So previously we covered what you may want to have in your Basic Info File, now we will look at how you may want to format your “Everyday Data” file. Depending on the level you work at this may only involve some copy and paste from a data export (GPS, HR, VBT etc.) or data collected during the day (RPE, hydration etc.) that needs to be input manually into the file or a combination of the two.
As the data export can involve some manipulation before copying and pasting, we will leave that to the next post or two so it’s gets the attention it deserves (where we will also introduce PowerQuery).
For the data that has to be manually input we have two options:
- Have the athlete names typed each day if data is needed
- Type out every athlete name, then copy and past underneath each day.
What determines which approach is better? How likely are you have daily data for the majority of the group or not. If you are working with 50+ athletes but only have data for 13, theres no need to repeat every name every day. The opposite also being true, if you have data for the majority most days, copy and paste can be a better solution. Whichever way you choose, its important the athlete name is identical to the manner used in the Basic Info file so we can combine the data further down the line. This data will be used in a table format as outlined in a previous post here
That’s manual input of data covered briefly, next up is a bit more of a heavy topic: dealing with data exports of various formats.
P.S. Some you might have questions about streamlining data input to reduce your work. This will be covered throughout the posts where we will look at manipulating tables, pivot tables/charts, using lookups or match formulas, named ranges and lots of other Excel tips!
SportSciData 