A Year for the History Books

How the Orlando Pride has moved to the top of the NWSL table and uses data automation to influence how they manage their athletes, keep them healthy and win more games!

It’s hard to get an edge when playing at a high level; at a certain point, everyone is good. Not only is winning at a high level difficult, but being able to cement an undefeated streak into history is even harder to accomplish. However, that’s exactly what the NWSL’s Orlando Pride has been able to do this season. For the first time in NWSL history, the Pride went unbeaten through 23 games, most recently winning the NWSL Shield. 

To get to this point, it takes hard work, grit, perseverance and consistency. From a strength & conditioning and sports science standpoint in particular, understanding your athletes is imperative to ensure success. 

At a high level, teams have access to the best of the best sports technology which provides them with a great deal of data about their athletes. The amount of data is oftentimes overwhelming and unless a coach has plenty of extra time, interpreting the data in a way that is beneficial and informative doesn’t always happen. 

Fortunately for the Orlando Pride, Head of Strength and Conditioning and Sports Science Christi Edson has found a way to not only interpret the data in a timely manner, but to also analyze the data in a way that allows her to make informed decisions.

By implementing GPS DataViz, Edson is able to use the detailed data reports highlighting key data points provided by all their technologies to ensure optimal training and injury prevention and to keep athletes match ready. 

The team overview and player breakdown reports specifically make it simple to see the day’s data at a glance for Edson and also allow her to easily relay the information to other coaches. 

“The player breakdown is one of my favorite graphs because not only do I get the individualized data that shows where the athlete is to themselves, but I also can see where they are within the team,” said Edson. 

Prior to utilizing GPS DataViz, Christi couldn’t get athletes’ jumping data from the force plates soon enough for the data to impact training sessions. Now she is able to get the reports on the way to the field and even has time to collaborate with the athletic training staff to make changes to sessions as needed.

Savannah Blake, Sport Science Analyst had this to say, "It's important for players to have immediate, self-service access to their data in a way that is easy to read and creates context for each one of their training sessions. Additionally, GPS DataViz is an incredibly useful tool to any data department, the API integration across multiple platforms allows for daily tasks to be automated and frees analysts and scientists to dig deeper into the data to answer more detailed questions about their squads."

Being able to view a full day's worth of data at a glance has allowed Edson to spend more time training the athletes and building training programs tailored to what each athlete specifically needs in order to keep them at the peak of their game. The whole staff is more informed about their athletes which influences how they manage them, keep them healthy and win more games!