The collection, analysis, and use of data has revolutionized sports performance practices over the last decade, and has become central to the pursuit of excellence and competitive advantages. As a result, athletes no longer follow a one size fits all regimen. Instead, training is tailored to the individual’s strengths, weaknesses, and specific needs, optimizing performance…
R and Python are powerful programming languages extensively used in data analysis and visualization. In sports science, these tools enable practitioners to integrate, manipulate, and display athlete performance data efficiently. Working with a large team – an American football team can have up to 100 athletes – generates a significant amount of data: GPS, skinfolds,…
The countless GPS sensor systems on the market for sports are all excellent tools for quantifying a part of your athletes’ external load, in addition to measuring and quantifying the demands of your sport in competition. These are two extremely important aspects of sports performance science, but there are many others. GPS is essential, but…
Unless people have been living under a rock for the last five years, they will know the validation work that has gone into the My Jump app. But if people have missed it, can you give us a brief overview? I remember the first time I submitted a validation paper about “My Jump” (then renamed…
Martin Buchheit To maintain a leading edge in the dynamic world of sports science, professionals will need to evolve beyond simply adopting the latest technologies like wearables, AI, and analytics. The essential elements are – and will remain – constructing and refining a strategic framework that aligns these technologies with the specific requirements of athletes…
Early research on the causes of sports injuries focused on identifying and evaluating athlete characteristics such as strength, flexibility, and fitness, emphasizing individual predispositions to injuries [1]. The next phase examined the relationship between training load and injury risk [3]. This shift paralleled a growing reliance on metrics from athlete tracking technologies – combinations of…
Fatigue is a general lack of alertness and degradation in mental and physical performance. The US Federal Aviation Administration classifies fatigue as transient, cumulative or circadian. Transient fatigue is acute fatigue brought on by extreme sleep restriction or extended awake hours over 1-2 days. Cumulative fatigue follows extreme sleep restriction over multiple days. Circadian fatigue…
In this roundtable we have 4 practitioners who have used blood flow restriction training extensively and will discuss how other recovery modalities can be used alongside BFR to create the “holy trinity”. We have John Noonan, Warren Bradley, Jursík Václav and Lucas Baistrocchi. They will discuss: What the latest research says about blood flow restriction…
Velocity based training conversations usually revolve around programming, which neglects how powerful VBT methods can be for monitoring adaptations. Changes in velocity at different loads give coaches new ways to measure success (potential positive adaptations occurring from the programming) and identify negative outcomes, e.g., fatigue or decreased neuromuscular readiness. Expanding VBT usage to include this…
Firstly, if you haven’t read the first part of this 2-part article series, check out part 1, “Using velocity based training for player and team assessments“. Perhaps the most appropriate name for what a lot of people perceive to be velocity based training (VBT) is actually intent based training. But that just doesn’t sound quite…
Velocity based training (VBT) has become a common term in sports performance. The boom in technology that quantifies the velocity of key exercises and movements has spurred the popularity of this “modern” training method. A practical – and safe – definition is that VBT is a method that uses velocity to inform or enhance training…
What is Tableau and how does it differ from other popular tools like Excel, Power Bi or R? Tableau is primarily a data visualisation tool. It has some ability to manipulate and organise data with derivative tools (e.g., Tableau Prep), but its main function is to take data and visualise it to tell a story.…
We are delighted to bring together three of the best minds in our industry when it comes to utilising force plates for performance profiling, fatigue monitoring and rehabilitation. Matt Jordan is a Player Health Consultant and has published many research articles using force plates. Phil Graham-Smith, now working at Manchester Metropolitan University is Co-Founder of…
Content of essentials article Article summary What is heart rate variability? While heart rate is the number of heart beats over a period of time, typically a minute, heart rate variability (HRV) refers to ways to quantify the variability between heartbeats: even if we count 60 beats in a minute, they do not happen exactly…
Sports Tech Research Network’s white paper, “Quality Framework for Sports Technologies: A standardized, evidence-based decision-making framework for evaluating the value, usability, and quality of sports technology,” really caught my eye this past quarter. The framework they describe will be a game changer for how wearables are selected, evaluated, integrated and regulated in sporting environments. If…