Monitoring Training and Performance in Athletes

Description

The use of athlete and team training and performance monitoring systems has grown due to technology advances. Practitioners who work with athletes from high school to elite levels in a range of sports use these systems to observe athlete data, including exercise intensity, athletic fitness, and body responses. Monitoring Training and Performance in Athletes is a compilation of evidence-based guidelines and best practices of athlete monitoring for practitioners, who are increasingly being asked to implement monitoring systems and to collect, analyze, and interpret data that ultimately result in training adjustments to optimize performance.

Author Mike McGuigan, an award-winning sport scientist, blends research-based concepts with practical application strategies of monitoring training and performance in athletes. The content highlights what can be monitored, such as body stress, biochemical markers, and hormonal response; discusses reliability of modern methods, such as wearable technology and questionnaires; and helps readers understand how to interpret data to modify training programs in real time. Readers will find guidelines, approaches, and solutions for challenges in athlete monitoring for individual and team sports as well as suggestions for integrating monitoring with coaching.

Numerous sidebars in the text provide real-world examples and application of the content to assist readers in understanding concepts and the cutting-edge, evidence-based research on athlete monitoring. Additionally, the full-color illustrations and photographs provide a visual interpretation of the information presented.

With broad international appeal, this text outlines the most pertinent evidence-based research concepts and studies on athlete monitoring. Strength and conditioning, athletic training, and personal training professionals who work with athletes and monitor training programs will find Monitoring Training and Performance in Athletes an invaluable guide in managing monitoring systems and making adjustments in training programs based on the data to help athletes and teams achieve peak performance.

Contents 

Preface 
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Why Monitor Athletes? 

Stress Response to a Training Session

Adaptation to a Training Program

Risk of Overreaching, Overtraining, Sickness, and Injury

Importance of Individualized Monitoring

Conclusion

Chapter 2. Research Tools for Athlete Monitoring 

Basic Statistical Tools for Practitioners

Descriptive Statistics

Reliability

Validity

Meaningful Change

Correlation and Relationships

Presentation of Results

Qualitative Analysis

Conclusion 

Chapter 3. Physiological Effects of Training Stress

General Adaptation Syndrome Model

Fitness-Fatigue Model

Stimulus-Fatigue-Recovery-Adaptation Model

Applications of the Models

Fatigue Continuum

Overreaching and Overtraining

Interdisciplinary and Multifactorial Approaches to Avoid Overtraining

Conclusion

Chapter 4. Quantifying Training Stress

Measurement Tools

External Load

Internal Load

Conclusion

Chapter 5. Measures of Fitness and Fatigue

Neuromuscular Fatigue

Heart Rate 

Hormonal and Biochemical Markers

Immunological Markers

Performance Tests

Conclusion

Chapter 6. Current Monitoring Practices and Technologies

Monitoring Practices in Sport

Monitoring Technologies

Data from Monitoring Technology

Applications of Monitoring Technology

Conclusion

Chapter 7. Integrating Monitoring With Coaching

Art and Science of Monitoring

Monitoring Data Within a Training Session

Providing Monitoring Feedback to Athletes

Barriers to Effective Athlete Monitoring

Conducting In-House Monitoring Projects

Conclusion

Chapter 8. Athlete Monitoring Guidelines for Individual Sports

Individual Sport Athletes

Monitoring in Individual Sports on a Budget

Monitoring With Training Diaries

Applying Monitoring in Individual Sports

Reporting One Week of Monitoring for an Athlete 

Modifying Training Based on Monitoring

Considerations for Monitoring Athletes in Individual Sports

Conclusion

Chapter 9. Athlete Monitoring Guidelines for Team Sports

Team Sport Athletes

Monitoring in Team Sports on a Budget

Applying Monitoring in Team Sports

Monitoring System for Team Sport 

Reporting One Week of Monitoring for a Team Sport 

Modifying Training Based on Monitoring

Considerations for Monitoring Athletes in Team Sports

Conclusion

References
Index
About the Author 

Mike McGuigan, PhD, CSCS, is a professor of strength and conditioning at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand and a member of AUT’s Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand. He is one of the world’s leading scientific researchers on athlete monitoring and is highly regarded internationally for his work on resistance training and strength and power development.

Before working at AUT, McGuigan was at Edith Cowan University and the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse and worked as a sport scientist for High Performance Sport New Zealand. He also has vast experience as an athlete monitoring consultant for elite athletes and coaches, working with high-profile New Zealand sport teams such as the All Blacks and the Silver Ferns.

McGuigan is a strength and conditioning specialist certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). He received the NSCA’s Outstanding Young Investigator of the Year Award in 2007 and the William J. Kraemer Most Outstanding Sport Scientist Award in 2016. He serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Australian Strength and Conditioning, the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.