KENOSHA, Wis. - Carthage Firebirds head women's lacrosse coach Rebecca Congel is more than just a strategist, game plan tactician, and leader of young women on the field. Congel, who recently accepted an offer from Carthage's director of athletics Ryan Kane to become the program's fifth head coach in its history after leading the team in 2023 on an interim basis, has been entrenched in over a year's worth of advanced research into her student-athletes. 

The research, which initially began as an endeavor in her graduate studies at Carthage, morphed over time into a matter of personal intrigue and ambition; Congel's studies, which are still ongoing, deal primarily with the analysis of player movement on the field during practices and games. The data, which is collected via a Titan 2 GPS sensor located within each player's uniform, records an expansive set of data for Congel to dissect and analyze. Congel and a number of other graduate students including Brody Ilstrup, Matthew Torrence, Keith Kutzler, and Colton Walter were able to obtain research grants that allowed for the purchase of the Titan 2 sensors with the help of Tony Pustina, assistant professor of exercise and sports science as well as Carthage's assistant strength and conditioning coach. 

The sensors are worn within Titan's waterproof and impact proof vests, which the athletes wear underneath their game or practice jerseys. The GPS sensors fit into a pouch within the vests and collect data when turned on. Each student-athlete is assigned both a vest and a tracker at the start of each season to help keep the data organized, which Congel later pores over using the Titan Sync application - a website that stores and categorizes the data. Though each student-athletes wears the vests and accompanying sensors during the games, only players who participate in 75% of a particular game will have their data utilized in Congel's research - a baseline set by the young coach to help trim down and fortify the data. 

Carthage's assistant director for strategic communications, Casey Aicher, sat down with Congel after learning of the research from Tony Pustina. Aicher and Congel dove into Congel's research and analysis of player movement using GPS tracking devices. Questions and answers have been edited slightly for the sake of clarity, brevity, and player anonymity. 

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Q (Casey Aicher): First of all, can you tell me about your research with GPS tracking data and what this research process has been like for you?

A (Rebecca Congel): The ultimate goal of collecting GPS data with the girls is to really gather information on in-competition demands. There's not a whole lot of research done on women's sports currently, but the research is absolutely growing - there are more studies gradually coming out about women's sports now. A lot of those studies, though, are done at the NCAA Division I and the professional levels; there's far less information and data points out there regarding Division III players. So, I think there's definitely a need to understand that our sport has been changing across all the division levels - DI, DII, DIII, and NAIA. Being able to have some more information on concepts such as distance covered during competition is important. It's been a great, pretty seamless process for me, as a coach. I make sure that the data is downloaded at the end of the day and is going into Titan accurately. It's pretty seamless from how they put the vests on to putting the little trackers in the vests. A lot of the data collection is player-sourced, so there's not a whole lot of workload put on me besides the interpretation of that data.

Q: Could you briefly explain how the tracking equipment works? What are the key pieces of equipment and how is the data collected?

A: The GPS system is worn in a vest and utilizes GPS tracking technology. So, it really only works outdoors - the GPS tracking technology does not function indoors. The tracking device has a sampling rate of 10 hertz. Upon that data being interpreted and collected, it can give you pretty real time stats. There are ways for you to interpret this data in real time on a sideline, but we don't do that primarily because of our smaller staff. I do think there's information overload, too, though. There are things that can be coached and then there are things that can be discussed on a date as opposed to on the sideline during competition. 
 

Titan 2 GPS Sensor - Titan

Q: What was the impetus for this research? How were you able to obtain access to the Titan 2 GPS sensors?

A: So, Tony Pustina - my next door neighbor - and I had talked about this for a while, and it really was about the question of how we can provide a high level of experience for the girls? How can we get more information at practice, and during games to be able to put into our training program? I talked to Tony about getting a research grant because, initially, this was my thesis that I was working on as I was completing a master's program at Carthage. The thesis research has now turned into actual, personally-invested research that I'm interested in publishing as it expands. 

Q: Have you always been interested in research and data interpretation? Did you ever anticipate doing something like this, or is this a recent endeavor that you all of a sudden became interested in?

A: It's been a little bit more of a recent endeavor. I've always been incredibly passionate about women's sports and I think that there needs to be more coverage and more research done on them, but there really do have to be the people that are out there that are willing to do it. It's something that initially fell onto my lap, but while creating a better environment for the girls that we can help grow this program. It is something that I'm incredibly passionate about, because I think the more information we can get out there across all four levels - including the NAIA level - it just creates a better experience that we can give to athletes that are coming to college. It changes the game too; I went through programs where it didn't matter what the workload on our legs were, there were expectations for our physical performance that needed to still be met. But, you want your kids to be happy and healthy out there on the field. This type of research helps facilitate opportunities for coaches to take the data and make it a good environment for their kids. 

 

The backend of the Titan website interface, where Coach Congel combs over data

Q: What data points do the GPS sensors provide you upon collection?

A: There is a ton of stuff that I could see data wise - many of them I don't take advantage of because, as I said, I'm really focusing on the distance covered. I can look at work load, top speeds, acceleration, deceleration, high-speed running distance,  inertia loads, speed bands, and so much more. So, I can kind of quantify walking, jogging, running, sprinting, max sprinting. There's just so much data that I'm able to collect through these GPSs, which is awesome. The monitor that we use is a Titan 2 as opposed to a Titan 1, so it gives us more of those data points for us to be able to interpret.

 

A radar graph shown on the Titan website interface

Q: Why do you choose to put the emphasis on distance covered as opposed to some of the other metrics such as acceleration?

A: It truly comes down to what is going to benefit us the most currently, and that's information like the overall workload we put on our legs. Speed is subjective, so that's a really hard metric for us to be able to systematize across the board. Really, we chose to focus on distance, because that's one of the biggest impacts on their workload. If I know that player x can cover this much space, say it's about two miles - then I know that they're going to be changing speed, changing direction, accelerating at different points in time, and I can still build that into my training - but having the distance covered is going to benefit us a little bit more at this moment to just see what the total workload looks like for an entire game and for a specific quarter. The total distance helps us track training volume over a given period of time, which is useful in preventing over training and managing the amount of running that players are doing each week.


Q: Where can this data be useful to you as a coach? Is there any potential benefit to film breakdown? Is there an advantage that you think some of Carthage's other athletic programs can exploit? 

A: It's a really, really neat data source for you to be able to use to look at your training programs.  I think that's been the biggest thing as the program's strength and conditioning coach, as well as now being the head coach. So, being able to look at what your players are expected to do over the course of the field. We've had some real changes in women's lacrosse lately, where we've gone from halves to quarters, and that quarter system has absolutely changed the way that the girls play the game of lacrosse. That being said, even at that base level of knowing how much distance is covered by quarter, by half, and by game total, I'm able to really tweak my training plans to fit that expected in-competition demand. I think that the more coaches that have access to this data, with the more information you have, it can be used for good or evil. They can use it for good and make sure that they're not overloading a kid's legs during that practice or utilizing it for any other purpose can really help your team find success on and off the field.

Q: Do you utilize the tracking data during practices in addition to using them during competition?

A: Yes, the girls wear them for every single practice. That's really important too because it gives me a really good estimate of, for example, what a pregame practice looks like or how many miles we should be putting on our legs. Generally it's about two and a half to three miles for a Tuesday pregame practice. Then I can pose the question of: if we're doing a full two hours, how many miles are we putting on their legs - probably three to three and a half, right? It's really important to be able to understand how many miles you're putting on your kids legs per week - not only just for competition, though the primary focus of this study is the in-competition demands.

Q: So, if you see that after a certain game that you had a player with an unusually high amount of distance run, are you more prone to go a little bit lighter on that athlete during the practice to ease their workload?

A: Yes, I definitely talk to them about that and discuss the amount of miles they put on their legs. That's where that film breakdown element comes into play, where I ask: "I can see that this one player was working really hard, or I can see their running lines and where they were all over the field, and ask - did we support them as a team or did we say we're gonna play as individuals? So, that's where it comes into play style a little bit. So, if player x was running across the whole field by herself up and down, or player y was covering that distance - why is that happening? How are we able to utilize the information we're getting from the GPS and compare it to the film that we're seeing? It definitely helps to give the players a benchmark to have, such as if I usually run the midfielders anywhere between seven and eight miles and they end up only running five, what was I doing? Was that what I should have been doing as a coach in those moments? There really are a lot of just additional points of feedback for us to help create a system that works for the girls.

Q: You touched on the fact there's a lack of general research into Division III sports, women's sports, and women's lacrosse in general. Do you think research like this, when published and talked about more, will expand and be utilized more throughout the Division III level?

A: Absolutely. I think that as the game is changing, kids are getting quicker and stronger. They've been playing lacrosse for longer while media coverage is growing on our sport - you're seeing the games on ESPN or ESPN Plus and you're able to stream them - all of those things will trickle down from the Division I level down to Division II and Division III. There are a lot of players out there that want to play high-level collegiate lacrosse, but they don't want to compromise on their academics. This will be able to give them the best of both of those experiences, which is really important. 

Q: What roles do the athletes play in the collection and analysis of the data? How often, if at all, do they look at their data? Do you speak with them at the end of the season about their data trends and different athletic benchmarks such as distance run or acceleration numbers? 

A: I do believe that there's a little bit of an information overload, especially for players. It's my job as the coach and the interpreter of this data to give them the points that are really important. So, there will be times where I mention to them: "hey, this is what you generally run in a game but this is where you were in this last game." We try to use it in that way rather than, for example, comparing year-over-year distance data with them. I make sure that I'm that interpretation tool instead of having the girls have access to all the information. I will say, a lot of them come in and they ask: "Coach, what was my top speed? Who was the fastest?" So, there's definitely always a little bit of competition there. But mostly, it's used for film review and individual meeting feedback to try and find areas for improvement. It really is supporting material to go over with the girls during film review to show why we might change the game plan. 

Q: Do you organize your data by position groups? If so, what can you glean from the separation between position groups?

A: It's very interesting. Our team has been pretty small - we haven't had a ton of substitutions, especially in our midfield - that's where you see that categorized the most. That's why our midfielders run the most on the field. As the game changes, and as we have more girls come into the program, I anticipate that we'll probably see our defenders running the most out of all three position groups. There has been some research that has been done across the Division I level, and I believe there's one Division III study, that talks about why you see the defenders running more on the field, and I would anticipate that - even though we're Division Three - that trend would still be accurate at our level as well. 

Q: What roles do athletic training and strength and conditioning play in this research? Do they have access to this research to help them create treatment plans or analyze workloads or find ways to improve strength and conditioning methodologies during the summer? Can they utilize this research to potentially expand some of their practices with other athletic programs on campus?

A: I think that, in terms of strength and conditioning for our specific program [which is run by Congel], it gives me really good feedback that impacts how I want to train the girls. For example, we now play four 15-minute quarters instead of two 30-minute halves, so the conditioning that I do is a little bit different now. If we're conditioning in the fall, we'll only do a couple of 15-minute hard work periods with some rest in between. That way you have feedback that can answer the question of: "if I know that the athletes ran two and a half miles in that first quarter, how can I get my athletes to perform better in terms of speed, sprint repeatability, etc, because I have the access to the data." I have the time that they're going to be utilizing that and I have the rest that they will get in-between those periods of activity. It really helps me cater our training program to them specifically and to what our goals are. If it's to be faster, there are going to be things that we do to make us faster. If it's to cover distance a little bit more efficiently, in terms of how we move, then we can assess those areas as well. I think athletic training is absolutely something that can benefit from this as well, in terms of benchmarks to return to play, right? If we know that we have a midfielder that gets injured and they're running the most of anyone right now - because we don't have midfield substitutions - then they need to be able to comfortably hit those benchmarks. I think that the more information that we give our athletic training staff and the more communication they have with strength and conditioning coaches and coaches in general, the better the experience is for the players.
 

Marconi Weight Room

Q: Is this research something that you touch on or discuss with recruits when you bring them on campus? Does it offer something different from a recruiting perspective when you're able to show these prospective families this data?

A:  Yeah, 100%, I talk to recruits about this and, moreso, the girls on those recruiting visits will talk about their battery packs that they wear for practice and games. It is, 100%, something that I talked to recruits about because I want them to have an idea of what our program truly is like and showcase what those little things are that can help take both them and us to the next level. What are those things that are going to help us grow and give ourselves feedback? At the end of the day, even as a player it's a little bit of you-versus-you and you asking: how can I be the best version of myself on and off the field? Giving ourselves access to more data, I think, is one of the ways we do that.

Q: What more do you want people to know about this research and your program?

A: I think I would just love to reiterate that studies like this, across all divisions, are incredibly important. At the end of the day, all of us as collegiate coaches - across any level - want to create a high-level experience for our athletes. However, we also want longevity in their health and in their passion for the sports and it's important for us to find ways for us to really emphasize those things for these young women. I think it is really empowering. I'm going to continue to conduct this research here at Carthage, and I'm really excited about having this data continue with us as we're expanding our program and growing overall. I think that the longer that we use this and the more data points that we obtain from this research, the better we can prepare athletes for field competition and make sure that we're not overloading their bodies. None of these kids need to have multiple surgeries before they've graduated, right? How we can make sure that we're prioritizing athlete health is important through a changing game.