Some of the staff at FitSense Australia have an extended background in the sports science industry. The company continues to provide a small selection of sports science services to assist us in staying at the cutting edge of exercise physiology. One such area is the analysis of data captured from GPS units worn by AFL players. Since 2005, FitSense Australia has conducted an annual research project for the AFL looking at the physical demands of players and how they change from season to season.
For sporting fans it may be of interest to know that all 16 AFL teams use GPS technology in both games and training. Our job is then to use this game data to create a profile of AFL player demands. As with any technology usage was quite limited initially, with our 2005 research using only 80 gain files across the season. However interest in this area has increased rapidly and by 2008 our research encompassed almost 1500 files. The 2008 report is attached at the bottom of this post.
The AFL has recently released some of this research to the media and articles can be found here:
Similar research techniques are used in our work in the corporate health and wellness industry. Effective research is not always about simple statistics and straightforward analysis; instead that really exciting and beneficial information requires much more time and lateral thinking.
