This study, "Analysis of In-Season External Load and Sport Performance in Women’s Collegiate Basketball," was motivated by the clear need for detailed, season-long data on how external load varies within NCAA Division I women’s basketball—a field still underrepresented in load monitoring literature, despite the sport’s intensity and the importance of individualized athlete management. External load—quantified via GPS and inertial sensor technologies and expressed in metrics l

In sport science, raw numbers alone are seldom sufficient to guide effective decisions—contextual understanding is critical to unlock their true value. Metrics such as Player Load, Concentric Impulse, and TRIMP acquire profound meaning only when viewed against an athlete’s usual performance levels or a team's collective norms . This is precisely where statistical tools like standard deviation and z-scores become indispensable. They quantify how far a specific data point devia

This article was written to address the growing need for comprehensive evaluation of external workloads and performance changes in collegiate women’s lacrosse athletes throughout a full competitive season. With evolving NCAA rules and an increase in match intensity, it has become vital for coaches and sports scientists to understand not only the total accumulation of physical loads, but also the effects these demands have on players’ speed, agility, strength, and endurance ov