March 24, 2018
By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - If you picture a strength and conditioning coach with a whistle and some barbells, it's time to refresh that image.
At Auburn, you can add sport technology, which provides coaches new ways to integrate heart rate, GPS and other performance data.
Megan Young, Auburn soccer's strength and conditioning coach, still times the Tigers' fitness runs and oversees weightlifting workouts, but she also directs a high-tech operation that uses innovative technology and leverages Auburn University's world-class faculty.
In her 10th season at Auburn, Young monitors performance and helps student-athletes build lifelong fitness habits.
"They are able to take what they learned and contribute that for the rest of their lives, when they don't have someone like myself to oversee every aspect of their training," Young said.
Holding a master's degree from Auburn University in information systems, a master's from Baylor in exercise physiology, and completing her PhD at Auburn in adult education, Young blends old-school fitness training with new-school data science.
"People look at sports science and they think, 'They're just a scientist,'" she said. "Then they look at strength coaches and think that they're just in the weight room. No, there are strength coaches who do a lot of measuring and monitoring to optimize training and performance."
Wearing GPS units allows Young to monitor metrics such as total distance, acceleration and change of direction. By gathering six years of heart rate data, she has been able to develop a benchmark for heart rates during games. The Tigers then practice accordingly, using these benchmarks.
"We can look at those metrics and the coaching staff can say, 'Today in practice, we'll go bigger, we'll get more total distance in, more high speed running. Today we'll go smaller, we'll get more change of direction.'"
Buy-in from Auburn soccer head coach Karen Hoppa maximizes Young's contribution to the Tigers.
"The coaching staff does a really good job of taking those metrics and taking what I've delivered in terms of physical ability or physical performance and then transferring that into how we are going to get better," Young said.
Auburn's soccer student-athletes wear monitors that track their heart rate and performance data during practice. Photo: Todd Van Emst/Auburn Athletics" style="width:100%; height:auto;" class="imported_image" legacy-link="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/aub/sports/w-soccer/auto_a_storywidenew/13213233.jpeg"> Auburn's soccer student-athletes wear monitors that track their heart rate and performance data during practice. Photo: Todd Van Emst/Auburn Athletics
Accelerometers and gyroscopes, which are part of GPS technology, provide Young with a student-athlete's exact movements and information on change of direction during practice.
"It allows for seamless, streamlined technology influence," Young said. "Being able to generate different visuals for coaching staff members, and look at the relevant variables across multiple time points, the efficiency of having a benchmarked model and a framework in place versus just having pieces of data, provides a better understanding for assessing coaching and training needs."
An early adopter of data science in soccer, Young's collaboration with tech manufacturers allows Auburn to access innovatve technology at a discounted rate.
Other partnerships - within Auburn Athletics including athletic trainers and sports nutritionists and across campus - provide additional assets for Auburn's student-athletes.
"Sharing what we can leverage as a university with having so many great minds on one campus to cultivate collaborations to work together," Young said. "That's an invaluable resource. Even at the professional level, they'll have to outsource or consult or create positions, where we already have the expertise from faculty and trainees across campus.
"I've gone back to school twice since I've been here at Auburn," Young said. "Those experiences have allowed me to build relationships across campus, whether it's through the College of Business, adult education in the College of Education, the College of Engineering with Dr. Michael Zabala, alongside the School of Kinesiology, or with the College of Medicine with Dr. Kenny Brock and others. Being able to elevate stakeholders to reach research-based and data-influenced decisions. Not just using what looks cool but using what is scientifically valid and reliable and has longevity to it."
The goal, Young says, is to equip student-athletes for success, both during their Auburn soccer careers and long after they've left the Plains, creating a ripple effect.
"Sleeping right, eating right, having high-performance lifestyles, those things are going to help you in all areas," she said. "We're working with young adults who are going to take these influences and experiences and go out into the world by optimizing their performance off the field.
"If we can help influence them based on sound data, and then they go out having impactful experiences, then that will transcend in the people they meet and the community they impact. Athletes are great role models and mouthpieces regarding what works for them. If we can help them learn how to do a lot of these things better while also integrating their feedback, it becomes sustainable for them, then it's not necessarily about just wearing a bunch of technology."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer