Monitoring training load and athlete response in team sport

In this big-picture session, Marc Lewis, Director of Applied Sport Science for the Houston Texans, shows how to build a sustainable, repeatable, and scalable monitoring system that links four pillars: training stress, objective response indicators, subjective response indicators, and intrinsic athlete factors. He covers selecting and standardising metrics for external and internal load, implementing reliable CMJ, drop jump, and isometric tests, and using wellness questionnaires. He demonstrates daily and weekly Z-scores, effect sizes, and coefficients of variation to detect meaningful change, and shows how drill and period level data, visualised in dashboards, drive timely decisions.

A practical case study ties a spike in high-velocity running to hamstring force decrements and poor sleep in an athlete with a recent strain, then outlines targeted adjustments to practice exposure, recovery, and medical follow-up. The goal is simple: reduce injury risk and maximise performance by turning good data into clear, athlete-specific actions

Learning objectives

• Design a sustainable monitoring framework that integrates training stress, objective and subjective responses, and intrinsic athlete factors, with standardized data collection across the week and down to drill or period level.
• Select and implement valid metrics and tests for team sport, including external and internal load variables, countermovement and drop jumps, and isometric assessments, using repeatable protocols and reliability checks.
• Analyze and interpret monitoring data with Z scores, percent change, effect sizes, and coefficients of variation to detect meaningful change, then translate insights into targeted adjustments to practice exposure, recovery, and medical follow up.

About the presenter

Currently, Dr. Marc Lewis serves as the director of applied sports science for the Houston Texans. In his role, he oversees the collection, management, and analysis of data to inform decision-making to maximize player performance and availability. Prior to his role with the Texans, Dr. Lewis served as the associate director of applied health and performance science at Penn State University. While at Penn State, he oversaw athlete monitoring initiatives, the integration of performance science initiatives into team sport, and education for best practices within sport performance. Prior to Penn State, he served as the director of sport science/assistant director of strength and conditioning for football at Virginia Tech. Dr. Lewis completed his doctoral degree in exercise physiology from Virginia Tech. He completed his undergraduate degree in health and exercise science from Wake Forest University. While completing his undergraduate and graduate education, he held research positions while serving in athletics as a strength and conditioning intern. Lewis is a certified performance and sport scientist and certified strength and conditioning specialist with distinction through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

CEU information

Contact hours

• Reading time = 10 minutes
• Video length = 35 minutes
• Quiz = 10 minutes
• Total contact hours (rounded down to nearest 0.25 hr) = 0.75

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2. Complete the competency assessment
3. Complete the course evaluation

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