From Data Overload to Actionable Insights: Automating Sports Science

Modern sports teams collect massive amounts of performance data. GPS systems, force plates, velocity-based training devices, and wellness questionnaires generate thousands of metrics daily. The challenge isn't collecting data anymore—it's making sense of it all before planning your next training session.

GPS DataViz Founder and CEO Marc Kerrest recently discussed with Football Business Television how GPS DataViz helps practitioners cut through the noise and focus on what drives athlete performance.

In this article, you'll learn:

• Why too much data often leads to worse decisions

• Four ways GPS DataViz transforms performance analysis

• How GPS DataViz shifts teams from reactive to proactive

• Why technology augments expertise rather than replacing it

Why are teams struggling with performance data?

More metrics create less focus

Performance technology has exploded. What started with basic GPS tracking now includes an ecosystem of devices, each generating floods of information. The result? You spend more time wrestling with spreadsheets than working with athletes.

The volume problem is staggering. Consider velocity-based training (VBT): every single rep generates multiple metrics—average velocity, peak velocity, average power, peak power, displacement. Multiply that across a 30-minute session with multiple athletes, and you're looking at thousands of data points from one training component alone.

This creates a paradox. You invest in cutting-edge technology to gain competitive advantages, but the sheer volume of data prevents you from extracting meaningful insights.

Fragmented technology blocks critical connections

The sports performance landscape has transformed over the past decade:

• Technology once reserved for elite clubs is now accessible at lower levels

• Laboratory testing has moved from research settings to everyday practice for most professional leagues

• Teams can monitor everything from jump height to bar speed in real time

  
  

Evolution brings complexity. Each vendor operates within its own ecosystem. GPS data lives in one platform, force plate information in another, wellness questionnaires in a third. This forces you to manually export, combine, and analyze information—spending hours each week on data tasks that don't directly improve athlete performance.

Data silos hide the insights you need most

Fragmentation extends beyond time management. When data sources don't communicate, critical insights slip through the cracks:

• You might notice elevated GPS loads but miss force plate information showing declining power output

• You might see poor wellness scores without connecting them to accumulated training stress from the previous week

• You might identify a pattern in one metric but lack the context from other data sources

  
  

The real question isn't whether you have enough data—it's whether you can connect the dots fast enough to make informed decisions.

You need your data to talk to itself. You need systems that automatically surface connections between different metrics, highlight what matters, and present it in a format coaches can actually use.

"Teams are collecting a lot of performance data, and the reality is it takes a long time to analyze. What we're trying to do is automate insights out of that data."— Marc Kerrest, CEO and Founder, GPS DataViz

Excerpt from interview with Football Business Television

How does GPS DataViz close the gap between data and decisions?

The solution to data overload isn't collecting less information—it's processing it efficiently. This is where GPS DataViz changes the game entirely.

GPS DataViz is an automated sports science platform that contextualizes athlete data against game-specific demands, generates automated training recommendations based on periodization cycles, and can even flag players who are over- or under-worked before injuries happen. All in the time it takes your athlete to catch their breath between a set of sprints. 

We aggregate and organize your data from disparate sources and use proprietary algorithms to deliver automated, contextualized insights in under a minute—insights that everyone from coaches to executives can understand and act on immediately.

Effective automation rests on four core capabilities:

1. Proprietary algorithms surface what matters

You don't need to see every metric—you need to see the metrics that demand action. GPS DataViz scans thousands of data points across multiple systems, then uses proprietary algorithms to isolate the handful of insights that actually matter.

"We're algorithmically going through the data and isolating actionable insights for practitioners that change the way they train their athletes. And then we make it understandable for coaches." — Marc Kerrest, CEO and Founder, GPS DataViz

This shifts how you spend your time. Instead of drowning in spreadsheets, you focus your expertise where it's most valuable: interpreting context and making decisions.

2. Automated reporting bridges the gap between science and coaching

Top sports scientists can interpret raw data on the fly, but coaches need that same information translated into practical training adjustments. This translation gap slows decision-making and creates friction between performance staff and coaching staff.

GPS DataViz's automated reporting solves this by generating Individual and Weekly Reports that present insights in actionable coaching language, not technical data terminology. Coaches can:

• Track progress across multiple data points

• Identify trends before they become problems

• Make data-driven adjustments without decoding technical metrics

  
  

When everyone from the head coach to the assistant strength coach understands the insights, data stops being a source of confusion and starts being a unifying language.

3. Cross-platform integration creates a complete picture of athlete readiness

Departments spend thousands of dollars on performance technology devices—GPS, force plates, NordBords, force frames, timing gates, wellness survey apps. But when your head coach asks, "Who is good to go today?" your staff has to manually triangulate five to seven different reports to arrive at one answer. By the time you have an answer, practice is half over.

We call this the Synthesis Gap: Lots of data, but no definitive action. GPS DataViz closes that gap. 

GPS DataViz integrates all performance data streams into one platform. You can upload any testing or wellness data and immediately see it contextualized alongside GPS data. The platform handles the technical integration so you can focus on what the complete picture reveals.

When all data lives in one place, you spot these patterns immediately instead of discovering them days later—or not at all. When your head coach asks who's ready, you have a definitive answer in seconds, not hours.

4. DataViz AI uncovers patterns at speeds that enable action

Artificial intelligence represents the next frontier in performance analytics, but not in the way many assume. AI's value isn't in replacing human judgment; it's in uncovering patterns and relationships that humans might miss and doing so at speeds that enable timely action.

DataViz AI helps you get answers in seconds. Rather than spending time formulating queries and running manual analyses, you can ask questions in natural language and receive insights drawn from your entire data ecosystem.

This exploratory capability opens new avenues:

• AI might identify an unexpected correlation between force plate asymmetry and GPS deceleration patterns

• AI might notice that an athlete's performance peaks consistently occur on specific training schedules

• These insights prompt deeper investigation and potentially new training protocols

  
  

The primary advantage is processing speed combined with pattern recognition across massive datasets. While you can spot trends in data you're familiar with, AI can simultaneously analyze relationships across hundreds of variables and years of historical data.

This speed matters because sports performance operates on tight timelines. You need to make training decisions hours or days in advance, not weeks later. AI enables you to ask complex questions and receive answers while there's still time to act on them.

How does GPS DataViz shift teams from reactive to proactive?

The most powerful shift in performance analytics isn't just faster analysis—it's the move from reactive correction to proactive planning. GPS DataViz enables you to see potential problems and adjust accordingly, rather than discovering issues when it's too late to fix them.

See problems before they happen, not after

Instead of discovering load problems on Friday afternoon before a weekend match, you can see potential issues days in advance with GPS DataViz’s predictive analytics. You input your upcoming practice plans—which drills you're running, how long each will last, who's participating—and receive team, positional, and individual load projections before anyone steps on the field.

This transforms training planning from educated guesswork into informed decision-making.

What this looks like in practice:

Consider this scenario:

• Your team has a crucial match on Saturday

• Your practice plan includes multiple high-intensity crossing drills throughout the week that will tax your wingers

• With traditional reactive analysis, you wouldn't discover the accumulated high-speed running load until Friday—too late to make meaningful adjustments without sacrificing training quality

  
  

GPS DataViz changes this equation:

• On Monday, you see that your planned week will push your winger's high-speed running into the red zone by Thursday

• Armed with this foresight, you make tactical adjustments: during the crossing and finishing drill, the winger still gets technical reps but plays as a center forward instead of wide

• The winger maintains their finishing quality without accumulating unnecessary sprint distance

  
  

Real-time monitoring throughout the week ensures you hit target numbers without over- or undertraining. The result? Your team arrives at match day in optimal condition rather than fatigued or underprepared.

How does injury mitigation deliver ROI?

When a key player misses a match due to fatigue or an injury that could have been mitigated, the cost extends far beyond their salary. There's the tactical impact on the team, the potential loss of points, and the ripple effects on season objectives.

Howden analyzed injuries and injury costs from 96 men's teams across the top five European football (soccer) leagues during the 2023/24 season. The findings are staggering:

• 4,123 injuries costing €732.02 million in a single season

• Nearly one injury per game (0.97)

• €172,975 average injury cost per match

• €1,922 cost per minute of injury time

  
  

And the trend is worsening. Over the past four seasons (excluding Covid-19), men's teams across Europe's top five leagues have recorded 14,292 injuries, costing €2.3 billion total. The 2023/24 figures represent a 4% increase in injury frequency and 5% rise in associated costs compared to the previous season.

With costs this high, proactive planning and injury mitigation efforts pay for themselves quickly.

"Preventing even one athlete from missing one game pays for our software for years. The ROI of what we're doing is clear, from an injury-mitigation point of view alone. And the time we're saving practitioners is through the roof." — Marc Kerrest, CEO and Founder, GPS DataViz

Does technology replace expertise?

When practitioners first encounter automation, the question inevitably arises: Is this replacing me? But automation doesn't replace expertise. It eliminates the tedious work that prevents experts from applying their knowledge effectively. 

"You could mow your lawn with your scissors. I'm pretty sure you'd rather use a lawn mower. It's just more effective. And it doesn't mean that you're not mowing the lawn anymore. It just means you're doing it better and in half the time." — Marc Kerrest, CEO and Founder, GPS DataViz

Context still matters. Environment, subjective factors, and unique situations require human judgment. AI can identify that an athlete's high-speed running is elevated, but it takes an experienced practitioner to know whether that's because the athlete is performing well or because the team struggled to maintain possession during their last soccer match.

The goal isn't to replace expertise—it's to eliminate the repetitive work so you can focus on interpretation, application, and athlete relationships. That's why high-performing teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, Orlando Pride, and Georgia Tech Football have partnered with GPS DataViz to streamline their performance analysis and focus on what matters most: athlete development and game-time results.

"GPS DataViz has been an asset to us through training camp and into our season. Working with them has allowed us to better view our data and place it in a centralized platform. Doing so has allowed us to see things from a different view and improved the way we use our technology on a day-to-day basis." — Jordan Diaz, Director of Speed, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football

What's next for your team?

The sports performance industry stands at an inflection point. Data collection has outpaced analysis capabilities, creating a backlog of information that teams struggle to transform into competitive advantages. The teams that succeed moving forward won't necessarily be those with the most data—they'll be those who best understand how to focus on what matters and automate the rest.

Ready to transform how your team uses performance data?

Visit our features page to learn more about how GPS DataViz can help you move from data overload to actionable insights.

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