The pressure on female footballers: How much is enough?
In the ‘How much is enough?’ project, Hélène Maystre, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport in Magglingen SFISM, is seeking to understand, for the first time in a systematic way, how physical, mental and social demands influence one another, and what impact this has on young athletes as far as injuries and performance are concerned.
Training, studying, working, having a social life – and still performing well. Swiss elite female footballers face a considerable bio-psychosocial burden every week.
To gain a better understanding of these issues and the work being carried out on the ground, we met Hélène and asked her to tell us about her work:
Hélène, can you tell us what drew you to football?
What fascinates me about football is that it is, above all, a team sport. Having eleven players on the pitch, with the others on the bench and all the coaching staff – there are so many people involved in the game, and that creates a real sense of camaraderie. I also really like the fact that it’s an outdoor sport and accessible to everyone. And I’m also fascinated by the emotions that come from playing together.
What is your current research project?
In our current project, entitled ‘How much is enough?’, we are seeking to understand the bio-psychosocial pressure that elite female footballers aged between 16 and 20 endure over the course of a season.
In practical terms, we are trying to understand the intensity of the physical strain (from weekly training sessions and matches), as well as the mental strain (mental health) and social strain (life stress) that these players endure. Do they go to school? Do they work alongside their studies, sometimes even in the evenings, to fund their education or simply to support themselves? The aim is to gauge the full scope of the pressures faced by these elite players and the environments in which they operate, both within their clubs and outside their sporting careers.
We will then seek to assess how this strain affects performance and the occurrence of injuries or health issues (whether physical or mental).
Where did the idea for this project come from?
The idea originated from an initial project carried out with young female players (Best Player on the Pitch, involving players aged between 12 and 15). At present, the injury rate among female footballers is very high. And we know that if a player suffers an injury before the age of 20, it can have a major impact on her future career. We also want to improve these players’ performance – and the two aspects are linked: the less a player is affected by injuries, the better she will perform. So that’s where the idea came from: to try to understand how to keep a player fit throughout the season, so that she can perform and develop to the best of her ability.
What results are you expecting?
What will be particularly significant in this study – and what makes it truly groundbreaking – is the link between mental and physical pressures, and their respective impacts on performance and injuries. This is the first time that the mental aspect has been linked to the physical aspect in elite female athletes.
We haven’t analysed the results yet, but we will be doing so soon and it looks set to be really interesting.
Furthermore, we are likely to find that each player is operating in a very difficult environment: an extremely busy week, demanding circumstances that are often ill-suited to the specific needs of a young elite player. I think we’ll be surprised to see just how much pressure these players are under – physically, mentally and socially – and how much of a struggle it is, week in, week out, to perform in training and then in matches.
What impact do you hope to have on women’s football?
I am convinced that this project will make a significant contribution to the development of women’s football in Switzerland and, above all, to its long-term professionalisation. Properly tracking and monitoring the physical and mental workload of players throughout a season is already a major step forward. And then, documenting all of this so that tangible changes can be made represents a major step forward for the professionalisation of women’s football, both in Switzerland and across Europe. We hope so, and we’re doing all we can to make it happen.
Profile
Hélène Maystre completed her degree in sports science (specialising in training and performance) at the Sports Science Institute at the University of Lausanne in 2018. As part of her Master’s degree, she undertook two work placements in 2017: the first with Canada’s football association, Canada Soccer, and its senior women’s national team, and the second with Federal Office of Sport in Switzerland. She has held a permanent position at this office since 2021.
Portrait of Hélène Maystre, SFISM Project and Publications Database
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