The Importance of Load Monitoring in Women’s Soccer

In this panel webinar Georgia Brown (San Diego Wave), Dawn Scott (consultant, formerly US and England women’s national teams) and Nicole Surdyka (physical therapist, formerly NWSL) show how heart rate data is used with GPS in women’s soccer for training, rehab, the Submaximal Fitness Test and weekly load targets.

About this webinar

Three practitioners from women’s soccer answer the same questions from club, national team and rehab perspectives. Georgia Brown is a sports scientist with San Diego Wave, formerly with the Australian women’s national teams up to the Matildas, with a PhD on the menstrual cycle and soccer performance. Dawn Scott has 25 years in sport science with national teams and clubs, including the England and US women’s national teams and Washington Spirit, and a PhD on a training model for elite female players. Nicole Surdyka is a physical therapist and sports scientist who worked in the NWSL and runs Femme Football Collective. Host Jo Clubb, sports science consultant at Global Performance Insights, leads the panel through internal and external load, heart rate in rehab, the Submaximal Fitness Test, the menstrual cycle and audience questions on TRIMP targets, HRmax and buy-in. Recorded on 26 March 2026, about 63 minutes.

What you will learn

• Why the same small-sided game gives new players different heart rate responses on identical GPS loads, and what San Diego Wave changes in the session as a result.
• How a continuous four-minute Submaximal Fitness Test is run at two NWSL clubs: speed, course, which 30 seconds of heart rate are read, and what the trend showed for starters, low-minute and non-rostered players.
• The weekly targets one NWSL club uses: TRIMP of about 300 to 700 in a one-game week and at least 30 minutes above 90% HRmax in training.
• How to set and update a player’s HRmax in season instead of using 220 minus age.
• What the research does and does not show about the menstrual cycle and heart rate.

Practical examples from the recording

1. New players on the same drill. San Diego Wave runs live heart rate next to GPS on one iPad. When new players arrived this year with unknown training history, the staff watched their heart rate in small-sided and medium-sided games where every player had the same external load. The internal response differed clearly between players. Brown then changed the session for those players: the number of games, the rest periods and whether they ran between games, and adjusted the following weeks. A new player who was adapting was pushed on; one who was not was held back.

2. Heart rate inside the rehab gym. The Wave put a second iPad in the gym so rehab players wear the strap on the bike, on the anti-gravity treadmill or in an upper-body session. A bike session is prescribed with a target such as five minutes above 90% HRmax, and the player sees the live number. Brown uses it for biofeedback, for accountability when the physical therapist has several players at once, and to check that the session produced the internal load intended. Surdyka adds the reason: a player out a couple of weeks with a grade 2 hamstring strain starts losing aerobic capacity within 10 to 14 days, so reconditioning starts early and is tracked like any training block.

3. The Submaximal Fitness Test at Washington Spirit. Three years ago Scott introduced a continuous four-minute run at about 12 km/h across the width of the pitch, with the width measured at every away venue and three staff pacing the line of players. The reading was the average heart rate of the last 30 seconds. Over a season, regular starters showed a lower heart rate for the same load and held it; players with few minutes improved in preseason and then crept up in season for lack of game volume; non-rostered players, who got a top-up load on game day, changed least. The test ended when one player complained about four minutes of continuous running, which Scott puts down to education.

4. The Submaximal Fitness Test at San Diego Wave. The Wave run a four-minute test on the second training day each week at the home field: poles 45 meters apart, about 15 seconds per pole, about 11 km/h. Firstbeat Sports takes the highest 30 seconds of heart rate automatically, now live in the app. In preseason the heart rate response improved. In one case a player reported fatigue, her wellness scores showed soreness and fatigue, her RPE was higher than usual, her countermovement jump was down and her test heart rate was up. The staff changed her load for the next two weeks and she went from overreaching back to adapting.

5. Weekly TRIMP and red-zone targets. Brown’s key metrics are training impulse (TRIMP), a heart-rate-based load index, time above 80% HRmax and time above 90% HRmax. Weekly TRIMP in a one-game week runs from about 300 to about 700 per player, depending on heart rate profile and whether the player did the full preseason. For training in a one-game week, excluding the game, the target is a minimum of 30 minutes above 90% HRmax, which Brown takes from evidence on maintaining cardiovascular fitness; rehab players get the same target. Game TRIMP is not yet a norm: some players do not wear the strap in games, and a substitute who wears it from warm-up accumulates TRIMP while sitting.

Questions answered in the Q&A

How do you find a player’s HRmax without 220 minus age? Run a maximal test in preseason (time trial, 30-15 or Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test), then check every small-sided game and game in the week. If a player hits a higher value, check the trace for a spike, then update HRmax and the thresholds. Firstbeat Sports flags a new HRmax and lets you accept or decline it after checking the trace.

Does the menstrual cycle change heart rate during exercise? The research is mixed. Resting heart rate is higher in the luteal phase in several studies, but a study of elite female soccer players found no difference after warm-up, and a runner study Surdyka cites found a statistically significant difference under 2 bpm. Both advise knowing the player’s own baseline rather than treating a small luteal-phase rise as a problem.

How accurate are different heart rate monitors? The panel’s practical points matter more than device error: a strap that fits a female chest, a good connection and no undershirt under the strap. Firstbeat Sports shows a measurement error figure on each trace so data from a loose or removed strap can be removed or adjusted.

Does a lower heart rate in training mean a player is not working? Not necessarily. Scott recalls a US national team player whose heart rate stayed below teammates’ and rarely reached 90% HRmax, so the coach gave her extra running. Once GPS was added, the external load showed she was fit and efficient, and the extra work stopped.

How do you get buy-in from female players? Explain the why in a one-to-one conversation. All three panelists find female soccer players ask more questions than male players, partly because most did not come through academy systems, and that trust follows when the player hears how the data serves her own goals.

Who this webinar is for

Sports scientists, strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists and heads of performance in women’s soccer at club, national team and collegiate level, and practitioners moving into the women’s game from men’s teams, who want to combine heart rate with GPS in training, rehab and weekly load planning.