There are endless streams of data that us as performance coaches have access to, collect, and can analyze. And while I do not mean to add to that massive list of metrics, I do think there are some really interesting & simple metrics that get overlooked. Some of these are described below:
- Consecutive days on feet: while not groundbreaking, this one simply translates to “how many days have they consistently been in without giving them a full day of recovery or full day off.” Sometimes we can get so caught up in the madness that is the season, congested schedules, and sticking to our periodization plan (MD-3 HAS to be in and small-sided). It’s also easy to lose track of academy or reserve athletes who are constantly moving between levels. Tracking this simple metric and throwing on some conditional formatting when it reaches >5 will help you spot these instances easily.
*Also monitoring “# of sessions in the last 30 days” can be interesting as it will give a rolling number that can get flagged easily and can inform when someone might be approaching chronic fatigue levels both physically and mentally.
- Active time vs total time in training: Simply defined, active time is the time spent doing drills actively whereas total time includes the rest periods between sets and drills. Looking at these in comparison to one another (or as a percentage) can inform the coaching staff that with the session AS A WHOLE, there is too much unintended rest time because of explaining or coaching or possibly that more rest needs to be injected to sessions. While I personally have not tracked this over the course of a season, watching this as a trend over the course of the year would be incredibly fascinating.
- Treatment counts: While staffs can generally give a subjective report that “x player always gets lower leg manual therapy,” seeing the objective COUNT of these metrics per player, position, age, and physical complaints also can provide some valuable insights into your team and athletes. Examining these trends over time as well provides insight into “are we putting a bandaid on the complaint or is the athlete progressing to a healthier overall state”.
There you have it. Simple but insightful metrics you can track with or without any fancy equipment. If you’re already collecting the data and just need to repurpose or automate how it’s displayed, even better.
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