Scientific Programme
Applied Sports Sciences
IS-AP03 - Sustainable implementation of position tracking systems in sports: its power to connect sport science and sport practice
Date: 05.07.2024, Time: 08:00 - 09:15, Lecture room: Clyde Auditorium
Description
The use of Global Navigation Satellite System- (GNSS) or Local Positioning System (LPS)-based athlete tracking devices has exponentially increased over the last decades. This large increase in use has led to several advantages for athletes, coaches and sport scientist. Amongst other, athlete tracking devices allow collection of data during real-life training and competition and hence substantially improve ecological validity compared to investigations in laboratory settings. Today, there is a myriad of commercially available tracking devices specially aimed at tracking sports and physical activity – all of which have different features, benefits, and drawbacks. Amongst other, the internal validity of the systems varies. The internal validity of the data collected is of high importance to allow meaningful analysis, enhance coaching and build trust between athletes, coaches and scientists in the application of such systems. This session addresses the use of athlete tracking devices (e.g. GNSS and LPS devices) and aims to help educate the sport scientist in the sustainable use of GNSS and LPS.
Chair(s)
Live Luteberget
Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Deparment of physical performance
Norway
Gaspare Pavei
Università degli Studi di Milano, Pathophysiology and Transplantation
Italy
Speaker A
Kristof De Mey
Ghent University, Movement and Sports Sciences
Belgium
Read CVECSS Glasgow 2024: IS-AP03
Sustainable implementation of position tracking systems in sports
During the last decade the sport technology industry has provided sports with many new digital sport analytics technologies that are used from grassroot to elite level. GNSS and LPS are among the most used wearable tracking technology in sport and is applied to measure performance, health and activity related aspects. Tracking technologies are used in 1) coaching to enhance coach support, educate and guide skill acquisition processes, 2) recreational sport to facilitate and promote physical activity and for monitoring of lifelong physical activity, 3) increase engagement in major sporting events (broadcasting), and 4) facilitate remote sport activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The widespread use of tracking technologies in the sport society has created a new labor market of societal relevance for sport students. This new opportunity however is not well exploited, and implementations of tracking technologies as coaching support systems are too often not sustainable. The reasons for that are twofold: 1) lack of education in the use, analysis and implementation of tracking technologies in sport science and coaching education and 2) lack of comprehensive information regarding the appropriate choice of tracking systems for a given sport analysis. This leads typically to lack of validity in analysis, suboptimal communication and role understanding between coach, athlete and sport scientist in sports, causing confusion and distrust between athlete, coach and performance analyst and harms the sustainability in the implementation of in sports. This is unfortunate, since tracking technologies have great potential for direct transfer and collaboration between academia and the active sport on all levels from grassroot to elite and holds great potential for employment through sport. This lecture aims at improving the understanding of validity of tracking technology for scientists, coaches, athletes and other users of that type of technology in sports
Speaker B
Live Luteberget
Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Deparment of physical performance
Norway
Read CVECSS Glasgow 2024: IS-AP03
Methods to assess validity of positioning systems in team sports. Can we do better?
The sport industry provides new technological solutions to sport science offering the opportunity to conduct academic research in sport practice with high external validity. Sport science should make use of this new possibility, but also be aware of their role and responsibility in the symbioses between sport scientists, stakeholders in sports and the industry. One key responsibility is to approach the use of tracking systems with a critical eye. This will be exemplified through validation methods in this talk: Since wearable tracking devices applied in sports should be small, light and user-friendly, the manufacturers of such devices must optimise the trade-off between system performance, handling simplicity and cost, thus compromises are unavoidable. Due to this, and the continuous system improvements in hardware, firmware, and software, the validity of different systems needs to be investigated before use. To date, there are several validity studies published on GNSS and LPS in team sports. However, there is a large variety in the validation methods applied to assess the accuracy of position tracking systems, including a large range of reference systems and criterion measures. In this talk we will assess how the choice of reference systems and methods affect the outcome of validation studies. By mapping out the consequences of these methodological choices we aim to raise awareness for the 1) consequences of these methodological choices, 2) for the responsibility sport scientists have when conducting tracking device validation studies, 3) and the impact on credibility and trust between sport practice, sport science and the sport technology industry. Hence, this lecture highlights how sport scientists should validate tracking devices, be aware of their responsibility to apply and share their knowledge to advance the field of position tracking systems in sports.
Speaker C
Matthias Gilgien
Engadin Health and Innovation Foundation, Center of Alpine Sport Biomechanics
Switzerland
Read CVECSS Glasgow 2024: IS-AP03
Practical recommendations for the use of tracking technology in sports and future directions
Today position tracking technology is applied in many different sports to enhance performance, monitor athlete training and health and mitigate injury risk. Each of these sport applications has different requirements to accuracy. To achieve valid results, the accuracy of the tracking devices needs to match the accuracy demands and hence sport scientists need take into account the sensor validations that are conducted to choose appropriate sensors. But sport scientists also need to have a good understanding of the practical application and processing of tracking data. This is particularly important, since the dynamics of sports motion increase the challenges to tracking devices compared to other GNSS and LPS applications substantially and hence sport tracking is particular. This lecture illustrates the factors that influence accuracy such as hardware and software, measurement surrounding, etc. and shows how the different types of error can be mitigated by the choice of suitable receivers for a given purpose, by proper practical application if the device in the field measurement, by suitable position processing and by suitable parameter derivation strategy. Hence, this lecture offers explicit information and a guideline for the practical use of tracking technology in sports and also shows good examples of proper applications of tracking devices in sports.