Monitoring training load means knowing how much each player trains and how well they are coping, so the next session can be planned better. It is not a tool for guessing injuries: it is an orderly way to balance stimulus and recovery, and to give the whole coaching staff the same numbers to talk about.
External load and internal load
The research separates two sides of the same session [1]:
- External load: what the player does. Minutes, distance, high-speed running, accelerations, gym work.
- Internal load: how their body responds to it. Perceived effort, heart rate.
The difference matters because the same external load does not produce the same response in everyone. A 20-minute rondo is not the same for a player coming back from injury as for one at full fitness, nor for the same player after a week of poor sleep. That is why the consensus recommends looking at both [2].
What it is measured with
- External load, with GPS and accelerometers: distance, high-speed running, sprints, accelerations and decelerations. See the guide to GPS metrics.
- Internal load, above all with session RPE, validated in football against heart-rate-based methods [3].
- How the player is doing, with a daily wellness questionnaire, an idea that goes back to research on overtraining in the 1990s [4].
What the coaching staff gains
When load monitoring works, the staff can:
- See who is having a sudden change in load compared with their own history. The ACWR is a quick signal for that, though it does not predict injuries on its own [5, 6].
- Spot monotonous weeks with no easy days to recover [7].
- Make up the load for players who play little: a substitute who gets few minutes in the match builds up less load than a starter.
- Check whether sessions turned out as planned.
- Work from the same numbers: fitness coach, head coach and medical staff.
Why so many coaching staffs give up on it
- Measuring without deciding anything. If the numbers never change a session, nobody looks at them.
- Too many spreadsheets and too many metrics. Twenty columns nobody understands.
- Incomplete data. Players who do not answer, sessions that are never logged.
- Information that arrives late. The analysis lands when the week is already over.
The hard part is not knowing what to measure
The hard part is keeping it going: collecting RPE and wellness from 25 players every day, cross-checking it with GPS and the plan, working out each player's numbers and finding out in time, before the next session. That is where most coaching staffs run out of hours.
Load monitoring with CTBrain
CTBrain does that work for the coaching staff:
- Players report from their app the RPE of every session, their daily wellness and any areas of pain, in seconds.
- Load is worked out automatically: per session and per week, plus monotony, strain and ACWR for every player.
- GPS data is lined up with the plan, drill by drill.
- Alerts in time: when a player with a high load also reports poor wellness, or when someone stops reporting.
- The squad's reporting rate, so you know whether the data is complete.
All in one place, for the coaching staff and, with separate permissions, for the medical staff.
References
- Impellizzeri FM, Marcora SM, Coutts AJ. Internal and external training load: 15 years on. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2019;14(2):270–273. doi:10.1123/ijspp.2018-0935
- Bourdon PC, Cardinale M, Murray A, et al. Monitoring athlete training loads: consensus statement. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2017;12(Suppl 2):S2161–S2170. doi:10.1123/IJSPP.2017-0208
- Impellizzeri FM, Rampinini E, Coutts AJ, Sassi A, Marcora SM. Use of RPE-based training load in soccer. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004;36(6):1042–1047. doi:10.1249/01.MSS.0000128199.23901.2F
- Hooper SL, Mackinnon LT. Monitoring overtraining in athletes: recommendations. Sports Med. 1995;20(5):321–327. doi:10.2165/00007256-199520050-00003
- Gabbett TJ. The training—injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder? Br J Sports Med. 2016;50(5):273–280. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2015-095788
- Impellizzeri FM, Tenan MS, Kempton T, Novak A, Coutts AJ. Acute:chronic workload ratio: conceptual issues and fundamental pitfalls. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2020;15(6):907–913. doi:10.1123/ijspp.2019-0864
- Foster C. Monitoring training in athletes with reference to overtraining syndrome. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1998;30(7):1164–1168. doi:10.1097/00005768-199807000-00023