What Is the Fuss About GPS Data?
Let us take it back 40 years. To the times when professional athletes still needed full time jobs, where it wasn’t uncommon to find footballers having a beer and meat pie after a game and to a day when no you wouldn’t find a professional sporting team in the world that has not implemented the technology behind GPS monitoring. Advances in technology now allow us to monitor athletes like never before. The funny thing is the majority of the population have no real idea what this technology looks like and what it tells us about each and every athlete. However, expect to see more and more of this technology as up and coming athletes are exposed to it from early stages of their career in an attempt to get the winning edge over their competition.
What does it tell us
In its simplest form GPS data can tell us the most basic of information. For instance it can tell me how far an athlete travelled and the time they spent in their high heart rate zone. This is no different from the data that comes off your FitBit or Garmin. However as a sports scientist it is essential to drill down to the “nitty gritty” data to ensure nothing is missed, no matter how small the statistic. High performance staff and sports scientists now look at the physical output of players in matches; distances spent in certain running velocity zones or the amount of high intensity running.
What do we do with the information
Now that we have this information, what do we do with it? We ensure athletes do not over train to the point injury does not incur. We monitor athlete work rates to make sure they work well within their average limits during training and games. We compare data from previous sessions, games and seasons to highlight drops or improvements in performances. This information is used in conjunction with wellness data, testing results, game statistics and hydration specifics to ensure athletes are in no danger of injury and are working within their capacity. Sports scientists work with strength and conditioning coaches, doctors and physiotherapists to devise individual; workout strategies based on data and not just feeling. This information can have important implications for assessing player recovery, risk of injury and to a lesser extent, performance.
What does the future look like
So that is the now, but what can expect the data to tell us in the future? Enter the concept of predictive analytics. What is predictive analytics you ask? Predictive analytics is the branch of advanced analytics that is used to predict unknown events. Why is this important in sport? Think of the hundreds of injuries a sporting team may see over multiple seasons. Think of the millions of dollars just sitting in the sideline every week. Imagine if all that could just disappear. Imagine if we could take today’s GPS data, compare it to hundreds of thousands of previously collected data points to predict the unknown. Whilst this information may be a little while away yet, it is great to see where the future of sport is headed and what that means for future sporting stars.
