Rising sophmore attack Jeff Pitcher drives between two JMU defenders after a pick set by rising sophomore middie Will Morris. (Photo by Anna Wheat)
Men’s lacrosse players to participate in season-long study using performance tracking system
7/31/2026 3:43:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
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All 40 members of Liberty’s team will be equipped with a Sport Performance Tracking GPS device to monitor on-field motion in practices, games.
A study conducted by Liberty University Professor of Strength and Conditioning and men's lacrosse Assistant Coach Dr. Justin Kilian using Sport Performance Tracking (SPT) GameTraka GPS monitors will measure players' physical exertion in practice sessions and competition to better assess how to prepare them to play at peak performance levels in games throughout the 2026-27 season.
Kilian graduated with his B.S. in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science at Liberty in 2009, before earning a M.Ed. in Kinesiology with a concentration in Clinical Exercise Physiology in 2012 and a Ph.D. in Health and Human Performance in 2020 from other universities. He wrote his dissertation based on research data gathered from Liberty's NCAA Division I women's lacrosse team, which has used the same performance tracking technology. A Sport Performance Tracking charging station with the GameTraka devices and vest worn by players to hold them in a back pocket
He said the Flames will be the first MCLA program to incorporate the GameTraka into their training. A similar GPS unit, known as a triaxle accelerometer, was used by 2026 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse national champion Princeton University this past season with the men's program at NCAA Division III University of Lynchburg employing the SPT model.
Invented by Andrew Raines, a former Australian rugby player, the GPS device uses metrics such as speed and distance covered to provide precise analysis of the total physical output or external load of both individual athletes and entire teams during training and competition.
About the size of a small flip phone and weighing only 27 grams, the GPS unit is not cumbersome or restrictive. It is strapped to a player's back with a vest and embedded into the padding beneath the jersey between the shoulder blades.
Kilian purchased the 40 SPT GameTraka devices and charging port as well as software for its data analysis with a Dean's Innovation in Research Award grant, after being presented the award for the 2025-26 academic year by Dr. Heidi DiFrancesca, dean of Liberty's School of Health Sciences. Dr. Justin Kilian, director of Liberty's undergraduate strength and conditioning degree program through the School of Health Sciences' Department of Allied Health Professions, analyzes data gathered using the Sport Performance Tracking GameTraka device.
Data collected with assistance from Liberty graduate assistant Matthew Devries and CSER students through a Club Sports work study program coordinated by Assistant Athletic Director of Academic Integration Dr. Jonathan Chung will allow Kilian and fellow Assistant Coach Dr. Jessi Glauser, who serve as the Flames' strength and conditioning coaches, as well as Head Coach Kyle McQuillan, to tailor individual workouts leading up to games.
"As we know what the athletes are expected to achieve in a game setting, we can reverse engineer our training program to match exactly what the in-game demands are in terms of the distance covered, the amount of distance at a high intensity, and the total number of sprints," Kilian said. "That way, we can have kind of a target point for a needs analysis for training and conditioning."
Players can see the data for themselves to evaluate their own performance progress.
"One of the benefits of this technology is that I will upload it to the server, and it's all Cloud-based, so the student-athletes can access their individual performance … and they can compare it across timelines," Kilian said.
Another byproduct of improved training regimens through data analysis is injury prevention.
"The better a player's fitness foundation is … (and) if we can minimize the amount of fatigue that they're accumulating, theoretically that's going to be productive in reducing the risk of injury," Kilian said.
Drs. Kilian and Glauser, another professor in Liberty's Department of Allied Health Professions, are both certified strength and conditioning specialists through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Glauser is also a certified exercise physiologist through the American College of Sports Medicine and a sports performance coach through USA Weightlifting.
"Having exceptional resources like Coach Kilian and Coach Glauser is one of the things that sets Liberty apart," McQuillan said. "Both Justin and Jessi do a great job as a goalie coach and faceoff coach (respectively) and as our strength and conditioning coaches. Their ability to integrate academics into our program while bringing professional expertise in exercise science gives our team a significant competitive advantage. By applying evidence-based training principles and performance strategies, they create an environment where our student-athletes have every opportunity to develop, compete, and perform at their highest level."
Using Hawkin Dynamics force plates set up in the weight room during workouts, Glauser gathers and analyzes data from players' countermovement jumps, calculating metrics such as velocity and displacement to help them become more powerful on the field of play.
"Jessi and I have a training philosophy to build up the foundation (of players), and that's exactly what we try to do," Kilian added. "Whether it's with our conditioning, our workload management with the GPS units, or with our force plate data in the weight room, we just really want to make that athlete as athletic as possible so that we can translate it into what they do on the field and just make those skills that much better."
"We are trying to increase the durability of the athletes," he added. "Every year we look at it from a different angle to learn what new technology we can introduce."
Chung said Kilian and Glauser are perfectly synergistic candidates for Club Sports integration efforts such as this due to their overlapping roles as strength and conditioning professors and coaches.
"Dr. Kilian and Dr. Glauser are doing big things over there," he said. "They are the head of the spear. How blessed we are in Club Sports to have them on staff, with the resources we have to further enhance the learning experience."
Chung said the men's lacrosse student-athletes' participation in the study by voluntarily wearing the GPC devices is an integral component.
"All of them are part of the integration process," he said. "They're the research participants of the study, showcasing that we in Club Sports are collaborating and partnering with (Allied Health Professions) to help and assist in their research." The poster presented by graduate assistant Matthew Devries at the National Strength and Conditioning Association conference in New Orleans.
Kilian's dissertation was published in the International Journal of Strength & Conditioning in February 2022. In recent years, several of his exercise science students have presented research posters at the National Strength and Conditioning Association's annual national conference. This year's conference was held from July 8-11 in New Orleans, attended by 14 Liberty students and faculty members who presented four posters..
He said the collaborative approach to the advancement of the strength and conditioning industry and scientific research is what makes studies such as this one worthwhile.
"We've got a really cool department, and we have a lot of students who want to get involved and that's personally rewarding for me … being able to mentor a student to the point where they're willing and able to go to a national conference and present research," Kilian said. "That's exciting. Ultimately it gets back to serving the athletes. Obviously, academically, I want to integrate it into my classes, but I also look at it through the lens of being a strength and conditioning coach for our men's lacrosse team here and saying, what can I use to make the team better? How can I serve this team better?"
