By: Nicole Chia
When sports science consultant Tim Gabbett started his career about 20 years ago, he diligently tracked the performance of football and rugby players during matches using pen and paper, and later, through video playback.
"I'd go back to my office, and for every 10 minutes of game time, it would take 30 minutes to analyse one player - that's about 41/2 hours per player," he recalled.
But now, the 42-year-old managing director of Gabbett Performance Solutions estimates that it takes about two to 10 minutes to analyse the data of an entire team, as the developments in sports science technology have allowed athletes to wear performance-tracking devices from which data can be retrieved within minutes.
With such wearable GPS chips and motion-detection sensors, it is not only the distance players run that is measured, but also more specific factors - like how many strokes each swimmer takes in the pool, how many times each gymnast flips in a routine, and how many tackles each rugby player makes in a game.
Leave a comment