Recommendations for Measurement and Management of an Elite Athlete
William Sands,
Marco Cardinale,
Jeni McNeal,
Steven Murray,
Christopher Sole,
Jacob Reed,
Nikos Apostolopoulos,
Michael Stone
Affiliations
William Sands
High Performance Department, USA Ski and Snowboard Association, Victory Ln, Park City, UT 84060, USA
Marco Cardinale
Head Sports Physiology and Research, Aspire Academy, Doha POB 22287, Qatar
Jeni McNeal
Department of Physical Education Health and Recreation, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA 99004, USA
Steven Murray
Physical Education Program, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Christopher Sole
Department of Health and Human Performance, The Citadel–The Military College of South Carolina, 171 Moultrie Street Charleston, Charleston, SC 29409, USA
Jacob Reed
Sport Science Department, WRC 121, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50613, USA
Nikos Apostolopoulos
Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S-2W6, Canada
Michael Stone
Department of Sport, Exercise, and Recreation, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614, USA
Athletes who merit the title ‘elite’ are rare and differ both quantitatively and qualitatively from athletes of lower qualifications. Serving and studying elite athletes may demand non-traditional approaches. Research involving elite athletes suffers because of the typical nomothetic requirements for large sample sizes and other statistical assumptions that do not apply to this population. Ideographic research uses single-athlete study designs, trend analyses, and statistical process control. Single-athlete designs seek to measure differences in repeated measurements under prescribed conditions, and trend analyses may permit systematic monitoring and prediction of future outcomes. Statistical process control uses control charting and other methods from management systems to assess and modify training processes in near real-time. These methods bring assessment and process control into the real world of elite athletics.
