PONE-D-20-15127

Post-competition recovery strategies in elite male soccer players. Effects on performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I believe this is a much needed study to clarify performance and recovery in sport. The suggestions for future studies are well received and your clarification on the discrepancy in the results among various research findings is useful for the researcher.

Reviewer #2: Firstly, I would like to thank the editor of PlosOne for giving me the opportunity to review this manuscript. This SR and MA focuses on recovery strategies in football, which is essential in the area of sport and exercise science and medicine. However, the main weakness of the review is the low number of studies included. This can bias the results and lead practitioners to believe in solutions that are not so reliable and effective to recovery the players. The manuscript is relatively well written, despite a few minor omissions.

Introduction: Generally, this section is well written with logical connection to purpose of the study.

Page 4, Lines 77-83: Please integrate the following key reference related to acute and residual fatigue in soccer.

Silva, J. R., Rumpf, M. C., Hertzog, M., Castagna, C., Farooq, A., Girard, O., & Hader, K. (2018). Acute and residual soccer match-related fatigue: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 48(3), 539-583.

Page 5, Lines 104-106: Why do you use an unspecific reference from basketball at this point of the Introduction section? Please add in this paragraph the following recent review about recovery methods in soccer. In the cited review, a suggested time line for recovery methods in soccer has been defined based on scientific evidence and popularity in soccer.

Rey, E., Padrón-Cabo, A., Barcala-Furelos, R., Casamichana, D., & Romo-Pérez, V. (2018). Practical Active and Passive Recovery Strategies for Soccer Players. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 40(3), 40–57.

Page 5, Lines 117-120: At this point of the Introduction, the following key references about the effectiveness of active recovery interventions could be of interest for readers. Please add these references accordingly.

Van Hooren, B., & Peake, J. M. (2018). Do we need a cool-down after exercise? A narrative review of the psychophysiological effects and the effects on performance, injuries and the long-term adaptive response. Sports Medicine, 48(7), 1575-1595.

Ortiz Jr, R. O., Elder, A. J. S., Elder, C. L., & Dawes, J. J. (2019). A systematic review on the effectiveness of active recovery interventions on athletic performance of professional-, collegiate-, and competitive-level adult athletes. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 33(8), 2275-2287.

Methods

Page 9, Line 224: “(Version 3.5.1.).” instead (Version 3.5.1.)

Page 9, Line 225: “Mean and standarized” instead “Mean, and standarized”

Page 9, Line 239: Is recovery at 48h considered “chronic”? Do you have any reference to support this classification?

Table 1. Why do you include JCR information? You do not only search in WOS database.

Figure 1 and 4 are illegible.

Page 28, Line 367: This is not true. The mentioned study (Rey et al.) has control group. Probably this paper was excluded, as it does not evaluate post-competition effects of recovery means.

Page 28, Lines 367-369: sure? What is the rationale for this statement?

Page 28, Lines 374-375: How can you conclude that CWO and CG may provide positive changes for sprint performance if non-significant effects are present in results?

Page 29, Line 393: “with Thomas et al. [71]”

Page 30, Lines 435-437: Please add references to support this conclusion.

References

First letter of each word on refs title in lowercase letters, please.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Ajit Korgaokar

Reviewer #2: No

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Post-competition recovery strategies in elite male soccer players. Effects on performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis

PONE-D-20-15127R1

Dear Dr. Peña,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Moacir Marocolo, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Partly

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: Congratulations to authors for their effort. All suggestions were corrected accordingly. Great job.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: No