Differing views on performance measurement

10 January 2016 - 02:00 By KHANYISO TSHWAKU

The mini vests worn by the England pace bowlers sometimes look out of place in the nets and on the field. But there is method to the madness as they hold the GPS trackers that measure their workload.South Africa's pace bowlers do not use the vests or GPS trackers, but their fitness and conditioning coach Greg King is not overly concerned.story_article_left1A performance measuring system called Performax does the trick and it is the standard performance gauge used in South African cricket.GPS trackers have been used in the past but King feels the Performax system is a simple measuring tool."The Proteas have access to heart rate monitors, GPS trackers and our own workload monitoring database (Performax). The team has used heart rate monitors and GPS trackers extensively in the past. We use the GPS trackers but this is more for marketing purposes so the use is intermittent and only for home tours," King said."The Performax system relies on all trainers from around the country [national teams and franchises] to log the workloads of their players."There is a standard method of input for all trainers and all workload information is entered into the system. This includes match and practice activity as well as all conditioning work. It all goes into the system. This is a requirement for every franchise trainer to complete."For a team like England who have the heaviest test schedule of the International Cricket Council full member nations, monitoring their bowlers' workload is important.After this tour, they have a summer of seven tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan before a subcontinent safari against Bangladesh and India.South Africa does not have the same test match traffic but the bowlers have not been immune to the stresses of repetitive bowling.King does not see anything wrong with not using the GPS system, even though South Africa's top pace bowlers have broken down in the past year.With the various T20 leagues and county cricket stints, keeping track of player workload becomes difficult.In India, Dale Steyn missed three tests with a groin injury. A shoulder injury limited his participation in the first test against England and made him miss the New Year's test.He is 50/50 for Thursday's third test at the Wanderers but those are the pitfalls facing the Proteas despite being in the test slow lane compared to England.King admitted keeping track of Indian Premier League (IPL) players was difficult but they do what they can to watch over their prized bowling assets.story_article_right2There is also the data capturing and storage overload King warned against that comes with GPS tracker usage."The Performax system is used in the off-season when players are working with franchise or national trainers, but it is difficult when they go to the IPL as we are dependent on them submitting the info to us. Sometimes this info is good and other times it is not," King said."Modern GPS trackers are highly sophisticated and provide a wealth of information, but there are often easier ways to determine players' workloads."It really just depends on the information you are interested in and that you feel is relevant. Sometimes there is too much information for the support staff and players to analyse and digest. Another drawback of GPS: In order to track workloads consistently, the units must be worn for all activities that are deemed to be important. If not, the workloads measured will be patchy and probably under-predict the actual load."..

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