Horlock, Conor F.

Abstract Horlock, CF, Allen, LE, Jagim, AR, Jones, MT, and Fields, JB. In-season assessment of dietary intake and match demands of men’s collegiate Rugby Sevens players. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2026—Limited research has examined the external workload demands and dietary intake of collegiate men's Rugby Sevens players. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to (a) quantify match demands in Division 1-AA collegiate Rugby Sevens across a competitive season, and (b) assess players' dietary intake relative to sport-specific nutrition guidelines. Division 1-AA men's collegiate Rugby Sevens players ( n = 13; age: mass: 87 ± 14 kg; body fat %: 20 ± 4%) wore a global positional system device during all matches ( n = 17). External load metrics were total distance (TD) (m), sprint distance (>20.1 km·h −1 ), high-intensity distance (>18.1–20.0 km·h −1 ), meters per minute (m·min −1 ), acceleration efforts (#), deceleration efforts (#), sprint efforts (#), high-speed efforts (#), player load (PL) (arbitrary unit [AU]), PL per minute (AU/min), and estimated energy expenditure (EE) (kcal). Dietary intake was assessed at the start of the season using a 4-day food log. Linear mixed models examined changes in workload parameters across tournament matches. Spearman's rank correlation and linear regression assessed relationships and predictability of EE and external workloads. One-samples t test compared dietary intake relative to established guidelines ( p ≤ 0.05). No significant differences in workload metrics were observed across individual matches. Total distance ( r = 0.968, p < 0.001), m·min −1 ( r = 0.973, p < 0.001), PL ( r = 0.912, p < 0.001), and PL/min ( r = 0.855, p < 0.001) had the strongest correlations with EE. Players significantly underconsumed calories ( p = 0.028) and carbohydrates ( p < 0.01). Monitoring external workloads and assessing dietary intake can provide coaches with strategies to optimize sports performance and nutrition support to prepare players for competition demands.

Sleep is critical to athlete health and sport performance. Purpose To evaluate the relationship between objective sleep data and next-day basketball game performance. Methods Collegiate men basketball athletes (n = 4) wore smart ring sleep trackers the night before games (n = 22). Sleep variables included hours of total sleep (TS), rapid eye movement sleep duration (RM), deep sleep duration (DS), and heart rate variability (HRV). Game performance was evaluated using field goal percentage (FG%) and player efficiency (EFF). Results TS, RM, DS, and HRV demonstrated very weak relationships with FG% ( p > 0.05) and EFF ( p > 0.05). Individual player analysis revealed one athlete exhibited strong to moderate correlations for TS-EFF (r = 0.67), RS-EFF (r = 0.41), TS-FG% (r = 0.51), and RM-FG% (r = 0.67) ( p < 0.05). Sleep metrics had no effect on FG% (R 2 = 0.025) and EFF (R 2 = 0.053) ( p > 0.05). Conclusions Results suggest a lack of group-level associations between smart ring-measured sleep variables and next-day game performance. This highlights the need for individualized sleep monitoring rather than relying solely on objective metrics.