THE ATHLETE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Athlete monitoring is a standard practice across all sports to help optimise an individual’s performance. Its objective is to minimise lost training time due to injury and illness ultimately leading to improved health and performance outcomes. In addition, the system seeks to collate and store information across other key areas to inform decision making and identify priority areas for performance support, leading to optimised competition readiness.  

The success of the AMS is dependent on engagement from the Athlete, Coaches and Performance Support Staff.

BEST PRACTICE FOR COACHES

Logging In: The AMS is most effective for coaches when used on a web browser (Google Chrome or Firefox). Key features including data entry and alerts can only be accessed through the web browser. This training will take you through all aspects of the AMS, as well as demonstrate how you can utilise the mobile APP for quick referencing.

Daily Monitoring: It is suggested that coaches monitor the athlete data daily, this can be through both performance alerts (SMS alerts when there is a flag), and by viewing the dashboard for ease of access to multiple sources (i.e. Wellness & Load together). The graph will also clearly indicate any flags in data or spikes in load. 

Manage Your Own Performance Alerts: Performance alerts (SMS/Emails) can be set up and modified by each individual user. We encourage coaches to manage their own alerts, which allows you to set different parameters for different athletes. As a coach, you know your athletes best, and suggest you personalise alerts where deemed necessary. 

Feedback: Initiating conversations with athletes about the data they are logging is key. It assures athletes that the data is being looked at and can inform you as a coach if there are areas that need attention. For example, if an athlete logs only 5 hours sleep and comes to training feeling fatigued, this can trigger a conversation between you as the coach and the athlete, which can help identify if the athlete needs some support. 

It is important to consider communication behaviors. 'Why' can be a confronting question at times, suggesting an athlete has made a poor decision. Asking questions that allow the athlete to feel safe & valued in their opinion is important, respecting the data that is entered and building a positive coach/athlete relationship and communication pathway. 

WHAT IS TRAINING LOAD & WHY DO WE CAPTURE IT?

BACKGROUND

Coaches and high-performance staff use measures of an athlete's training load and recovery/wellness to review how an athlete is responding and adapting to their training programs. There are a number of different ways that a coach or the support staff may measure training load and an athlete's response to training and competition. This may include an understanding of not only the physical load placed upon an athlete in training and competition, but also how the load will affect the body in other ways such as the level of fatigue, sleep, nutrition requirements, stress and mental well-being. 

These measures are used to assist in the planning of future training sessions with the aim to maximise the athlete's individual training response to improve performance. As well as striving to get the best possible improvements in performance, measuring and monitoring an athlete's training load is also used to reduce the risk of sustaining an injury or illness. These measures are also often used by the medical team when planning the rehabilitation of an injury to ensure that the athlete can recover as quickly as possible without increasing the risk of re-injury.

 

GETTING STARTED

When initially designing athlete monitoring, the process can potentially be overwhelming, due to the multitude of variables that can be used, however the initial process can be simplified by determining “what do you want to achieve with athlete monitoring?”  

 

• More accurately assess the positive effects of training response against the negative impacts of fatigue
• Potentially manage/reduce risk of injury and illness
• Make more informed decisions on the design and prescription of training and recovery strategies. 
• To be able to better manage athlete's individually by gaining insight of athlete’s internal response to external training loads
• Quantify individual strengths and weaknesses
• Track the trends in athlete’s progression and performance
• Assess the athlete’s preparedness for training and competition

SUMMARY

The primary outcome of effective athlete monitoring is that it is administered as a method of promoting training and improving performance, not restricting it.

 

LOGGING IN - WEBSITE

Click here to head on over to the AMS Website on your computer or tabular device.

We recommend book marking the page for easy access in the future. 

You will need to use either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as your internet browser and not Internet Explorer.

When logging in you will need the following. 

1) Site Location
https://ams.ausport.gov.au/asc

2) Username
firstname.lastname

3) Password
You would have created this yourself as part of the registration process

 

BROWSER NAVIGATION

When you log into the AMS on your browser, you will see it has been set up to show a dashboard of your athletes' data. (For coaches who have access to more than one group, the home page will show your current loaded group). 

Additionally, along the header are other important navigation options which we will go through during this training. 

From left to right, you will find the AIS logo, home page link and various drop-down menus for various tools such as data entry, reporting (dashboards) and performance alerts. 

 

 

ATHETE STATUS

When an athlete has a status such as currently injured or ill then a status indicator maybe displayed next to the athlete's name. 

This information relies on Physio & Medical data being up to date and complete, including closing the notes on a previous injury. 

 

AMS GROUPS

Grouping allows for users to be classed together for data entry, viewing data, reporting and planning purposes. Users can be grouped, for example, by squad, age, or team. The names, members and properties of the groups that are used on AMS are determined by a site administrator according to organizational requirements.

As a coach user of the system, you will have access to one or more groups of athletes. This means that you can view, and at times edit information about the athletes within the group/s you have been given permission to view. 

 

 

HOW TO: CHANGE GROUPS

To change groups, locate the name of the current group you are operating within on the right-hand side of the navigation bar at the top of the page and click. 

 

Select the group that you would like to open, then click either the 'preview' button to see which athletes are within a group or the 'load' button to switch the group you are viewing. 

 

That's it! 

 

DASHBOARD OPTIONS

Dashboards bring data to life and can provide you with some great snapshots and insights to training and wellness. 

The coach dashboard is the dashboard that appears on your home screen when you log into the AMS. It has been designed to provide an overview across key areas. 

To learn more about the AMS Coach Dashboard, click here. 

 

PERFORMANCE ALERTS

Performance alerts are instantaneous notifications from AMS to let you know that something has changed.

A performance alert is triggered when someone saves an 'event form' that has been set up with an alert condition. This feature is typically used to notify coaches and performance staff that someone has saved an event form logging the occurrence of an injury, sickness or significant flag in stress or load. 

Alert conditions can be set up for change in a field as well as one-off incidents. 

Performance alerts can be set up using the performance alerts management tool. They can be set up for individuals or groups and can be sent to individuals or groups. 

To setup performance alerts, follow the tutorial here. 

SHARED COMMUNICATIONS