The original study on external match load in women's collegiate lacrosse fills an important void in sport performance research by objectively quantifying the physical demands placed on female athletes during competition. Given the rapid rise in women's lacrosse participation and the relatively high injury rates, especially lower extremity injuries, understanding the external loads athletes experience is crucial for enhancing training, rehabilitation, and return-to-play strate

This study, "Analysis of In-Season External Load and Sport Performance in Women’s Collegiate Basketball," was motivated by the clear need for detailed, season-long data on how external load varies within NCAA Division I women’s basketball—a field still underrepresented in load monitoring literature, despite the sport’s intensity and the importance of individualized athlete management. External load—quantified via GPS and inertial sensor technologies and expressed in metrics l

In sport science, raw numbers alone are seldom sufficient to guide effective decisions—contextual understanding is critical to unlock their true value. Metrics such as Player Load, Concentric Impulse, and TRIMP acquire profound meaning only when viewed against an athlete’s usual performance levels or a team's collective norms . This is precisely where statistical tools like standard deviation and z-scores become indispensable. They quantify how far a specific data point devia