Season Starting Part 3

We've spent two weeks talking about workload spikes and reading a full week of Load and Energy Ratio instead of judging one practice.

But all of that only works if you know one thing first.

What does normal actually look like for this player?

This is the part that gets skipped the most. It's also the part that makes everything else useful.

Every player has a different baseline. A Load number that's completely typical for one skater might be a big day for another. A dip in Energy Ratio might be a real red flag for a player who's normally steady. For a player with more natural variability, that same dip might mean nothing at all.

Without a baseline, every number floats with no context. With one, it becomes something you can act on.

Here's the simple version.

The first two weeks back are the best window to build that baseline. Tryouts haven't gotten intense yet. The schedule isn't full yet. This is the calm before the season, and it won't come around again.

The importance of establishing a baseline.

Track a normal week or two. Not the hardest week of camp. Not a light week when half the team is out sick. A typical week, doing typical training. That gives you a real number for what a normal Tuesday looks like for that player.

Once you have that baseline, the important questions get easier.

Is this week's Load actually high for this player? Or does it just look high because you have nothing to compare it to?

Is a dip in Energy Ratio a real sign of fatigue? Or is it well within this player's normal range?

Is a player who looks tired actually showing tired numbers? Or are they performing exactly like always, just having an off day mentally?

None of these questions are answerable without a baseline.

That's the whole point of tracking load over time instead of reacting to any single practice. The data doesn't mean much alone. It means a lot in context. The first couple weeks of the season are when that context gets built, whether you're intentional about it or not.

The teams that build this baseline early spend the season using their data. The teams that skip it spend the season guessing whether a number in November is actually a problem.

See you next week,
Team HELIOS