European Football Report Season 2019-20: Nordic Strength

Drawn from VALD’s European Football Report for the 2019-20 season; these figures show the distribution of results for over 21,000 Nordic tests conducted on roughly 3,900 elite football players across the EPL, ECL and UEFA using the NordBord Testing System.

Each figure plots the scores for Nordic strength (x-axis) against normalised density (y-axis). Pinpointed also are the median values and interquartile range (IQR) for each league. For normalised density (y-axis), results closer to 1 (the maximum) indicates a more common testing score, and scores closer to 0 (the minimum) indicate a less common testing score.

The Nordic test is the most commonly conducted test on the NordBord for measuring Nordic strength and eccentric knee flexor strength. Notably, Timmins et al. (2015) highlight the importance of regularly measuring and training hamstring strength in athletes, finding that lower levels of eccentric knee flexor strength increases the risk of sustaining a hamstring strain injury in elite football (soccer) players.