Learning To Trust RPE For Training Loads
Coaches invest hours devising training plans that will push their athletes just to the edge, but not over. Overtraining leads to burnout and injuries but going easy won’t get the right results. The challenge of walking this fine line is truly understanding the intensity and workload being placed on athletes, whether its real or perceived. Objective, wearable technology has helped in the form of heart rate and GPS monitors, but can be expensive and doesn’t capture a true sense of the player’s experience. As an alternative, sport scientists have recently found that a self-reported rate of perceived exertion (RPE) can accurately capture the workload experience.
Two sports that are learning to rely on RPE, soccer and swimming, represent two very different training styles. Soccer coaches spend considerable time on team drills and scrimmages while interspersing physical fitness into the sessions. Swimmers, while part of a team, primarily focus on individual times and skills. Despite the differences, researchers have found plenty of evidence that the athlete’s opinion of their workout difficulty is valid and reliable.
Back in the 1960s, Gunnar Borg, psychology professor at Stockholm University, created the RPE scale, now respectively called the Borg scale. The original version asked athletes to rate their level of exertion on a range of 6 to 20, with 6 being “very light” and 20 indicating “very difficult.” While the 6-20 range may seem an odd choice, it actually has some logic. Borg found that if the rating is multiplied by 10, there is a high correlation to the athlete’s heart rate at that moment (i.e. a rating of 12 typically corresponds with a HR of 120).
Borg also added a 10 point scale, known as the Category(C) Ratio(R) scale or CR-10. This produces ratings of 1-10 and is used not only in sports training but also in clinical settings to estimate levels of pain.
Last year, Spanish and Italian researchers compared the workout assessments of 28 semi-pro soccer players. For an objective measure, they captured heart rate history and tracked their distance travelled with GPS devices. Then, after each training session, they asked the players for their RPE using the Borg CR-10 scale. They found a very high correlation between the HR data, the distance travelled and the players’ RPE ratings.
“Being easy to perform and inexpensive compared with HR-based methods, sRPE should be regarded as a viable way to track internal load in training setup in soccer,” concluded David Casamichana, sport scientist at the University of the Basque Country and lead author of the study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
But what if young athletes report a “less than truthful” RPE in an attempt to either impress or fool their coach? In the same way, what if the coach’s interpretation of a hard workout does not match with a player’s reaction to it?
Renato Barosso, of the School of Physical Education and Sport at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, gathered together 160 swimmers of different age-groups and different competitive swimming experience, and nine of their coaches. Looking at their training plan for the day, the coaches were asked to rate the workout using the CR-10 RPE scale, prior to the session. Then, 30 minutes after the training, the swimmers were asked for their RPE to see how well it matched the coaches’ estimates. Athletes were divided into three age groups, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-16, while the workouts were classified as easy (RPE less than 3), moderate (3-5) or difficult (greater than 5).
As might be expected, the agreement between coach and swimmer was higher for older swimmers and lower for younger swimmers. While the coach’s estimate of intensity was assumed correct, the researchers found that the swimmers aged 11-14 ratings differed across all three categories, easy-moderate-difficult. The oldest swimmers only disagreed with their coaches at the difficult level.
The study will be published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.
So, while RPE can be trusted for an accurate estimate of training difficulty, it would benefit both athlete and coach to gather all available data in one online training system for comparison and analysis. Being able to chart RPE over time against more objective measures like HR, repetitions or activities would enable better training plans.
About Metrifit
Metrifit is an athlete monitoring system that gathers subjective and objective information from both coaches and athletes in a simple but effective manner with intelligent visualization helping coaches and athletes to act on that data. Why not have a look at our Ready to Perform product and gain insight on the physical and mental state of your athletes through our daily wellbeing questionnaire? To find out more visit our Metrifit Product Overview page or get in touch for a free demo.
"The cutting edge technology of Metrifit enables Managers, Coaches and Players to use this innovative technology to gain these crucial percentage points over their opponents in a technologically advanced yet easy to use web-based platform. The data collated on a daily basis greatly informs Management Teams while the educational aspect of the system really appeals to modern day athletes who are constantly looking for that extra edge."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-14T13:24:03+01:00
Cian O’Neill
Kildare Senior Football Manager
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/cian-oneill-short/
“Metrifit has become a multifactorial platform that has helped up us provide deeper context to the decisions that we make on a daily basis in regards to the physical development of our student-athletes. We have intimately been utilizing both the subjective wellness questionnaire along with player training load data to drive professional conversation and actionable tasks to enhance the sporting results and quality of life for our student-athletes with unparalleled success.”
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-20T12:12:33+01:00
Kevin Schultz
Associate Director of Strength & Conditioning
Director of Olympic Strength & Conditioning
University of Wisconsin
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/kevin-schultz-full/
"We have found metrifit to be a great tool to ensure we can monitor and adapt our athletes training loads regularly. This programme has ensured our coaches and staff can maximize all training and recovery to each individual needs on a day to day basis. It is user friendly and provides excellent visual data that can be viewed by both practitioners and athletes. With the help of Metrifit support team, we have personalized it to suit our specific sport and training needs. It's a excellent athlete monitoring tool and is essential for assisting the team to perform at their best"
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Lee Stutely
Team Manager and Athlete Support Services Coordinator at Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby
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"What’s more impressive is the ability to utilize the basics but at the same time have the capability to explore detailed and intricate correlative data points that helps us as coaches gain the most from our athletes. Metrifit has also served as an easy communications hub to ensure essential information is passed to the appropriate team. We are excited to what the future from Metrifit will bring."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-14T14:09:22+01:00
Michael Torres
CEO, Shift Performance, Miami
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Richard Deuchrass
Lincoln University Athletic Performance Manager
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Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
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Head Volley Ball Coach, Southern Illinois University
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/kari-thompson/
"The holistic approach of medical, physical, emotional and even tech/tactical; bringing together what we need to monitor and evaluate our University players. “If you can’t measure it – it doesn’t exist.” I know we were the first Canadian University to use the program and I know many more will be asking for it in the future! I highly recommend Metrifit."
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2017-06-12T14:25:37+01:00
Tino Fusco, B.Sc. ChPC
Head Coach, Women's Soccer, Mount Royal University (Canada)
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/tino-fusco-b-sc-chpc/
"Metrifit is an outstanding platform to track your athletes’ wellness. It’s simple to use, easy to implement and gives outstanding information on your athlete’s subjective wellness which can be used to assign training loads. I highly recommend Metrifit for any coach looking to begin implementing technology into their program"
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-12T17:58:50+01:00
Brijesh Patel
Quinnipiac University, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/brijesh-patel/
"Metrifit has been hugely beneficial in supporting our coaches and back room staff to track and monitor our players training loads, performance and readiness to train. Having a one-stop shop for collating all relevant information across a holistic picture of the player allows us to help prevent burnout, injury and provide timely feedback and communication to all."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
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Eamonn Fitzmaurice
Kerry Senior Football, Manager
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"Metrifit has been instrumental in helping our international Managers, Coaches and Medical teams to identify players who require modifications in training loads or who are struggling with some aspect of their preparation for, or recovery from, training and matches. One of the big strengths of this technology is that it allows our Managers and Medical teams to monitor players both during international competition and outside of these times."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
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Dan Horan
Head of Fitness for International Football/Fitness Coach Men's Senior Team
Football Association of Ireland
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"The success of young athletes using Metrifit was an interesting challenge in the Elite Soccer space… After six months of learning, creating habit with teenagers the project is a huge success…. 90% completion rate has allowed us deal with all the key KPI’s that are needed in their development. In our space with developing athletes…Metrifit is a godsend and is the most important tool in this space."
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2017-06-16T16:51:01+01:00
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Academy Directory, SJ.B (St. Joseph’s Bray ) Academy
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"When COVID altered college athletics as we knew it, Metrifit came to the rescue. This intuitive athlete monitoring, health and well-being system provides the athlete, coach, and sports medicine staff a way to monitor and balance the physical, emotional, health and well-being of our athlete’s. Metrifit provided that calm in the middle of the perfect storm for our entire athletic department for the future. Thank you to the entire Metrifit family for assisting our department with a seamless process."
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Head Athletic Trainer, Colorado School of Mines
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Dr. Dale Richardson
CEO Achieve Total Performance Pty Ltd
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"We have been using Metrifit for the past season at Cornish Pirates. It has been greatly beneficial for us to have our wellness and load management data on one easy to access system. We have found this invaluable over the past season whereby Coaches, Physios and Strength and conditioning coaches can monitor both the psychological and physiological load of our athletes on a daily basis."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-16T15:06:04+01:00
Paul Cremin
Head Physiotherapist, Cornish Pirates Rugby Club
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Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-12T13:55:49+01:00
Joe O’Connor
NISUS Fitness, S&C Coach Clare Senior Hurling, Horse Sport Ireland and Limerick Senior Hurling
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Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
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Jason McGahan
Sports Scientist, Kildare Football, PhD Sports Science Researcher
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"I've found Metrifit an invaluable resource. Not only to monitor daily wellness, readiness to train and training load within the squad, but also to monitor training load externally with additional external squads. Furthermore, Metrifit has acted as a key teaching tool, allowing young athletes associate good sleeping, eating and recovery habits to an improved sense of wellness and thus superior on-field performance."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
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Tommy Mooney
Strength and Conditioning Coach at DCU Sport and with Dublin Minor GAA
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Aaron Mansfield
Head Coach, LMU Lions, Loyola Marymount University
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"I wanted to reach out to thank Metrifit for an extremely successful season. Our Regis University women’s side won the ultra-competitive RMAC with a 11-0-1 record. Our student-athletes reported in post-season interviews the positive use of Metrifit that enabled their own reflection about their bodies and also found value providing information to coaches for our strategic planning purposes. On more than one occasion, we recognized deviations from norms and were able to step-in with a quick chat to help a player get back on track or refer her to the proper support personnel for further assistance. Fantastic! "
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J.B. Belzer
Head Coach, Women's Soccer at Regis University
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"Metrifit is an amazingly easy-to-use yet comprehensive monitoring tool for training and recovery! The elite athletes we work with are able track and monitor their situations and states daily, in order to maximize their performance loads and recovery practices. This also helps our coaches customize the training programs more effectively. I'd recommend this for any serious team / athlete or coach in wanting to bring out the very best in their long-term performances! "
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2017-06-12T18:03:35+01:00
Edgar K. Tham
Founder and Chief Sport & Performance Psychologist, SportPsych Consulting (Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines)
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Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-15T12:51:46+01:00
Dave Passmore
Head Coach, Irish Hockey
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“Metrifit has allowed us to gain better insight on our athletes and their individual stress response to training and outside factors. This has helped us to make daily adjustments when necessary, to further enhance their development which has led to higher performance levels, faster recovery, and a reduction in injuries. The new lifestyle profiling survey has been an invaluable insight into the lifestyle habits of my athletes and has helped focus on key areas that can be improved, benefiting athletes on their performance journey.“
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2021-04-27T11:02:12+01:00
Dan Rickaby
Assistant S&C Coach, Tulane University
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Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-20T22:26:45+01:00
Derek Bol
Strength & Conditioning Coach, Valparaiso University
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/derek-bol/
"Metrifit has provided me with an opportunity to get to know and understand our players on a different level. I've found our conversations to be more intentional, which has been so important in developing deeper, more authentic relationships. Ultimately, understanding their needs has allowed me to push buttons that leads them to be better people and inspires them to be better athletes"
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2021-04-27T11:10:43+01:00
Ryan Osborn
Head Basketball Coach, Carmel High School
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/ryan-osborn/
"We started using Metrifit to see if it gave us better predictability and allowed easier monitoring than our DIY excel sheets prior to the Tokyo qualifiers. In a sport where measuring training load is very difficult, Metrifit filled a huge gap in our ability to monitor our athletes’ performance state and recovery. After some months of collecting data I was able to clearly see when to back off and when to keep going with different aspects of the training programme, as well as when to provide extra care and support for our elite athlete – and without a doubt it is much more informative and sensitive than our DIY model, not to mention much easier! Looking forward to the next Olympic cycle with Metrifit as one of our essential tools."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2021-05-28T12:30:33+01:00
Emma Hawke, PhD Exercise Physiology
Coach - Sweden Climbing, Olympic Offensive - Female Coach Swedish Olympic Committee, Senior Lecturer - Coach education programme (Sweden)
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Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-07-25T14:10:08+01:00
Robert Walsh
Strength Coach
Nederlandse Ski Vereniging (Netherlands Ski/Snowboard Team)
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/robert-walsh-short-testimonial/
"The ability to acutely monitor stress and recovery and make the correct adjustments was critical to our health and performance throughout the NCAA tournament. Metrifit has a very strong educational component. With the information we get, I am able to clearly understand the habits and behaviors of our athletes, and how they may be impacting performance."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-12T11:42:14+01:00
Erik Helland
Director of Strength & Conditioning and Head Strength Coach Men’s basketball, University of Wisconsin
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"Metrifit is an integral part of the set up within the senior and intermediate inter-county Camogie. The data collected daily on the individual players is critical to the decision making of the backroom team including, managers, trainers, selectors, physiotherapist and indeed myself. As a nutritionist it allows me to monitor the quality of the player’s diet, energy levels, sleep pattern and overall wellbeing."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-13T16:38:55+01:00
Yvonne Treacy
Nutritionist, Wexford Camogie
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"Metrifit has enabled us to bring to life the complexiities associated with managing the academic, pastoral and sporting demands of pupils aged 13 - 18 in a UK day and boarding school environment It has provided another bridge between coaches and sports pupis, giving pupils a space to provide honest self reflection on wellbeing and providing coaches a head start on appropriate freshness and fatigue balance across the school week."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-19T14:14:37+01:00
Graham Williams
Athletic Development Coach, MSc ASCC
Millfield School, UK
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/graham-williams-short/
"Our coaches through Metrifit basically have an ‘X-ray’ vision into the habits and lifestyles and stressors their athletes have on a day to day basis, especially when they are not together. Thus the professional authentic relationships created through the casual conversations, reflection process and application provided is priceless."
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2017-06-12T14:21:17+01:00
Brian Clarke
Head Strength and Conditioning Co-ordinator,Noblesville High School
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/brian-clarke/
“I have been using Metrifit for the past number of years and I have found it to be an excellent piece of software. It is extremely easy to use and has proved very beneficial in preparing myself for competition. The ability to view my health and wellbeing stats everyday and see how this influences my performance in both practice and competition has been very helpful. I have been able to put more effort into key areas such as fluid intake, sleep and balanced golf practice and training. Having the ability to view my detailed stats helps me to understand exactly where I am and how I need to adjust my training or health choices. I have found using Metrifit this past year has been a crucial help for me to play well. As I now have turned 50 I am playing on The Champions tour in the USA and have played well during my first year. Metrifit has been as important as my golf equipment in achieving that success.”
Metrifit Athlete Monitoring System
2019-03-04T20:48:39+00:00
Robert Karlsson, Professional Golfer
https://metrifit.com/blog/testimonials/robert-karlsson/
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