The Australian under 17s football squad (Joeys) recently underwent a three-week player development tour of Bolivia accompanied by an international scientific team specialising in altitude research.

The expert team included members of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), Victoria University (Australia), ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence (Qatar), The University of Bayreuth (Germany), Instituto Bolivianode Biologia de Altura (Bolivia) and Football Federation Australia (FFA).

World-renowned altitude expert Professor Chris Gore from the AIS was pleased with the project and the potential benefits for Australian teams playing at altitude in the future. 

‘As far as I am aware it is the first international altitude research project on football of this magnitude,’ Professor Gore said.  

‘I think we can comfortably say that there was a clear benefit for the Joeys’ physical performance after 12 days in La Paz, Bolivia.

‘Our previous research on endurance athletes strongly suggests that there should be good benefits from living and training in altitude, at least in terms of physical capacity.’

The Joeys achieved some good results competing against older boys in Bolivia culminating in a 2-all draw against under19 Bolivian club team, The Strongest.

Joeys head coach Alistair Edwards was satisfied with his team’s performance and what they had achieved on tour. He described the last game as a fitting end to what had been a tough but really beneficial three weeks in Bolivia.

‘We were taken out of our comfort zone with the challenging conditions on top of having to play against teams who are three years older,’ Edwards said.

‘In the last game the boys were great; the adaptation to training at altitude was clearly evident as we were able to take the game to them.

‘I have been a staunch advocate of Australian academia and having our world renowned sport scientists become more involved in football; it’s quite significant that this expertise has for the first time targeted football for research,’ Edwards said.

‘I hope that this is the first step of many where we can partner with such expertise to assist us in becoming a world leader in football as well as sport science.’ 

The player development tour was collaboratively funded by all the participating institutions.

Following the Bolivian tour, the Joeys contested the U-16 Asian Football Confederation Championship in Tehran finishing second in their group and reaching the quarter-final where they were eventually defeated by hosts Iran.