PlayerTek Team: Understanding game values

One of the most valuable features of PlayerTek Team is the use of Game Values when looking at volume and intensity of a session.

Using this feature you can quickly compare how difficult the session was based on values obtained in competition. Theoretically, Game Values should indicate when your athletes are performing at 100%. Collecting data in games will give you the best insight on what to train for during the practice week. Creating an average of all your games will give you a better idea as what values to input for each metric.

Setting Game Values

To set Game Values for your athletes, click on the Settings icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select Player Profile Settings. This will take you to the profile of the athlete selected. From here you will select the Game Values tab at the top of the screen.

Here you can enter in your own values based on previous data collected or based on an average of the games your team has played in so far. If you haven’t played any games yet, you can either enter in values using your best judgment or you can set the values using an existing session.

To use an existing session, go to the Sessions tab and in the Session Summary box click the edit panel. Hover over ‘Use Data as Game Values’ and select to use for the entire squad, all (entire player list) or individual player.

This will set the selected Session as the Game Values and the metrics should all read 100% for this athlete and session.

You can use any athlete of your choice to set as team Game Values or set each individual separately. It is recommended to set each individual separately in order to best determine training volume and intensity using his/hers own data.

Application

Once game values have been set, you can identify how heavy each training session was and conclude if the session met their goal for the day. For example, the graph in Figure 1 shows a potential breakdown for weekly load leading up to a game that might be used by a high school football coach.

Monday the coach tries to go 80%, Tuesday 90%, Wednesday 20%, Thursday 50% and then a game represents 100%. Using Game Values, you can can confirm the practice met his/her goal for the week or make an adjustment based on the data he/she receives. Another example is pictured in Figure 2.

Figure 2 shows a similar flow to the previous week (Figure 1), but the difference being the volume was 110% on Monday and 120% on Tuesday based on what is usually expected as volume in a game. It all depends on the goal of the coach. In order to maintain an athlete’s capacity over the course of the season a coach may decide to train an athlete above the Game Value threshold as pictured in Figure 2. These graphs were created as examples of what a football training week might look like.

A coach using PlayerTek Team can simply use the Sessions page to view the percentages of Game Values on each athlete.

Summary

Game values can be a great tool when a coach wants to quickly evaluate the volume and intensity levels of a practice based on values achieved in games. It is important to keep values specific to players or position groups in order to validate players’ effort individually.

Different positions on the field demand more volume and intensity than others; Game Values representing each individual will provide the coach with the most reliable data. On a beginner level, coaches can set goals for players to validate how they are progressing over the season.

Players can strive to beat their personal bests in top speed or total distance to be recognized as top performers for a given session. Top speed can be adjusted in Game Values when a player achieves his best result. A coach should be conscious of the fact that too much volume and intensity in consecutive days could lead to an injury.

PlayerTek Team is designed to monitor these loads to ensure the goals of the team are met.

Interested in finding out how Catapult can help your team find its competitive edge? Get in touch, today.

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