters related to muscular performance in a professional rugby union
team. 15 male professional rugby union players (26.5 ± 5.8 years; 102.6 ±
13.4 kg; 186.1 ± 9.5 cm) participated. On a weekly basis over a competitive
season players completed a perceived well-being questionnaire related to
manifestations of fatigue, and 3 jump squats. Vertical displacement, velocity,
power, force and force impulse were calculated for each jump. Time series
analysis indicates no relationship between measures of well-being and
muscular performance on an individual basis. However, analysis of mean
team data does show the existence of a relationship in some cases.