Comparison of sprint deceleration capacity in front- and side-facing end stances in multidirectional team sport athletes

Deceleration is a crucial task in multidirectional team sports. However, no research has explored how different end stances impact deceleration performance. This is important due to the multidirectional nature and variance of these directional changes in such sports. This study aimed to compare sprint deceleration capacity between front-facing (FF) and side-facing (SF) end stances using a deceleration threshold methodology to standardize the start point of deceleration. 20 team-sport athletes completed three maximal sprint deceleration trials in three conditions: FF and SF with both preferred leg stance (SF_PREF) and nonpreferred leg stance (SF_NON-PREF). Key metrics of time-to-stop (TTS), distance-to-stop (DTS), average deceleration (DEC_ave), and maximum deceleration (DEC_max) were analyzed using linear mixed models. Results indicated significantly different deceleration profiles between FF and SF conditions with FF decelerations exhibiting greater TTS and DTS but lower DEC_ave and DEC_max compared to SF tasks (p < 0.05). No significant differences were determined between SF_PREF and SF_NON-PREF task conditions (p = 0.64–1.00). Correlation analysis demonstrated high similarity in DTS across tasks (r = 0.87–0.92) but greater divergence in TTS and DEC_ave (r = 0.55–0.88). These findings suggest that deceleration mechanics are task dependent with SF tasks eliciting greater braking demands. Practitioners should consider sport-specific deceleration requirements when designing training interventions.