Analysis of stress level and recovery of formative football coaches. Case studies

Abstract

This study aimed to monitor and compare the levels of stress and recovery in elite football coaches of youth teams at different moments of one sports season. A descriptive study with longitudinal characteristics was conducted.Twenty-six coaches (37.60±7.37 years old) with experience time (7.20±5.37 years) from the categories U-15, U-17 and U-20 of the main Brazilian elite football teams were evaluated.The coaches filled out the demographic data questionnaire and the RESTQ-Coach in three periods of the sports season: vacation, training and competition.The stress levels were higher in competition periods, as well as during training moments, compared to the vacation period.The recovery levels showed a decrease in the competition period compared to the vacation period.The stress values were not higher than the recovery values of the coaches evaluated at different times of the sports season. Stress and recovery levels oscillate during a sports season. However, recovery levels have remained higher than stress. It seems that the elite football coaches are adapted and support the work pressures to which they are submitted in the sports context over one season.