Table 3.2 Characteristics of Global Navigation Satellite Systems of different manufacturers with IMS certificate
Company Device Sampling
rate (Hz)Satellite networks LPS
integratedTriaxial
accelerometerTriaxial
gyroscope Triaxial
magnetometerBattery life (h) HR data
available Catapult Vector S7
Vector G7
10–18 GPS,
GLONASS, SBAS
Yes 100 Hz 100 Hz 100 Hz 6 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors Polar sensors Vector X7 10–18 GPS,
GLONASS, SBAS
No 100 Hz 100 Hz 100 Hz 6 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors Polar sensors
PlayerTek 10 GPS, GNSS No 400 Hz No 100 Hz 7 Compatibl
with Po sensors
PlayR 10 GPS, GNSS No 100 Hz No 100 Hz No
GPSports
EVO 10 GPS No < 1000 Hz < 1000
Hz < 1000 Hz 6 Compatibl
with Po sensors
Exelio GPEXE
PROv2 18 GPS No 100 Hz 100 Hz 100 Hz 8 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors Fitogether Oh Coach
Cell B
10 GPS/GLONASS No 100 Hz 100 Hz 100 Hz 8 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors POLAR
Electro
Polar Team Pro
10 GPS No 200 Hz 200 Hz 200 Hz 10 Heart rate
integrat RealTrack
Systems
WIMU Pro 10 GPS, SBAS,
QZSS, GLONASS Beidou, Galileo
Yes 4 sensors <
1000 Hz
3 sensors
< 1000 Hz
160 Hz 5 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors Sports
Performance Tracking
SPT2 GPS 10 GPS No 100 Hz 100 Hz 100 Hz 6 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors
STATSports Apex Pro 18 GPS, GLONASS
Beidou, Galileo
Yes 600 Hz 600 Hz 400 Hz 8 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors Visuallex
Sport
VXFF5 10 GPS, GNSS,
QNSS, SABAS, Galileo, BeiDou
No 104 Hz 18 Hz 18 Hz 8 Compatibl
with 3rd party sensors Notes: GPS: Global positioning system by USA; GLONASS: Global’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema by Russia;
SBAS: Satellite Based Augmentation System; QZSS: Quasi-Zenith Satellite System by Japan; BeiDou:GNSS by China; Galileo:
GNSS by European Union; LPS: Local positioning system; HR: Heart rate.
EPTS Performance Test Report
In the list available on 21 November 2020 at https://football-technology.fifa.com/en/media-tiles/fifa-quality- performance-reports-for-epts/, two LPS were available and certified: (i) Realtrack Systems – WIMU PRO; and (ii) Catapult – Vector. The summary of the performance test report can be found in Table 3.2.
In the case of GNSS, data provided by manufacturers should be at 10 Hz sampling frequency to compare with gold standards. If manufacturers’ data is over 10 Hz, data shall be resampled to 20 Hz, then smoothed using a three-point moving average and finally down-sampled to 10 Hz. Independent of hertz, a 2nd order Low Pass Butterworth Filter with a 1 Hz cut-off will be applied to all manufacturers’ velocity data (FIFA, 2019b).
Five devices have been assessed with GNSS as tracking technology: (1) Catapult S5, (2) Catapult Vector, (3) Fitogether OhCoach Cell B, (4) RealTrack WIMU PRO, and (5) STATSports Apex. In the evaluation protocols, only speed was assessed due to no data of position being reported. Besides, WIMU PRO and Catapult S5 have not assessed over 25 km/h and Apex over 20 km/h. The results provided of the five assessed devices indicate Standard-to-Well Above values so they are suitable for time-motion analysis in the official competition (FIFA, 2020) (see Table 3.3).
Table 3.3 Rating by FIFA velocity band for the five GNSS subjected to EPTS performance test report (July 1, 2019 or January 16, 2020)
Variable Company/
Model Catapult S5 Catapult
Vector Fitogether
OhCoach Cell BRealTrack
WIMU PROSTATSports Apex
Velocity RMSD (m/s) 0–7 km/h AIS WaIS WaIS WaIS WaIS
7–15 km/h IS AIS WaIS IS IS
15–20 km/h IS AIS AIS IS IS
20–25 km/h IS IS AIS WaIS ND
>25 km/h ND AIS WaIS ND ND
Position RMSD (m) All zones ND ND ND ND ND
Notes: RMSD: Root mean square difference; WaIS: Well above industry standard; AIS: Above industry standard; IS: Industry standard; BIS: Below industry standard; WbIS: Well below industry standard.
Lessons Learned and Concluding Remarks
From the information provided in this chapter, different recommendations are given for the use of GNSS for load monitoring in sport:
It is important to know how the technology works and what factors may affect its use. This knowledge will make us avoid as much as possible the aspects that can influence during the measurement and interpret more accurately the findings obtained.
The use of valid and reliable technology will allow us to obtain accurate and comparable information between sessions and between subjects. For this, the use of devices with a sampling frequency greater than 10 Hz is recommended.
The combination of GNSS and microelectromechanical sensors data is fundamental to understand the external workload that athletes suffered in training and competition. For this reason, it is important that tracking devices also have these sensors.
Because the external workload demands differ between team sports, sexes, categories and levels, the possibility of managing speed and acceleration thresholds is fundamental to adapt and analyze with better accuracy the efforts of players.
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4 Local Positioning Systems
Filipe Manuel Clemente, José Pino-Ortega and Markel Rico-González
Introduction
Local positioning systems (LPSs) are one of the solutions included in electronic performance and tracking systems, as they allow the user to identify the position of a given player in a cartesian coordinate system. LPSs are also wearable sensors that can be combined with other microelectromechanical sensors to improve the accuracy and precision of the data (Rico-González et al., 2020b).
Usually, LPSs allow users to collect data so that they can monitor external load demands, which represent the neuromechanical and physical load imposed by a given task in the context of exercise and sports (Impellizzeri et al., 2019). These data can be represented within three main dimensions (Buchheit & Simpson, 2017): (i) level 1 (traditional distances covered at different velocity zones), (ii) level 2 (events related to changes in velocity), and (iii) level 3 (events derived from the inertial sensors/ accelerometers).
LPSs offer a good solution to issues related to global navigation satellite systems (see Chapter 3), which require interactions with satellites. In turn, some troubles have been experienced in ensuring the quality of signals in specific circumstances (e.g., in indoor facilities) (Alarifi et al., 2016). Additionally, LPSs provide benefits for team sports analyses in comparison to the use of multiple high-definition cameras that are expensive and hard to move.
Therefore, LPSs represent a good alternative for various team sports contexts – especially those played indoors – as LPSs are accurate and precise systems for collecting bidimensional information about players’ movements.
One of the disadvantages of LPSs is that they cannot be used in some scenarios, such as along street routes and mountain routes. In such cases, GPSs perform far better since no antennas need to be placed to determine the limits of the space. Additionally, LPSs are somewhat more expensive than GPSs and are not within the budget of many teams/populations.