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Repeated-sprint ability (RSA)
Book chapter

Repeated-sprint ability (RSA)

D. Bishop and O. Girard
Strength and Conditioning: Biological Principles and Practical Applications, pp.223-241
Wiley-Blackwell
2010
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Abstract

High-intensity sprints of short duration, interspersed with brief recoveries, are common during most team sports (Spencer et al., 2005). The ability to recover and reproduce performance in subsequent sprints is therefore important for team-sport athletes and has been termed repeated-sprint ability (RSA). As RSA has not been strongly correlated with either aerobic power or anaerobic capacity (Bishop, Lawrence and Spencer, 2003: Wadley and Le Rossignol, 1998), this suggests that RSA is a specific quality and that specific tests are required to evaluate this fitness component (see chapter 3.3). Tests of RSA predict both the distance of high-intensity running (>19.8km/hour) and the total sprint distance during a professional soccer match (Rampinini et al., 2007). RSA is therefore a specific fitness requirement of team-sport athletes and it is impportant to better understand the factors which can limit and improve it.

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