The influence of exercise performance that cooling methods such as icing under wrap, ice towel and intake cold water affect performance for university soccer players

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify whether a cooling method applied during halftime influences the running distance in the second half of a soccer game by suppressing the decrease in momentum. The subjects were 7 soccer players of K university (age, 19.5±0.6 years ; height, 175.9±6.0cm ; body weight, 67.2±5.1kg). During halftime (15 minutes), two conditions were applied randomly. One was cooling with an ice underwrap, ice towel, and intake of cold water (cooling condition), and the other was no cooling (control condition). The differences in running mileage between the first and second halves were 84.3±148.2m under the cooling condition and −204.5±126.9m under the control condition, indicating a significantly shorter running mileage under the control condition (p<0.01). No significant difference in running speed was found between the two conditions. As a result, this study suggests that application of the cooling method described herein during halftime of a soccer game is useful for suppressing the decrease in momentum, which reduces the running distance in the latter half of the game.