We are proud to announce that the Journal of Human Kinetics has released its Special Issue entitled, “Monitoring and Diagnosis of Fatigue, Maladaptation, Overload and Overtraining in Sports: Strategies for Optimizing Sports Performance”.

The guest editors, professors Jakub Chycki & Michał Toborek have selected 20 manuscripts from close to 100 submitted papers. Authors from around the world responded to the invitation, including scientists from Spain, Portugal, USA, China, South Korea, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, Lithuania and Taiwan.

This Special Issue encompasses high-quality original research and review articles addressing one of the most critical challenges in sport science, understanding and managing the complex balance between training stimulus and athlete adaptation. Some of the contributions explored the identification of fatigue symptoms, physiological and biochemical markers, and mechanisms underlying adaptation and maladaptation in response to training loads.

While preparing this special issue of JHK, particular emphasis was placed on studies examining functional and nonfunctional overreaching, overtraining syndrome, and evidence-based strategies for monitoring athlete readiness and optimizing performance. Interdisciplinary approaches integrating physiology, biomechanics, psychology, and data-driven monitoring were strongly encouraged.

By advancing knowledge in fatigue detection and training optimization, this Special Issue seeks to support practitioners, coaches, and researchers in enhancing athlete performance while minimizing the risk of overload and long-term performance decline.