Magister Artium (Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science) - MA(SRES) / Women’s football is one of the fastest growing sports around the world, however, equity is lacking as women have to negotiate for training equipment, financial sponsorship, media coverage and safe transportation. The study represents an investigation of the lived experiences of female footballers and administrators in the Western Cape: A critical perspective of gender equity. The study further assessed the lack of development and support for women involved in football which displays the inequalities experienced by females within the football arena. The proposed study investigated female footballers’ lived experiences with regard to gender equity in football in the Western Cape. The study used a phenomenological approach which focused specifically on the lived experiences of humans with regards to a particular phenomenon which in this study is gender equity.

The present PhD thesis is compilation of various investigations for the development of a physiological profile in women’s soccer. After an extensive literature review, several literature gaps in this area were identified including: physiological demands of a women’s soccer match including simultaneous measurements with portable metabolic equipment and GPS technology; physical performance analysis of women’s soccer competitive matches of different competition levels using GPS technology; and fitness testing and fitness profiles of female soccer players of different competitive levels by means of laboratory and field tests. The investigations that are part of this thesis targeted these gaps and provided for the first time novel and objective findings in these subjects. The popularity of women’s soccer as well as the number of female soccer players worldwide has increased exponentially in the last 30 years. Furthermore, there are now multiple women’s soccer international competitions and professional leagues around the globe and they will continue to increase in the next few years. Therefore, there is currently high demand for scientific research specific to the women’s game in these topics which may aid coaches, physical trainers, and other practitioners to develop more effective fitness assessments and training programs for their female players in order to improve their fitness status and overall match performance according to their competitive level and positional role.:DEDICATION iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION vi ABSTRACT vii LIST OF PUBLICATIONS viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ix LIST OF TABLES xi LIST OF FIGURES xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. WOMEN’S SOCCER BACKGROUND 1 1.2. PHYSICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMALE SOCCER PLAYERS 3 1.3. PHYSICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL DEMANDS OF WOMEN’S SOCCER 4 2 DISSERTATION AIMS 6 3 STATE OF THE ART 8 3.1. PORTABLE METABOLIC, HEART RATE AND BLOOD LACTATE MEASUREMENTS 8 3.2. GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) MEASUREMENTS 9 3.3. TEST PROTOCOLS 10 3.3.1. ANTHROPOMETRY ASSESSMENT 10 3.3.2. AEROBIC CAPACITY TESTS 11 3.3.3. SPEED, ANAEROBIC ABILITY AND EXPLOSIVE POWER TESTS 15 4 OWN AREAS OF RESEARCH 18 4.1. PHYSIOLOGICAL DEMANDS OF A WOMEN’S FOOTBALL MATCH (ENGLISH SUMMARY FROM “PHYSIOLOGISCHE BEANSPRUCHUNG EINES FRAUENFUẞBALLSPIELS)” – (P-I) 18 4.2. GPS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF WOMEN’S SOCCER COMPETITIVE MATCHES OF THE SECOND AND FOURTH GERMAN LEAGUES – (P-IV) 21 4.3. VALIDITY OF THE YO-YO INTERMITTENT RECOVERY TEST LEVEL 1 FOR DIRECT MEASUREMENT OR INDIRECT ESTIMATION OF MAXIMAL OXYGEN UPTAKE AMONG FEMALE SOCCER PLAYERS – (P-II) 25 4.4. FITNESS PROFILES OF GERMAN FEMALE SOCCER PLAYERS (UNPUBLISHED RESULTS) 26 5 CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK 31 5.1. MAIN FINDINGS 31 5.2. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 33 5.3. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS 33 5.4. FUTURE DIRECTIONS 34 6 REFERENCES 36 EIGENSTÄNDIGKEITSERKLÄRUNG 39 AUTHOR’S RESUME 40 ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS 42 PUBLICATION 1 (P-I) 43 PUBLICATION 2 (P-II) 50 PUBLICATION 3 (P-III) 58 PUBLICATION 4 (P-IV) 74