Surveys can help you and your coaches stay engaged with the team even when you are not together. For guidance on how to create a survey on the PlayerData app check out our guide
What are Surveys?
Surveys are a way for coaches and staff to gather information from players around different topics to gain further insight which will lead to improving the teams performance. Surveys can cover a range of topics such as training and match reviews and overall player wellness. You can create your own customised surveys to suit your staff and players. Below are a few examples of how to make the most of the survey tool. For guidance on how to create a survey on the PlayerData app check out our support page on creating a survey
Session Reviews
Surveys can be beneficial when paired with the data from a session or match to further understand and interpret a players performance. For example by asking players to complete a training session review this can give coaches great information to how players found the session and if it matched their training requirements. This can ask players how intense they found the session, things they did well and things they can improve on.
Coaches can ask players to rate how hard they found the session using RPE (Rated of Perceived Exertion) which is rated from 0 being easy to 10 being maximum effort. If the session was expected to be very high volume and high intensity at maximum effort but players RPE were only scored at a 6. This indicates the session was easier than expected. Coaches can use this information in future to modify sessions to make them more intense to suit the training load.
RPE is a useful scale that measures players internal load (the physical stress put on a body during training) and indicates how hard an athlete was working. This is useful for monitoring athletes training load and can be used to identify if players are at risk of an injury.
Wellness Monitoring
Another good use of surveys is for wellness monitoring of players. These can be done before or after a training or match session. These surveys can ask a series of questions around players wellness such as how they slept, if they are fatigued or have any injuries and if they feel fully recovered from the previous session. You can also ask questions regarding if they feel any stress at the moment and what their motivation levels are for the session ahead.
Monitoring sleep can be especially useful for athletes recovery and performance. The recommended sleep time for adult athletes is anywhere between 7-9 hours every night(Sargent et al.,2021) . However, what many people don't recognise is that athletes commonly suffer from a lack of sleep (Walsh et al.,2021) often getting around 2 hours less sleep than the general population. Keep an eye out for our blog post about sleep quality and its importance coming soon! for a more in-depth look at how this can impact performance.
This can help staff obtain valuable information quickly and are especially useful for injury prevention. For example, if a player is feeling fatigued and has some muscle soreness, their training session can be amended to reduce their training load. This will reduce the risk of injury and ultimately maximise their performance over time.
Player Learning
Surveys are also a good way to encourage players to reflect on their training sessions and matches. By asking players to reflect on how they think they performed and what they can improve on this will allow players to go into the next session with a clear mindset on what they need to achieve.
Helping players become reflective allows them to combine post-match and post-training feedback from coaches to help develop a full range of understanding for their development as players. Asking players for their own assessments also helps our coaches to understand how their players view their performances and understand where there is a difference in how they perceive aspects such as tactical understanding and whole game performance.
Player Learning is key aspect which can help develop leadership qualities and has been shown to influence a players chances of progression in future by developing key skills such as problem solving and communication. Utilising the surveys feature within the PlayerData Mobile App can therefore help not only the coach but also the athlete and help foster an environment where everyone is learning and communicating more frequently which in turn creates a long-term performance environment.
References
Sargent C, Lastella M, Halson SL, Roach GD. How Much Sleep Does an Elite Athlete Need? Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2021 Dec 1;16(12):1746-1757. doi: 10.1123/ijspp.2020-0896. Epub 2021 May 21. PMID: 34021090.