Observational, 52 players, 416 athlete weeks

Sports science research poster example

A sports science board is usually built around one figure, because a coach standing at it wants the gradient before the method. This poster gives the whole top half to sleep against 40 metre sprint time across 416 athlete weeks, then explains underneath what 0.12 seconds is worth on the pitch.

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The whole board

The poster at full size, exactly as it prints. Every number, citation and caption on it was written for this example, so the layout is being judged on real content.

MU
Sleep duration and 40 metre sprint time: 416 athlete weeks in one football academy
M. Oyelaran ¹, J. Brechtel ¹ ²
1 Sport and Exercise Science, Marrawong University · 2 Performance Unit, Northfields Football Academy
CURRENT PRACTICE
Fifty two academy footballers wore a wrist actigraph for eight weeks and ran a timed 40 metre sprint once a week, giving 416 athlete weeks. Sprint time fell steadily across six sleep bins, from a mean 5.31 seconds under 6 hours a night to 5.19 seconds at 8 hours or more, a difference of 0.12 seconds.
PROPOSED PROTOCOL
Participants. Fifty two male academy footballers aged 16 to 19 in one club programme, all training five days a week to the same plan, with no player excluded for injury during the eight weeks.
Sleep. Wrist actigraphy worn continuously for eight weeks, with sleep onset and offset scored by the device algorithm and checked against a daily diary entry for the previous night.
Sprint. One 40 metre sprint test a week through timing gates, always on the same day, always after the same warm up, with the best of three efforts taken as the weekly time.
Unit. The unit of analysis is the athlete week: mean nightly sleep across the seven nights before a test paired with that test. Fifty two players over eight weeks gives 416 athlete weeks.
Analysis. A mixed model with the player as a random effect, so a fast player who sleeps well cannot drive the slope, and sleep entered both as six bins and as a continuous hour count.
Under 66 to 6.56.5 to 77 to 7.57.5 to 88 or more00.030.060.090.12
Figure 1. Mean 40 metre sprint time by sleep bin, as seconds faster than the under 6 hour bin at 5.31 s.
Source: wrist actigraphy and weekly timing gate test, 416 athlete weeks.
RESULTS
Mean sprint time by sleep bin runs 5.31, 5.29, 5.27, 5.25, 5.22 and 5.19 seconds, and the bins hold 26, 36, 88, 121, 95 and 50 athlete weeks. The relationship is close to linear across the range and the mixed model gives 0.048 seconds for each additional hour of mean nightly sleep. The within player comparison is the one that matters, and it holds: 39 of the 52 players were faster in their own best sleep weeks than in their own worst, which is more than chance would give.
REFERENCES
1.Farhadi, N. and Oyelaran, M. (2024) Sleep duration and short sprint performance in youth athletes. Journal of Applied Sport Science, 31(2), 88 to 110.
2.Kirkbride, L. (2025) Actigraphy against polysomnography in team sport settings. Sport Measurement Reports, 7(4), 201 to 219.
3.Brechtel, J. (2026) Within player designs in academy performance research. Marrawong Sport Science Working Paper 2026-03.
0.12 s
faster after 8 or more hours
5.19 s against 5.31 s in the lowest bin, 416 athlete weeks
DISCUSSION
Over 40 metres, 0.12 seconds is about three quarters of a metre at the line, which is the difference between reaching a through ball first and arriving as it is cleared. It is also small enough to be swamped by a poor warm up or a wet surface, so it is not a number to select a squad on. The useful reading for a coach is the slope rather than the gap: one hour of sleep is worth about 0.05 seconds, and most players in this squad have two hours available to them.
CONCLUSIONS
Across 416 athlete weeks, players sprinted 0.12 seconds faster over 40 metres in weeks when they averaged 8 hours or more of sleep than in weeks under 6 hours. The pattern held within players as well as across them, at about 0.05 seconds for each hour of mean nightly sleep.
Observational: nobody was assigned a sleep duration
One academy, 52 young male players, one sprint distance
Actigraphy estimates sleep, it does not measure sleep stages
Training load was constant here and usually is not

Block by block

What each block on the board is for, in the order a reader walks it.

Title band and two authors
The title names the exposure, the outcome and the sample in one line, with two authors over two affiliations.
Abstract
A short block across the full width: what was worn, what was tested, how many athlete weeks, and the difference between the slowest and the fastest sleep bin.
The figure
Six sleep bins plotted as seconds faster than the under 6 hour bin. Six categories keep the tick labels clear of each other, and the caption names the reference bin and its absolute time.
Methods as a labelled protocol
Five labelled entries: the squad and its training load, the actigraphy and the diary check, the weekly sprint protocol, the definition of an athlete week, and the mixed model with the player as a random effect.
The key number
One stat block: 0.12 seconds faster after 8 or more hours, with the two absolute times and the 416 athlete weeks underneath rather than beside.
Results
The six bin means, the number of athlete weeks in each, the slope of 0.048 seconds an hour, and the within player check: 39 of the 52 players were faster in their own best sleep weeks than in their own worst.
What 0.12 seconds means
The practical block: three quarters of a metre at the line, the things that swamp it, and the reading a coach can actually use, which is the slope rather than the gap.
Limits, acknowledgements and references
Four checked caveats, including that nobody was assigned a sleep duration and that training load was constant here and usually is not, then the acknowledgements and three numbered references.

What makes this board work

The figure is plotted so the effect is visible

Sprint times of 5.31 to 5.19 seconds on an axis that starts at zero would draw a flat line, so the figure plots seconds faster than the slowest bin, from 0 to 0.12. The absolute times sit in the results block, and the gradient is what the figure is for.

The unit of analysis is defined

An athlete week is one player in one week: mean nightly sleep across the seven nights before a test, paired with that test. Fifty two players over eight weeks gives 416. Without that definition the sample size on a repeated measures poster means nothing.

The effect is translated, then bounded

The discussion turns 0.12 seconds into about three quarters of a metre at the line, then says the same number is small enough to be swamped by a wet surface. A coach gets a use for it and a reason not to pick a squad with it.

Questions people ask

What goes on a sports science research poster?

The exposure and the outcome, how both were measured, the unit of analysis, the sample in players and in observations, one figure that carries the result, the practical size of the effect, and the limits. For an observational design, saying nobody was assigned anything is part of the result.

Why does my line chart look flat?

Because the axis starts at zero and the values sit in a narrow band far from it. Sprint times of 5.19 to 5.31 seconds draw as a flat line. Plot the difference from a reference instead, as this board does, and put the absolute values in the caption and the results block.

How many points should a line chart carry?

Few enough that the axis labels stay readable and the series legend lands in a gap between them. An even number of points helps, because a legend sits near the middle of the axis. Six bins works on a full width figure; ten hourly points on a narrow figure does not.

Is a single figure board right for my study?

It suits a study with one measurement that carries the argument, and it is a poor fit for a study with four equal findings. The design used here gives the figure the top half of the board and leaves four text blocks and a stat block underneath.

How do I report a repeated measures sample?

Give both numbers and the definition that links them. Fifty two players over eight weeks is 416 athlete weeks, and the poster says so in the methods. A poster that reports only the larger number is claiming more independent observations than it has.

What size does this board print at?

A0 portrait, 841 by 1189 millimetres, from a 1656 by 2340 pixel working canvas. The export captures at twice that, 3312 by 4680 pixels, about 100 dots per inch at full size, in RGB with no bleed, no crop marks and no CMYK.

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Sources

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