May 29, 2024
A winning strategy in collaboration with Garmin Health, based on the pioneering example of handball club FRISCH AUF! Göppingen.
The ever-evolving technology sector allows us to glean insights from a wealth of health data and how we can optimise various aspects of our daily lives. These insights can then be used to inform decision-making, particularly when it comes to health and fitness. Many sports clubs are realising the potential of utilising health metrics such as steps taken, heart rate and more.1sleep, stress, and more, athletes benefit from customized training programs to improve their physical and mental health and performance.
A game-changing platform
of XPS Network Coaching Platform He played a key role in Garmin’s recent collaboration with Sideline Sports and a professional handball team. Let’s go! GöppingenIn 2019, Garmin offered the team discounted products for the collaboration. The platform enables team coaches to create and communicate training plans, monitor and analyze training data, make data-driven coaching decisions and give instant feedback to players.
The XPS Network collects data captured by your Garmin Forerunner through seamless integration with the Garmin Health Connected Ecosystem.® The player is wearing a 955 smartwatch. XPS Reportingamong other things, various health indicators are displayed, such as:
- sleep Tracking: Monitoring total sleep time is essential to identify an athlete’s recovery needs.
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV): HRV allows coaches to monitor how their athletes are doing with their training. Low HRV may indicate a problem with the player’s overall physical and mental state. Along with other measures, reducing training load can increase HRV.
- Stress Tracking: Coaches can assess the stress levels of each athlete: high stress levels during training are necessary for positive adaptive mechanisms, whereas persistently high medium and low stress values suggest negative effects, and coaches and staff can try to reduce this negative stress if necessary.
- Running Dynamics: For special issues such as return to sport or play or developing a more efficient running technique, ground contact time and stride length are monitored.
Monitoring these metrics through morning reports gives coaches a clear picture of where opportunities exist to optimize training to meet individual performance requirements.
Real World Success Stories
With 11 German Championship wins, two European Cups (Champions League) wins by national champions and four European Cups to their name, FRISCH AUF! Göppingen has earned respect and market importance in the national and international handball world. When they began working with Garmin and the XPS Network, the club had two main goals. The first was to optimize players’ performance by adapting their training load based on health data. XPS ReportSecondly, it reduces the frequency of injuries and illnesses.
By using the XPS reporting tool to objectively recognise signs of fatigue and sub-optimal performance, coaches can intervene and make tactical changes to players’ training loads.
The graph above shows sleep data for athletes who took part in the European Championships. The data shows that total sleep time was reduced during this period, indicating the need for adequate recovery time upon return.
This graph shows that this player has a large fluctuation in HRV, indicating that this particular regime is not suitable and that the training load should be reduced to encourage recovery.
Use of the Garmin Forerunner 955 has proven successful for coaches as well as players, and this can be seen in the compliance rate with the use of the watch.
“I wear this watch every day and at night because it gives me a holistic view of my body, my recovery and my sleep. The watch helps me and my coaches plan and structure my workouts during and after. In my opinion it’s the best smartwatch I’ve ever used.”
— Tim Knull, Team Captain
“I use my Garmin watch in many different aspects of my daily life. Firstly, I check the effectiveness of my training in every exercise session and see how much rest I need. Secondly, I track and monitor my sleep to get an overview of my recovery capacity and to see how prepared I am for training. Finally, I use the heart rate variability data to see if I’m doing well.”
— David Schmidt, right back
Benefits of using Garmin Health
From both a hardware and software perspective, Garmin was the obvious choice for this collaboration. The application required a robust wearable built to the highest quality standards, capable of withstanding daily use and intense strength training sessions. Additionally, Garmin Health API and Activity API It provides insight into a multitude of variables, giving you a comprehensive overview of each player, ultimately helping athletes stay healthier, perform better and develop, which in turn improves the performance of the entire team.
The Future of Athletic Performance
Innovations in fitness technology are always on the horizon, and there will continue to be more ways for sports teams to understand the health, fitness, and performance of their athletes. What’s more, this technology can be applied to a variety of sports, including basketball, field hockey, soccer, tennis, volleyball, floorball, and more, pushing the boundaries of what athletes can achieve.
All images courtesy of Jan Reusch, FRISCH AUF! Göppingen
If you’d like to learn more about the capabilities of Garmin Health fitness solutions, contact us today.
1See Garmin.com/ataccuracy. Garmin smartwatches are not designed or intended to monitor or diagnose disease or medical conditions. See measurement accuracy information here.
