What Can Football Coaches Do to Keep Their Players Legs Fresh?
Sports performance analytics are revolutionizing how football coaches assess and quantify player performance. And mechanical load is a big part of the approach. Coaches used to rely on the naked eye or stat sheets to monitor it, but now they employ sports analytics to tailor training sessions to keep their players legs fresh all season long.
There are many metrics tied to player load and distances. But if you pay close attention to accelerations and decelerations, you’ll find these player metrics are tied directly to the leg. And it’s also called mechanical loading (or mechanical load).
This can be tracked across all drills, practice sessions, and competitive games, offering valuable insights into individual workloads and positional demands.
Key Takeaways:
- Mechanical Load can be used to monitor player workloads on the legs. This metric ensures players are well-exposed to a high workload during practices leading to games and prepare athletes for game/season loads.
- Designing drills to reach high-intensity demands is essential so players are physically prepared for max accelerations and decelerations at game speed.
- Tracking max acceleration and deceleration for high-intensity training sessions can help coaches assess personnel decisions to replicate during game situations.
Load Management Made Easy:
What is Player Load?
A player’s load refers to the physical workload or snap count sustained during practice sessions or games. It encompasses many factors, such as the duration and the types of movements and exercises they perform. A player’s load can be separated into external and internal.
External Load Examples:
- Distance
- Speed
- Acceleration/Deceleration
Internal Load Examples:
- Heart Rate
- Muscle Fatigue
- Perceived Exertion
Coaches and athletic trainers measure workloads, training sessions, injury prevention, and performance by focusing on the external load. The goal for coaches and players is not to replicate the same volume on game day during multiple days of practice.
Sustaining elevated levels of max accelerations and decelerations for an extended period can lead to athletes over-exerting themselves before game day and can cause fatigue, cramping, and even severe injuries.
By tracking and analyzing load data, teams can make informed decisions about player workload management, recovery strategies, and individualized training programs.
“Mechanical load has become a key metric in many sports because it focuses on leg fatigue. The unique design vs. other loads accounts for key intense accelerations and decelerations which make up the true demands of football.”
What Is Mechanical Load?
Mechanical load refers to the forces and stresses placed on an athlete’s legs during physical activity, specifically in the context of football.
By quantifying speed, directional changes, and other essential football-related body movements, researchers and sports performance experts can use mechanical load to comprehensively understand the demands imposed on the athlete’s body.
This quantification allows for a more nuanced evaluation of the physiological stresses experienced during games, aiding in injury prevention, performance optimization, and training program development.
Acceleration and Deceleration in Sports
Acceleration and deceleration load are forces experienced by players when changing speed and direction during practice or games.
Acceleration load occurs when a player increases their speed or transitions from stationary to moving.
Deceleration load is experienced when slowing down or stopping abruptly.
Both loads stress muscles, joints, and connective tissues. Understanding acceleration and deceleration zones, football analytics technology can track the number of times a player has exerted energy to change directions.
KINEXON sports technology allows coaches to set up benchmarks to monitor workloads during practices or games.
Here’s an example of Acceleration/Deceleration Zones (yd/s²)
- Low: <37.33
- Medium: 37.33−47.17
- High: 47.17−57.5
- Very High: >= 57.5
Monitoring these player metrics helps coaches develop and manage individualized conditioning programs and injury prevention strategies for their players. This, in turn, enhances performance and reduces the risk of injuries associated with rapid changes in speed and direction.
Track Mechanical Loading With Sports Analytics
Using football analytics such as mechanical loading, acceleration and deceleration provide valuable information to coaches and trainers. It can help you to understand the demands on your athletes’ bodies during football activities.
Athlete trackers can be the difference in your players having fresh legs heading into the fourth quarter. They can also keep you from giving up a big play because your player load wasn’t balanced throughout the game.
Understanding how sports analytics can help your team is the first step you can take to improve your team’s overall performance.
Want to see how our experts generate and analyze mechanical load data? Download our free guide.
More stories
Unlocking a New Era in Sports Performance: What’s Ahead from KINEXON Sports in 2025
In elite team sports, performance is often decided by the smallest details – how efficiently an athlete sprints, how they handle fatigue, and how well a team manages training loads throughout the season. Coaches and performance staff need more than just numbers – they need meaningful insights, in real time, to make the right calls when it matters.
KINEXON Sports App Guide: Phase Index Widget
The Phase Index Widget is a powerful new feature in the KINEXON SportsApp that provides coaches with deep insights into training drills. By displaying the normative range of key performance metrics for different drill types, it helps coaches understand typical versus high-end workload demands, compare phases across single sessions (POST) and historical data (DEVELOP), and design training sessions that optimize player development while preventing overtraining.
Revolutionizing Youth Football: Red Bull Wings Cup Meets KINEXON Sports
What if youth football wasn’t just about the score — but about the players who shape the game? That’s the bold vision behind Wings Cup 2025, hosted by RB Leipzig, and why KINEXON Sports proudly partnered with this first-of-its-kind event. From April 22 – 24, 2025, the tournament became the world’s first global youth football competition to feature live player and ball tracking — marking a new era in data-driven player development.
Optimizing Offseason Training: How the Ragin’ Cajuns Prep for the Football Season
The Ragin’ Cajuns football performance staff enters the heart of the offseason following spring camp, facing player performance and conditioning challenges common to other American Football programs nationwide. Their approach: optimized practice schedules designed to help players reach performance goals, backed by data.
Trust, Autonomy, and the Art of Performance Management in the WNBA
In the high-performance landscape of professional basketball, the pursuit of championships is a given. Yet, true impact often stems from a deeper purpose — one that prioritizes sustained athlete development, both physically and mentally. This perspective underscores a broader definition of success: positively influencing performance on a day-to-day basis, beyond wins and losses.
From Court to Code: The Analytics Behind Athletic Success
In the high-stakes world of competitive basketball, small margins make the difference between winning and losing. This is where optimization becomes the cornerstone of athletic performance. The focus is not just on finding a magic formula, but on creating the conditions for athletes to consistently operate at their best.
Increasing Shooting Efficiency With Data-Informed Insights
As basketball training evolves, teams are embracing data-informed insights to augment shooting efficiency. With every shot carrying potential season-changing weight in competition, refining practice intensity and replicating in-game pressure are key to gaining a competitive edge.
Maximizing Performance During March Madness: Key Strategies & Load Metrics for Coaches
March Madness is one of the most intense and physically demanding periods in collegiate basketball. The congested schedule, high-pressure stakes, and minimal time for recovery require an evidence-based approach to reach and maintain peak performance while mitigating injury risk throughout the tournament.
Optimizing Performance and Reducing Injuries in Professional Basketball
The landscape of professional basketball is evolving rapidly, with teams placing a greater emphasis on performance optimization and injury prevention. In a highly competitive environment like the EuroLeague, where the ultimate goal is to win games and championships, maintaining peak player performance while minimizing injuries is a fundamental challenge.
The Perfect Training Week: How KINEXON Sports Supports Smarter Coaching Decisions
Every coach knows the feeling – standing on the sidelines before a game, confident that the team is fully prepared. The training week went well, the players were engaged, and everything felt right. And when the final whistle confirms the win, the inevitable question arises:
What made this week so effective? How can we replicate it?
How Texas A&M Women’s Basketball Used Data to Prevent Knee Injuries
Knee injuries are a major concern in women’s basketball, with ACL injuries accounting for a significant portion of these issues. Managing player workload is key to injury prevention, but achieving the right balance between training and recovery is challenging. The Texas A&M Women’s Basketball team faced this dilemma and turned to a data-driven approach to optimize player health and performance.
KINEXON Tracking Technologies Earn Top Marks in FIFA EPTS Performance Tests
When it comes to tracking technology in sports, precision is everything. And once again, KINEXON has proven why it’s a leader in the field. Our cutting-edge KINEXON PERFORM GPS Elite, GPS Pro, and LPS tracking systems recently underwent FIFA’s 2024 Electronic Performance and Tracking System (EPTS) performance tests — and the results were nothing short of outstanding.
Transforming Sports in 2025: Insights from KINEXON Sports for Coaches, Fans, and Referees
As sports technology evolves, 2025 promises to be a landmark year with KINEXON Sports at the forefront. Renowned for its innovations in real-time tracking and analytics, KINEXON Sports is revolutionizing the way athletes, coaches, fans, and referees experience the game.
From delivering game-changing insights to enhancing fan engagement and officiating precision, here’s what to expect from KINEXON Sports in 2025.
How Jump Count Analytics Drive Arizona State Volleyball’s Training and Match Success
Adjusting practice schedules is a fine line for coaches to walk to maximize player performance. Arizona State’s Jake Garrity, the Assistant Head Coach of Sports Performance/Sports Science for women’s volleyball, focuses on live jump count performance analytics to lay the foundation for when the coaching staff adjusts practice intensity.
5 Facts That (Probably) Nobody Knew About KINEXON Sports Teams
Ten years ago, KINEXON Sports embarked on a journey to revolutionize the game. What began as a bold idea in Munich’s iconic Allianz Arena has evolved into a global success story, empowering over 500 elite sports teams worldwide.
As we reflect on this incredible decade, here are five surprising facts about KINEXON Sports that showcase how far we’ve come — and where we’re headed next.