Quantifying kicking loads during pre- and in-season training across two seasons in professional female Australian Football.

Authors

Rees J Thomas, Tania Pizzari, Ryan G Timmins, Patrick L Rowe, Adam Scollo, Chris Bell, Olivia Dawson, Kevin Ball

Published in

Journal of science and medicine in sport. Sep 09, 2026. Epub Sep 09, 2026.

Abstract

To quantify kicking loads (kick count and intensity) of professional female Australian Football (AF) players during pre-season and in-season training across two seasons and examine associations between maximal kicking velocity and Kicker force (combined hip flexion and knee extension).
Cohort study.
Thirty-five professional female AF players from one club participated across the 2024 and 2025 seasons (80 training sessions). Foot-mounted inertial measurement units (PlayerMaker™) recorded kick count and foot velocity. Kicks were classified as low (≤13.49 m/s), moderate (13.5-16.49 m/s), or high (≥16.5 m/s) velocity. Combined kick count and intensity metrics (Ball release index, Ball cubed) were calculated. Combined isometric hip flexion/knee extension strength was assessed via the ForceFrame Kicker test. Independent t-tests and Pearson correlations were performed.
Players averaged 37.2 ± 9.6 kicks per training session, with 95.9% on the preferred limb and a typical distribution of 16.5 low intensity, 16.0 moderate intensity and 4.8 high intensity kicks. Mean kicking velocity per week was 13.9 m/s; mean maximum weekly velocity was 18.4 m/s. Pre-season demonstrated significantly higher mean velocities per session than in-season (14.05 vs 13.7 m/s; p = 0.008, d = 0.64). Maximum velocities per week were also higher during pre-season (18.7 vs 18.1 m/s; p = 0.018, d = 0.96). Kicker force normalised to body mass correlated moderately with maximal kicking velocity (r = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.11-0.78, p = 0.016).
This study provides the first two-season analysis of kicking loads in elite women's AF, establishing normative benchmarks for kick count, intensity, and strength-velocity relationships from a single team. These findings provide an example of kicking exposures within a professional female AF program and may inform training design, workload monitoring, and the progression of kicking loads during return to play in elite, sub-elite, and developing AF athletes, particularly following quadriceps muscle strain injury.

PMID:
42754416
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Sep 2026.

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