Tips on Monitoring from Dave Hamilton and Don Draper

Rachel Dawson

Monitoring has certainly become a topic of conversation as science has improved and the stakes in high-level athletic competition have increased. Here are a few key points presented by Dave Hamilton, the Sports Scientist at USA Field Hockey from December's SSSSW that I think can be applied fairly easily in many settings:

-Monitoring: it needn’t be complicated, just reliable.  Take out any subjectivity.

-Have a perceptual marker, something that will give you insight into how the athlete is feeling.  RPE is a great way to do this.  How hard did the athlete think the workout or the game was?

-Have a Physical Marker, performed at the same time every day.  Dave recommends the non-countermovement drop jump due to it’s ease of measurability (you only need an electronic mat such as the ‘Just-Jump’ that will allow you to measure Time on Mat/Time in air to get an index of reactive strength).  This has been shown to be reliable and valid for determining the level of neuromuscular fatigue.  A countermovement jump is not used, as technique plays a larger role and has been shown to be invalid at determining neuromuscular fatigue.  The cues Dave uses are “be as quick as possible,” “get back up off hot coals,” and “don’t let the shoulders fall forward.”  Additionally, he suggested that 8-12 weeks of familiarization is necessary before it becomes a reliable test.

-Collect the Data:  just collect data for a full year before beginning to sift through it for trends.

-Keep it Simple: This may depend on your resources.  Perhaps the Omega Wave would be a good fit for you or your setting, but for most folks, tests such as the drop jump, RPE and simple heart rate variability may be more than sufficient.