Komino, P., Le Mat, Y., Zadro, I., Osgnach, C. & Morin, J.B. (2022)
Purpose: sprint force-velocity profiling is a simple and practical way to accurately assess the macroscopic propulsion capacities underlying players’ sprint acceleration performance. Since this approach can be based on position- or speed-time data, many systems can be used depending on the context (e.g. radar, laser, timing gates or Global Positioning System (GPS) units) (4). It is thus important to study inter-device differences to inform about the magnitude of intra- and interdevice reliability. The increasing accuracy and popularity of GPS in team sport justifies the investigation of sprint force-velocity main outcomes derived from speed-time data obtained with this technology. Our aim was to assess the differences between a specific model of GPS and a linear encoder training and testing device, and compare their intertrial reliability. Practical applications: If different types of sprint measurement devices as the 1080 Sprint and the GPEXE Pro2 are used for speed-time and force-velocity profile assessment, outcomes from different devices should not be compared (without specific preliminary study) as devices are may very likely not be inter-changeable. For each of the systems tested, the high goodness of fit of the raw speed-time data with the exponential model, and the low and comparable inter-trial variability suggest that both the 1080 Sprint and the GPEXE Pro2 systems can be used in practice for inter- and intra-athlete comparisons.
Published: April 1, 2022