Objective quantification of physical athlete load in women’s rugby sevens
| dc.contributor.author | Epp-Stobbe, Amarah | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Klimstra, Marc D. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-08-06T20:52:33Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-08-06T20:52:33Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.degree.department | School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy PhD | |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation investigates objective factors that objectively quantify physical athlete load in women's rugby sevens. I examined the use of objective metrics to impute missing rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) data from elite international matches. Despite employing various machine learning models, the best-performing random forest classifier achieved 26.5% accuracy, indicating that sRPE, and potentially session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE-CL) may be unreliable measures of athlete physical workload, suggesting the need for alternative metrics. I explored the relationship between contact events and sRPE, as contact has not been previously considered in workload quantification. A linear regression incorporating playing time and contact explained 30.6% of sRPE variance, indicating that contact is associated with perceived exertion. Building on this knowledge, I developed model that included athlete mass, number of contacts, playing time, game number, speed, and acceleration data to assess athlete workload (sRPE-CL). This model accounted for 79.3% of sRPE-CL variance. I analyzed the influence of match-specific factors on sRPE-CL a speed-deceleration contact (SDC) model, and mechanical work. Results showed that sRPE-CL is highly variable, influenced by contextual factors such as score differential, match outcome, match category (e.g., medal final vs. pool match), opposition, and player experience. Conversely, mechanical work and the SDC model provided more objective workload assessments, influenced by fewer external variables. Finally, I assessed the feasibility of imputing sRPE-CL using machine learning. Results demonstrate that sRPE-CL can be estimated using objective metrics, including mechanical work, and the SDC model. Overall, this research provides alternative, objective strategies for the monitoring of physical athlete loads. | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Epp-Stobbe, A., Tsai, M.-C., Klimstra, M. (2022). Comparison of imputation methods for missing rate of perceived exertion data in rugby. Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction, 4, 827-838. https://doi.org/10.3390/make4040041. | |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Epp-Stobbe, A., Tsai, M., Morris, C., & Klimstra, M. (2022). The influence of physical contact on athlete load in international female rugby sevens. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000004262. | |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Epp-Stobbe, A., Tsai, M.-C., Klimstra, M. D. (2024). Predicting athlete workload in women’s rugby sevens using GNSS sensor data, contact count and mass. Sensors, 24, 6699. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24206699. | |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Epp-Stobbe, A., Tsai, M. C., & Klimstra, M. (2024). Work smarter not harder: Mechanical work as a measure of athlete workload. ISBS Proceedings Archive, 42, Article 51. Available at: https://commons.nmu.edu/isbs/vol42/iss1/51. | |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Epp-Stobbe, A., Tsai, M.-C., & Klimstra, M. (2025). Rugby Sevens sRPE Workload Imputation Using Objective Models of Measurement. Applied Sciences, 15(12), 6520. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15126520. | |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Epp-Stobbe, A., Tsai, M.-C., & Klimstra, M. (2025). A Comparison of the Application of Load Monitoring Metrics for Key Match Characteristics in Women’s Rugby Sevens. Applied Sciences, 15(5), 2344. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15052344. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22552 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | |
| dc.subject | Kinesiology | |
| dc.subject | Biomechanics | |
| dc.subject | Sports | |
| dc.subject | Training load | |
| dc.subject | Women | |
| dc.title | Objective quantification of physical athlete load in women’s rugby sevens | |
| dc.type | Thesis |