Updated resources for assessing an individual's changes

[Will Hopkins]

In recording a series of lectures for a colleague, I decided to make a short slideshow (four slides) to accompany the article and spreadsheets on assessing an individual's changes. It starts by revisiting the methods for dealing with sampling uncertainty, then showing how the same methods can be applied to individual changes.

Coincidentally, I have been writing a manuscript with other colleagues about long-term monitoring of elite athletes with the countermovement-jump and Keiser leg-press tests at their Olympic training center. In the section on practical applications, I realized that changes between consecutive tests several months apart could all be trivial and/or unclear, yet changes between the first test and later tests could be more decisive and encouraging for the athlete and the practitioner. I have therefore updated the spreadsheet for assessing a trend in a time series of repeated measurements by adding cells that allow you to assess changes from one or more tests, which you select as a reference for all the other tests. If you choose more than one, they are averaged to improve precision.

Access the slideshow, article and spreadsheets (both are in one Excel workbook) via the links for assessing an individual or assessing athletes at Sportscience. The article is worth reading, especially the appendices, which explain smallest importants and typical errors of measurement.

Will