high-intensity running Archives - Football Innovation Hub

25 Sep Running More Does Not Mean the Same Thing for Every Team

Posted at 11:01h in Research

What does “running more” actually mean in football? Across five LALIGA EA SPORTS seasons, the answer changes by team, season and metric. Total distance and high-intensity running often tell different stories, while league averages hide major differences. A match-by-match approach reveals why outrunning the opponent...

17 Nov Do Black Players Really Run More? A Scientific Examination of a Long-Standing Football Myth

Posted at 14:02h in Research

Last Thursday, during a guest lecture I gave at Stanford University’s “Science of MythBusters” course, we explored how scientific reasoning helps test long-standing beliefs by confronting them with rigorous data rather than intuition.A newly published study provides a clear example of this approach applied to...

26 Sep If you analyze high-intensity running at >21 km/h and >24 km/h, you’re wasting your time—they measure the same thing.

Posted at 12:00h in Research

Picture this: you’re reviewing the GPS report from the latest match. The dashboard splits high-intensity running into two familiar thresholds: above 21 km/h and above 24 km/h. These numbers guide training load, recovery, even tactical plans. But here’s the uncomfortable question: are these two thresholds...

23 Sep “Does Running More Really Mean Playing Better?”

Posted at 12:06h in Research

Five rounds into the new LALIGA EA Sports 2025/26 season, conversations on the training ground and in press rooms are already circling around a familiar question: “Who looks sharper, who has started stronger, who is already struggling?” GPS reports are filling up with numbers. Some teams...

28 Jul “Do Teams Really Run More Without the Ball? It Depends on How Long They Have It”

Posted at 13:51h in Research

Does a team always run more without the ball? This data-driven analysis of over 8,000 LALIGA match records shows that physical effort during in-possession phases can exceed out-of-possession demands—especially when ball possession drops below 36%. Discover how possession percentage reshapes match running performance and what...

08 May Effect of the phase of the season and contextual variables on match running performance in Spanish LaLiga football teams

Posted at 12:09h in Paper

Modern elite football is not played at the same physical level every week of the season. This study shows that clearly. Using full-season tracking data from LaLiga, it explains when teams run more, when they run less, and why. The message for practitioners is simple....

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