Science for Sport Podcast - Episodes Tagged with “Load Monitoring”

309: Building Smarter Performance Systems with Emily Jacobson

Science for Sport — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000

This week on the Science for Sport podcast, Richard Graves is joined by Emily Jacobson, Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Marquette University.

Emily has spent the past decade building and refining a sports science model within a relatively small department, working primarily with men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball. Alongside her role at Marquette, she also contributes to U.S. Soccer in a high-performance capacity.

In this conversation, we explore one of the most pressing challenges in applied sports science: how do you simplify complex data streams so they become actionable for coaches and meaningful for athletes?

From acute:chronic workload ratios and GPS monitoring to return-to-play frameworks and Power BI dashboards, Emily shares how she transformed “expensive toys” into effective performance tools.

She discusses the importance of visualisation, collaboration with data engineers, humility in decision-making, and why the “eyeball test” still matters in a world driven by wearables and AI.

For practitioners working in elite sport, or those building systems within constrained environments, this episode offers practical insight into making sports science more impactful, not just more complex.

In this episode you will learn:

How to simplify GPS and workload data for real-world application
Why acute:chronic workload ratios are a framework — not a solution
How to build effective data visualisations that coaches actually use
The difference between “expensive toys” and performance tools
How to structure phased return-to-play models with clear definitions
Why collaboration with data engineers and academics can transform departments
How to educate athletes in an era of AI, social media and misinformation
Why patience and long-term development still matter
How to adapt sports science systems in the transfer-portal era
Why relationships remain more important than technology

About Emily Jacobson
Emily Jacobson is the Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Marquette University, where she has worked for the past 10 seasons. A former Marquette women’s soccer student-athlete, she now oversees sports science and performance systems across multiple programmes, with a particular focus on soccer and volleyball.

She has helped develop load monitoring models, return-to-play protocols and data visualisation systems that integrate GPS, velocity-based training, force plates, motion capture and body composition analysis.

In addition to her work at Marquette, Emily serves as a network employee within U.S. Soccer’s high-performance department.

Her approach combines applied performance coaching, collaborative analytics, and a strong emphasis on education and athlete relationships.

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297: Finding the Competitive Edge: Elite Performance with FC Midtjylland’s Niklas Virtanen

Science for Sport — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000

This week, host Richard Graves sits down with one of the most energetic and thought-provoking voices in modern performance: Niklas Virtanen, Head of Sports Science at FC Midtjylland.

If you’ve ever wondered how a club without the financial muscle of Europe’s giants consistently outperforms bigger teams, beating Nottingham Forest away, winning at Celtic, and challenging at the top of the Danish Superliga, this conversation tells you exactly how they do it.

Niklas is a rare blend of passion, creativity and evidence-based practice. His presentation at a recent Catapult event had the entire room hooked, and this episode delivers the same energy. From dismantling traditional GPS limitations to redefining how football teams train for micro-actions, set pieces, and physical dominance, Niklas pulls back the curtain on the processes driving Midtjylland’s success.

This episode goes deep into the real-world application of sports science, the balance between data and intuition, and why sometimes the most powerful competitive advantage is simply learning to “solve problems without money.”

Things You Will Learn

Why FC Midtjylland’s entire model is built on “solving problems without money” and how data gives them a competitive edge.
How Niklas and his team dominate set pieces using Trackman technology and detailed ball-flight analytics.
Why GPS alone is blind to football’s most important movements, and how inertial data captures the micro-actions that matter.
How to use accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers to measure real football movement quality.
The truth about injury “prediction,” why we still don’t know athletes’ limits, and why subjective data is often your most valuable input.
How to balance analytics with player feelings, coaching intuition, and the “eyeball test.”
Why communication, not technology, is the biggest challenge when coaching staffs change.
Practical ways to design training exercises that actually transfer to match actions (including why traditional rondos may be overrated).
How to create buy-in across departments in fast-moving environments with shifting coaching teams.
Why the best decisions come from leading with data first, then layering coaching opinions on top.

About Niklas Virtanen
Niklas Virtanen is the Head of Sports Science at FC Midtjylland, one of Europe’s most forward-thinking football clubs and pioneers in data-driven performance.
From Finland’s Jyvaskyla to the top of the Danish Superliga, Niklas has carved out a journey defined by curiosity, relentless learning, and a willingness to challenge traditional methods. Starting his career as a physiotherapist, he transitioned into coaching, performance, and ultimately sports science — where he discovered his passion for practical, applied, football-specific methodology.
At Midtjylland, Niklas plays a central role in integrating data, performance analytics, inertial technology and coaching processes. His approach blends scientific rigour with real-world applicability, always anchoring decisions in the question: “Does this help the players perform?”
He collaborates closely with coaches, mental performance staff, physios, analysts, and leadership teams, shaping a holistic performance culture built around trust, objective data, and constant communication.
Niklas is known across the professional football community for his high energy, creativity, authenticity, and his commitment to pushing the boundaries of what sports science can be. You’ll often find him speaking to — and learning from — industry leaders such as Chris Barnes and Paul Balsom, who he credits with encouraging him to explore unconventional ideas, test them in the real world, and build evidence from the ground up.
He shares many of these insights on LinkedIn, where he’s become a respected voice for modern performance practitioners.

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191: Return From Injury Better Than Ever With Elite Pitch-Based Rehab

Science for Sport — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 09:00:00 +0000

In episode 191 Jamie Mackay, Strength and Conditioning Coach at Malmo FF, joins us.

Specifically Jamie will be looking at:

The importance to return to play
How to monitor load in return to play
How to return to play using the chaos-control continuum

About Jamie:

"I am a Strength and Conditioning Coach with 7 years experience working at the professional level in football. I am currently working at Malmö FF, where my role has progressed form interning to now focusing on the return to play process for injured players, acting as a bridge between the physios and getting the players back into training. I have an Undergraduate Degree in Strength and Conditioning from St Mary's Twickenham and a Masters Degree in Sports and Exercise Science and Medicine from the University of Glasgow."

Instagram: @jamiemackay_sc

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If you want to hear from a particular person on a particular topic, let us know! Hit the link below and we'll see what we can whip up for you.

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Optimise Your Athletes' Recovery
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Save 100's Of Dollars A Year That Would Otherwise Be Spent On Books, Courses And More
Improve Your Athletes' Performance
Advance Forward In Your Career, Allowing You To Earn More Money And Work With Elite-Level Athletes
Save Yourself The Stress & Worry Of Constantly Trying To Stay Up-To-Date With Sports Science Research

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110: Play More, Win More, Earn More: Reducing Injury Risk In Sport

Science for Sport — Mon, 09 May 2022 02:00:00 +0100

In episode 110, Christian Woodford, Strength and Conditioning Coach at Woodford SSC, joins us.

Specifically you will learn:

The importance of reducing injury risk
How to train to reduce injury risk
What NOT to do in the gym
How Christian programs for his athletes

About Christian

"Christian Woodford’s name is the biggest in sports performance, injury prevention and rehab – return to perform in Australia (while pioneering the growth, development and understanding of applied sport science/athletic development in The Australian private sector). Over the last 8 years (est. 2012) Christian & WSSC have become world renowned and some of the best coaches in the world such as Joe Defranco giving their tick of approval to WSSC & Christian.

Christian is known for his athlete centred and RESULTS driven approach to his coaching. Athletes from professional, semi professional, amateur to weekend warrior (both here and abroad) have all hire Christian to prepare them for sporting performance, injury reduction & rehab -return to perform coaching.

Christian’s passion for applied sport science, coaching and the industry has developed him into the coach that is #changingthegame in the private sector not just in Australia but around the world.

Christian offers consultancy for teams, individual athletes, coaches, students and upskill for other personal training, coaching companies."

Instagram/Twitter: @coachwoodford @WoodfordSSC

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95: State Of The Art Science: Mouth Guards That Quantify Collisions And Optimise Collision Training

Science for Sport — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 01:00:00 +0000

In episode 95 Chris Turner (CEO of Sports Wellbeing) and Eoin Power (Head of Medical Services at Gloucester Rugby), join us.

Specifically you will learn:

The important of measuring impacts in Rugby
Why mouthguards are the perfect tool to measure impacts
How to use data to reduce injury risk and optimise collision training load

About Chris and Eoin

Chris Turner – CEO of Sports Wellbeing & Analytics (SWA)

Co-Founder and CEO of SWA since 2017 – previously Global CTO with Unilever 10 years, Executive Vice President SAP for 5 years. Role is to oversee and manage all aspects of SWA’s business and operations. The business is fundamentally a real time data business with a data collection tool currently in the form of a highly validated electronic mouthguard. You can think of us as a GPS for contact. The data which is reported live allows us to provide real insight to clubs and athletes as to what is going on. This understanding and combination of data is our strength as a business and as we work with different sports, the uses for and the value of the data just keeps growing. Clearly in rugby, we want to see all clubs follow the lead and belief that Gloucester has shown and adopt the system for the benefit of themselves and their players. But we also want to see this across all contact sports over time.

Eoin Power – Head of Medical Services – Gloucester Rugby

Fourth season as Head of medical services at Gloucester Rugby. Previously at Bristol Bears as senior physio. Originally from Dublin where I studied my primary degree in Physiology before moving to the UK to pursue Physiotherapy, first at the University of Southampton and then the University of bath. I am responsible for managing the provision of medical services to the Gloucester rugby squad and facilitate a team of 8 therapists and Doctors.