Using Performance Index for race analysis (screencast)

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 01 Jun 2011@8:00

perfindex
This video compares the performance of Hubmann, Gueorgiou, Rollier and the other top runners in Sunday’s event on Le Revard by analyzing the Performance Index in WinSplits Pro. In this era of GPS analysis, many forget the value of analyzing the split times. There is however a lot of useful information hidden in the splits.

The motivation behind this screencast is to show how the Performance Index can give you insight into the potential of different runners based on their current abilities – both running speed and o-technical abilities. This can be useful to assess the potential of yourself or somebody you coach if you are a trainer. The analysis is done in the program Winsplits Pro (which comes at a price of around 60 Euro) – a very useful tool by Mats Troeng – the man behind QuickRoute. I am no expert on either WinSplits Pro or the Performance index – if I missed something important, please add a comment below to let me know.

PS! Screencasts is new to me – and I consider this as a test. Is this something which I should continue making at o-training.net for other topics as well? Does the format work? Too slow and boring? Warning: If you are not above average interested in orienteering analysis, this is probably nothing for you! No fancy moving stuff to keep your attention.

5 Comments

62

Comment by Jonas

June 1, 2011 @ 09:09

Thanks for nice video. A bit long, but very interesting. I have not used winsplits, but I think I need to try it out.

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Comment by Terje Mathisen

June 1, 2011 @ 10:55

Interesting video, especially good in HD, so I could read all the text on the screen.

From your analysis it would seem like the Swiss team will be very hard to beat in the relay.

OTOH, as long as TG starts on the last leg within striking distance, he might get that relay gold which have seemed so secure, only to slip away for several years now.

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Comment by Jan

June 1, 2011 @ 14:08

@Terje: Thanks for the feedback. And yes – although the Swiss were quite far behind in minutes on the result list, it looks to me as if they are actually not that far away in many respects. And as their trainer said at the SOLV page, they have just started training in this kind of terrain (and they don’t have far to travel to get there). BTW: The Norwegians also showed very good potential a few weeks ago – and the performance of the young Swedes in this terrain is very good – so it is going to be a very interesting WOC relay…

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Comment by awex

June 1, 2011 @ 14:35

Hi Jan! Very nice video, but I think you have missed one rather important fact when comparing runners’ potentials. What’s interesting about Gueorgiuo’s performance is that his peak is very close to his “worst” legs, while for example Hubmann is the opposite. His peak is very close to his best! Hubmann has most of his legs at a very high level indeed, but he can’t do any better then that, and he also misses here and there. Gueorgiou on the other hand performs very steadily on almost the same level but have some even better legs on top of that! And that’s a major difference.

Having a peak close to one’s maximum is like pushing very hard all the time, which is of course very hard to do on a long distance race, and this results in mistakes. Gueorgiou’s peak being close to his worst shows me his confidence on the terrain, and that beating him at WOC will be very difficult for anybody. But that’s not a big new, is it? :-)

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Comment by Jan Kocbach

June 1, 2011 @ 14:47

@Awex: Thanks a lot for your comment! Good points there indeed. Still it is interesting to note that the “baseline level” of the two is closer than I expected from looking at the results. Agreed that lifting from below the baseline to above is extremely difficult – it looks like Gueorgiou runs on this high performance level with taking less risks than the others.

Still I think the analysis possibilities are very interesting – they even make it possible to have this kind of discussion:)The main point in my screencast was after all highlighting the possibilities for analysis using the performance index:)

BTW: Looking at the corresponding curve for Gueorgiou’s race at the May 14th event, it looked more like Hubmann’s of this Sunday, though…

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