{"id":6499,"date":"2015-10-29T04:16:44","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T03:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/?p=6499"},"modified":"2015-11-02T23:45:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T22:45:43","slug":"athlete-monitoring-in-sport-key-principles-and-practical-tips-by-jason-laird-physioreel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/2015\/10\/29\/athlete-monitoring-in-sport-key-principles-and-practical-tips-by-jason-laird-physioreel\/","title":{"rendered":"Athlete Monitoring in Sport- Key Principles and Practical Tips By Jason Laird (@PhysioReel)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jason Laird (@PhysioReel<\/a>)<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photo from: http:\/\/www.prozonesports.com\/prozone-performance-lab-kinetic\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within elite sport the use of data and \u00a0technology is now commonplace. In particular, the use of athlete monitoring tools is\u00a0now the norm\u00a0for many\u00a0sports looking to prevent injury.\u00a0These tools are\u00a0primarily aimed at\u00a0monitoring training load (exposure)\u00a0and\u00a0an\u00a0individual\u2019s\u00a0response\u00a0to\u00a0this\u00a0exposure. The link between this monitoring data and injury\u00a0incidence is now\u00a0being closely analysed.<\/p>\n

Prevention of Injury<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to fully understand the role of athlete monitoring in the prevention of injuries we first need to delve a little deeper into the types of prevention available in sports medicine.<\/p>\n

Within epidemiology research there are examples of different types of prevention; primary, secondary, and tertiary (1, Health Knowledge Link). In the context of elite sport, primary prevention<\/strong> is aimed at removing or controlling the exposure to risk factors. Screening for these risk factors (most commonly in pre-season) often leads to targeted prevention strategies (2, 3). For more information on other types of risk factors in sport see Bahr and Holmes\u2019 paper (4).<\/p>\n

Secondary prevention<\/strong> aims to detect changes from a normal baseline (usually via a screening tool) in order to intervene and stop a problem from progressing. A good example of this in the medical world is screening for cervical cancer, that well establishes the link between screening findings and the disease (5, WHO link).<\/p>\n

Athlete monitoring is a type of secondary prevention that analyses subjective and objective data in order to detect a change in the athlete. This information gives us a real-time snapshot of how the individual is responding to their current exposure level and shows any occurrence of trends.<\/p>\n

Linking monitoring findings to prevention<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Identifying a causal link between monitoring findings and injury incidence in order to prevent injuries before they happen is perhaps the \u2018holy grail\u2019 in this field. This requires plenty of ongoing research, particularly in the areas of validity and reliability of tests and their possible combinations. See this great blog on \u2018Diagnostic Validity\u2019 by Andrew Cuff via Tom Goom (6) for more information on how to understand validity and reliability within physiotherapy research.<\/p>\n

There is now a huge selection of tools at our disposal to collect subjective and objective data from athletes. Some of these require relatively expensive equipment and bespoke analytical programs whereas others need just a pen and paper and a chat with the athlete and coach. A great video to use as an introduction is one from Dr Bryan Mann (7) and shows how simple and effective monitoring can be in a busy sports environment.<\/p>\n

Some further examples of athlete monitoring in elite sport can be seen here in Rugby Union (8) and the NFL (9). With these types of tools having the potential to keep players fit and available for longer, some sports teams are placing serious investment into staff and technologies aimed directly at collecting monitoring data and researching the output.<\/p>\n

There are some recent studies investigating how factors such as hamstring strength (10) and increases in training load (11,12) can link to injury risk in elite level sport and the evidence base surrounding athlete monitoring and injury is sure to grow. In the meantime, different types of monitoring continues to be commonplace in elite sport. There is a whole host of technology companies and equipment manufacturers being used across the world and fully integrated into sports teams.<\/p>\n

Practical tips for athlete monitoring<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, here are a few practical tips:<\/p>\n