Marco Cardinale, an Editor of the European Journal of Sport Science discusses the latest advancements and trends in sport science research. Read below to gain insights into the current landscape, the journal’s mission, and the transformative impact of recent studies.

Please give a short introduction on yourself, your research background and areas of interest.

My name is Marco Cardinale, I started my professional career as a Coach, then worked as strength and conditioning coach/sports scientists for professional teams and national federations and eventually I developed as a Researcher and Applied Sports Scientist working in different institutions around the world. I worked as a Researcher/Academic in universities, as a Sports Scientist/Researcher for the British Olympic Association and Aspire Academy, and I am currently the Executive Director of Research and Scientific Support in Aspetar Hospital in Qatar. I did my PhD on the use of vibration as an exercise intervention and since then I was always interested in research activities that involved technology and its applications to improve human performance. My research activities have been dictated by the needs of the organizations I worked for and the questions we were trying to answer, so over the years my research efforts have shifted on various aspects of human performance with a special interest in the development of young athletes in recent years. Nowadays, I am trying to study more about injuries occurring in sport, how to prevent them, and how to accelerate return to play, medical services to major events and artificial intelligence in sports science and medicine.

Can you please give a brief overview of the aims and scope of the European Journal of Sport Science?

The European Journal of Sport Science (EJSS) is an open access journal and the official journal of the European College of Sport Science. EJSS shares the College’s multi-disciplinary aims, publishing on topics of contemporary, worldwide importance across the sub-disciplines of: Applied Sport Science; Biomechanics and Motor Control; Physiology and Nutrition; Psychology, Social Sciences and Humanities; and Sport and Exercise Medicine and Health.

What emerging trends do you see in sport science research and treatment?

Wearable technology is accelerating quickly and nowadays it is possible to measure many things in-vivo, in the field with high accuracy. Therefore, it is possible to conduct many studies that were not possible before to understand human performance in various contexts. ‘Omics’ technologies have also evolved and thanks to such developments, studies are now providing new avenues to understand better the biological implications of various forms of exercise and/or treatments. I can see more and more research developed with a multidisciplinary approach implementing AI techniques to improve our understanding of how exercise and training affect our bodies and be able to finally drive better exercise and treatment prescriptions approaches to positively affect not only professional athletes but also the general population and special populations.

What unique challenges do elite athletes face, and how is research in the journal addressing these?

Elite athletes face many challenges and practitioners working with athletes every day must come up continuously with solutions which are safe and backed by science. For this reason, people working in sport need to be able to access the latest scientific findings which they can use to implement specific strategies for athletes in all sports. The Olympic program is vast (the Paris 2024 Olympics had 32 Sports and 48 disciplines) and the Paralympic program is growing. If we add the winter sports and the winter Olympics program, the need to develop knowledge to help athletes in various aspects of their preparation and their ability to recover from injuries is evident. Human Performance is affected by multiple aspects and each sport has its peculiarities and specific physiological and technical and tactical demands. Athletes also compete in different environments, and in some events, they need to be able to repeat high levels of performance within the same day or over multiple days in an Olympic game. Therefore, knowledge of the best strategies to cope with the environmental challenges, recovery protocols, nutrition, and treatments are important. Of course, the basis of preparing an athlete for competition is training and therefore better knowledge of training methods to develop specific physiological qualities always improves the way coaches prescribed programs and/or how physiologists working in sport can assess the progress of athletes and implement specific interventions. Finally, athletes sadly do get injured and therefore ways to accelerate healing and return to play as well as alternative training modalities are topics addressed in various research projects published in the journal which may benefit athletes and their entourage.  

Is there any research published in the journal which you would like to highlight as particularly noteworthy?  

The journal published a lot of very good quality research which I am sure is read and used by practitioners working with athletes. I think this research from Dr James Spragg and colleagues, "The intensity rather than the quantity of prior work determines the subsequent downward shift in the power duration relationship in professional cyclists" is a good example of research which is relevant not only for elite athletes but can have also implications for recreational cyclists preparing for events in particular now that ‘durability’ is becoming an aspect that cycling coaches assess and use for training prescription as well as for racing strategies. This of course applies also to triathletes, so has a wider impact than just one sport. 

This paper from Ella Smith and colleagues, "Minimal influence of the menstrual cycle or hormonal contraceptives on performance in female rugby league athletes” is very important for anybody working with female athletes as it is one of the first examples of how hormonal contraceptives affect performance. 

“The impact of different warm-up strategies on acceleration and deceleration demands in highly trained soccer players” by Dr Hugo Silva and coworkers describes very well the demands of different warm-up strategies and provides a lot of food for thought for strength and conditioning coaches organizing warm-ups for different sports. Many times, we see athletes doing too many unnecessary exercises which might have a negative influence on subsequent performance. 

Finally, this systematic review and meta-analysis from Alec Piñero and coworkers, “Throwing cold water on muscle growth: A systematic review with meta-analysis of the effects of postexercise cold water immersion on resistance training-induced hypertrophy” shows how too many times athletes use interventions suggested by practitioners or by imitating others without really understanding if such interventions are beneficial or not. In 2008 I had written a blog post questioning the excessive use of ice baths after resistance exercise.

This systematic review and meta-analysis confirms that it may not be a good idea for athletes trying to stimulate hypertrophy with their workouts and that there are really not many well-designed good studies looking at this and therefore practitioners and athletes should really be thinking about when it is appropriate to use cold water immersion.

What role does interdisciplinary collaboration play in advancing sports science research?

Interdisciplinary collaboration and multidisciplinary approaches are key not only to advance sports science research and make it more relevant in the real world but also to provide meaningful practical solutions and interventions which may be used by the general population engaged in physical activity. Too many times we see studies that investigate only narrow aspects which may miss important considerations if other disciplines got involved. Unfortunately, funding issues do limit many studies and the ability to have true interdisciplinary collaboration. However, researchers from different fields should try to collaborate and answer relevant questions with the scientific method. Another aspect I believe a lot in is the early engagement of athletes and coaches in the design of research studies. In the clinical world, there is now more patient engagement at the early stages of research planning to ensure that the studies consider many aspects which researchers might miss when patients are involved. This is badly needed in sports science. Too many times studies are planned without engaging the ‘users’ and so the impact and uptake of the findings is low because the solutions are either irrelevant or impractical. In my view, true interdisciplinary collaboration should include coaches and athletes when studies on human performance are to be planned and conducted.

What gaps exist in our understanding of specific sports conditions, and how can research journals like yours address them?

There are still a lot of things that need to be understood about sports. There are in fact many new sports where we have no scientific information about the performance demands, the movement characteristics, and many performance and preparation aspects. In such sports, therefore, coaching happens by repetition of what has been always happening and training programs are based mostly on experience rather than consolidated evidence of what is needed. There are also a lot of gaps in how to accelerate the recovery from injuries. Many therapeutic approaches used in daily practice don’t have strong evidence and therefore more research in this area could be beneficial not only for elite athletes but also for the general population who is physically active and could contribute to a reduction of cost for national health services. Anything to do with training prescriptions for specific performance outcomes is of course relevant as well as performance in different environmental conditions. There is a lot of work to be done on the female athlete as the literature still has many gaps as well as research efforts to understand better on how to train and develop young athletes and keep them safely in their sports reducing the injury risks and favoring longevity in the sport. 

Finally, more work is needed to help athletes master continued competition and enjoy sports safely with appropriate training approaches. The research journal welcomes submissions for all these topics and is also developing Special Issues with targeted topics with extensive coverage. There was a lot of promising new research presented at the annual conference which soon will translate in full papers in the journal and therefore I think the journal will continue to provide readers with new, relevant, and impactful studies which can fill the existing gaps and stimulate further scientific discussion.

Additionally, below is a selection of relevant, high-impact articles from the European Journal of Sport Science as chosen by the Editors of the journal. For additional information on the journal and to learn how to submit, please visit the website.

High‐frequency resistance training improves maximal lower‐limb strength more than low frequency

Full‐body resistance training promotes greater fat mass loss than a split‐body routine in well‐trained males: A randomized trial

The effects of squat variations on strength and quadriceps hypertrophy adaptations in recreationally trained females

Effects of plyometric training techniques on vertical jump performance of basketball players

Acute physiological responses of blood flow restriction between high‐intensity interval repetitions in trained cyclists

Effect of hypoxic sprint interval exercise and normoxic recovery on performance and acute physiological responses