In terms of athletic performance, GPS is a relatively new concept. Sports like football, rugby, GAA, and American Football are among the most common examples of its application. For players and coaches who are willing to give out a lot of money, a high-tech gadget like a wearable device may help them adjust training programs, analyze game performance, and measure physical effort. Understanding how this technology works and what it can do is essential.
Instead of focusing on measuring distance and speed, global positioning systems are now being used to track other aspects of a game. These aspects include player exhaustion, peak playtimes, and varied activity profiles according to position, level of competition, and sport being played at that particular time (‘What is GPS and how is it used in sports?’, 2017). In more recent studies, for instance, the one conducted by Malone et al. (2020), GPS data has been combined with an athlete’s physical capability, football activities and tactical or strategic information.
This technology is being used by some of the world’s most prestigious sports organizations to improve the performance of their teams on the field. Ideally, when it comes to GPS technology, Manchester United was the first Premier League team to use it in early 2010. Even though this is a new technology, more improvements may always be made (‘How does GPS work?’, 2021). Athletes will accurately measure their exertion in the future by integrating GPS data with data from other inertial sensors (Walker et al., 2016). Therefore, the accuracy of these gadgets has been demonstrated to be less than 100%. Indeed, this assumption holds for both court-based and conventional field sports.
However, GPS technology will play a significant role in the future of professional sports. There’s little doubt that sports scientists will continue to rely on GPS as a tool for improving athlete performance, given the evidence shown here. Nevertheless, the GPS technology is critical in the world of sports today. The advancement of technology has brought about the improvement of health and focus on fitness and detecting fatigue in a deeper level. Moreover, GPS technologies can be effectively applied in practice, giving the necessary indicators about the physical activity of athletes to form a successful gaming strategy.
References
Malone, J. J., Barrett, S., Barnes, C., Twist, C., & Drust, B. (2020). To infinity and beyond: the use of GPS devices within the football codes. Science and Medicine in Football, 4(1), 82-84.
Walker, E. J., McAinch, A. J., Sweeting, A., & Aughey, R. J. (2016). Inertial sensors to estimate the energy expenditure of team-sport athletes. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19(2), 177-181.
What is GPS and how is it used in sports? (2017). SportTechie | Sports Technology News. Web.
How does GPS work? (2019). NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids.