OpenField 1.17 released to streamline workflows and enhance sports science leadership

We recently released the latest version of our OpenField athlete analytics platform, OF 1.17.

Possessing unrivalled flexibility, OpenField allows you to report and present data in a style that best suits the needs of your organisation.

OpenField 1.17 comes equipped with three major feature upgrades: Absolute and relative velocity bands, GPS quality scores, and additional languages.

Absolute and Relative Velocity Bands

We’ve introduced a second set of velocity bands which can be used to present athlete data in absolute and relative terms. This provides clearer player comparisons and better insights into individual player loading.  The second set of velocity bands needs to be enabled on your account and will be presented in the cloud.

As explored in various scientific research (see below for further details), each position has unique volume and intensity characteristics that can become misrepresented by a uniform approach to applying speed thresholds.

For example, using relative velocity bands, various studies have documented a significant increase in high and very high-speed running volumes in players that have a lower maximum velocity and a significant decrease in high and very high-speed running volumes in faster players, when compared with absolute thresholds.

In context, using the acute:chronic workload model, it has further been demonstrated that the choice of velocity band model can significantly impact on player risk assessment, when using velocity dependant volume and intensity markers.

The following articles give more context and information regarding the use of absolute and relative speed zones:

Murray et al. 2017: The Use of Relative Speed Zones in Australian Football: Are We Really Measuring What We Think We Are?

Reardon et al. 2015: Application of Individualized Speed Thresholds to Interpret Position Specific Running Demands in Elite Professional Rugby Union: A GPS Study

Gabbett et al. 2015: The Use of Relative Speed Zones Increases the High-Speed Running Performed in Team Sport Match-Play

GPS Quality Scores

In constant pursuit of transparency and scientific rigour, we’ve introduced a range of quality metrics in OpenField 1.17 that allow you to determine the quality of your GPS data in each session and environment.

• Positional Quality: A single percentage score derived from a range of key attributing factors to quality of positional data. Calculated by taking the signal to noise ratio (SNR) from each satellite, sorting these according to their numerical value, and providing them with a weighting factor.
• HDOP: Horizontal Dilution of Precision is the measure of GPS accuracy in a horizontal plane. A HDOP of <1.5 is considered good data. A HDOP > 3.0 is considered poor data.
• Satellite Count: The number of satellites the athlete’s device has connected to during the session or per period selected.

French and Spanish translations

OpenField 1.17 introduces French and Spanish language translations for console and cloud. Other languages will also soon be implemented in OpenField.

Some new OF 1.17 features require modules to be active in your account. Please contact your Catapult representative if you do not have, but wish to use, any of the below new features.

Interested in discovering what OpenField can do for your team? Find out more here.