1. Improving Performance and Preventing
Sports Injuries
The Role of Athlete Monitoring
©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
‘More than 50% of all sports injuries are preventable’
U.S. Center for Disease Control

2. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
Sports Injuries are EXPLODING
‘Sports injuries have become an epidemic’
Champ L. Baker Jr., MD, FACS, Hughston Clinic in Columbus, Georgia
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• “Injuries exploding as youths focus on one
sport”
sfgate.com, Oct 18, 2013
• “1.35 million youths a year have serious
sports injuries”
USA Today, Aug 6, 2013
• “Young athletes risk back injury by playing
too much”
NPR News, Feb 03, 2014
• “Youth sport injuries may lead to adult brain
disease”
abcnews.go.com, Dec 20, 2013
• “Overexposure injuries in youth sports on
the rise”
WTSP, Oct 1, 2013

3. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
It is Becoming an EPIDEMIC
In the U.S., more than 5.5 million children and
adolescents receive medical treatment for sports
injuries every year
Every 25 seconds, a young athlete suffers a sports
injury severe enough to go to the emergency room
(Safe Kids Worldwide, 2013)
High school athletes account for an estimated 500,000
doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year
(stopsportsinjuries.org)
Youth sports-related injuries have increased by 500%
to 700% in the last 10 years
*http://www.armstrongmccready.ca
**Orthopedics Today, May 2010
***http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/media/statistics.aspx
3http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15502559
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4. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
It is Becoming an EPIDEMIC
• 77% of parents express concern over children’s
sports injury risk*
• 47% of coaches say they cannot focus enough on
injury prevention*
• Overtraining, concussion and knee injury = 82,260
Google searches/month (U.S. only)**
*Coaching Our Kids to Fewer Injuries: A Report on Youth Sports Safety (2012)
- safekids.org, *Google.com
‘The cost of youth sports injuries in the US is probably in the hundreds of billions of dollars’
Youth Sports Injury Prevention: Suggestions from the US for Japan, Aaron L.Miller, PhD, Stanford University, 2012
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5. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
Costs are ENORMOUS
‘Injuries that result in missed matches and decreased match availability,
impact negatively team performance’
The 11-year follow-up of the UEFA Champions League injury study, 2013
2
• “Injuries are the fourth-largest cost to US
sports franchises, after payroll, facilities
and marketing”
sportsbusinessdaily.com, Oct 18, 2013
• “In the US, anterior cruciate ligament
ruptures costs about $3·6 billion every
year”
USA Today, Aug 6, 2013
• “In Canada, cost of game-related injuries
amounts to US $218 million per NHL
season”
The Globe and Mail, Jan 20 2014
• “In Switzerland, football injuries cost 145
million Swiss francs each year ”
abcnews.go.com, Dec 20, 2013
• “In Australia, sport injuries cost $2 billion
per year”
news.com.au, 2011

6. Monitoring Training and Well-Being is
CRITICAL to Success.
This is WHY.

7. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
Injuries ARE NOT Just Bad Luck
Most overuse injuries, many viral
infections and burnouts are
linked to overtraining, an
individual "training-competition
> recovery imbalance“ (Lehmann
MJ, 1997)
Fatigue contributes directly to
anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
injuries (McLean, 2009)
Player's average playing time
per game is a significant
predictor of concussion
(Stevens & Smith, 2008)
Unusual increase in training
load during the week prior to
injury compared to that of the
4 preceding weeks (Rogalski,
2013)
‘Overuse injuries almost always involve training errors’
Dr. Lyle J. Micheli Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston
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8. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
Training Response is INDIVIDUAL
Adapted from Foster C.
Physiological Perspectives in
Speed Skating, 1996
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
The Individual Load - Performance Relationship
Undertraining OvertrainingOptimum Zone
OverreachingTop Performance
Performance
Load
The Top Performance
Threshold is individual
and changes
regularly, based on:
• sport and non-sport
stressors
• fatigue
• sleep
• caloric intake
• hydration, etc.
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9. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
The Risk of INJURY is Multifactorial
RISK
of poor
performance
and injury
Training
schedule
Training
Response
Fatigue
and
stress
Competition
schedules
Other
factors
Previous
injuries
Training Schedule
 No rest day
 number of ‘hard days’ per week
 week-to-week training change in
load
 sport specialization before puberty
Competition schedule
• Game-to-training schedule
• playing time
• lack of recovery during
tournaments
• over-scheduling, etc.
Other factors
(type of sport, general health,
age , etc.
Training Response
 Excessive training load
 high monotony and strain
 lack of enjoyment
 perceived exertion
Fatigue and stress
 Enjoyment
 boredom
 general rest and sleep
 nutrition
 travel
 inadequate recovery and stress
Previous injuries
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10. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
We know the SOLUTIONS
• Identify the factors that are increasing the risk of
overtraining and preventable sports injuries
• Monitor training and competitive load and their
underlying factors (monotony, week-to-week
change, etc.)
• Monitor well-being, fatigue and recovery, stress and
their underlying factors (sleep, rest, wellbeing, etc.)
• Implement individualized strategies to optimize
training load and enhance recovery and rest
‘Optimizing training loads is already being adopted by professional sport. It is now time to translate similar
strategies to community sport’
Caroline Finch, bmj.com, 2012
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11. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
We know the BENEFITS
Better identification of
the individual training
thresholds, the point at
which the combination of
sport-related and non-
sport-related stressors
are overwhelming the
recovery ability
1
Fewer injuries,
overtraining, infections,
burnout
2
Less fluctuation in
performance readiness3
Improved coach-athlete
relationship4
Better team-synergy
5
Healthier, more enjoyable
competitive sports
experience for the
athletes
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12. This is WHY We have created AthleteMonitoring.com
Athlete
Enters
Well-being
questionnaire Complex Data is
Transformed into
Meaningful
Information
Coach
receives
Immediate
alerts
How to
fix
advices
Complete
access to
data
‘Subjective reporting of training load, perceived stress,
and psychological mood states has been shown to be a
reliable indicator of adaptation to training load and may
prove to be more reliable than physiological tests.’
Robson-Ansley et al., Journal of Sports Sciences, 2009
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Post-session
feedback

13. ©2015, FITSTATS Technologies, Inc.
Summary
A majority of sports injuries can be prevented by monitoring
and individualizing training load and recovering strategies
Parents are concerned, many coaches don’t have enough time
Reducing preventable injuries by only 15% will result in billion
of cost savings per year
Tools such as AthleteMonitoring.com can be used help to
effectively implement a proactive, monitoring strategy and
reduce the risk of injuries and overtraining while maximizing
recovery, health and performance
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14. http://www.athletemonitoring.com