#Playr gps tracker software#

With cost barriers gone, the important next step is to see how sports wearable devices work in helping teams manage workload beyond the simple variables. Some systems were cost-prohibitive in the past, but now new systems are inexpensive enough that high school teams are adopting them. In fact, the reason the market has not evolved much is not because of technology, but the gap between sport science practice and the team coach. Most coaches equate GPS devices for rugby and soccer as wearables, and while that is correct, the industry is going to explode beyond just a torso sensor. The term “wearable” is a very wide category in sport, as something simple like a modern textile T-shirt is in that category. How Wearables Work and Why They Sometimes Fail When loading, think about how much force the body is taking, and with tracking think about what the body is producing. If you find or reveal a lot of new patterns or trends from player tracking devices, you will likely struggle when the next evolutionary step comes in a few years.Īn easy explanation to remember is that loading is more about the mechanical strain on the body, and tracking is more about the descriptive details of the total amount of work. When you invest in wearables, you are paying for the convenience and accuracy of what was done in training or competition, not revealing something that is shocking or novel.

When teams invest in wearable devices they are looking for information that requires more than a pair of eyes and a watch-something more precise and automated. Vague but still useful data like total distance covered is a metric worth noting, but any sport scientist or coach worth their salt will explain that without specific context and an array of other data sources, it’s just a number in isolation.

#Playr gps tracker software#

Software is also becoming simpler and easier to use, and even coaches without sport science support are now able to do more. Image 1: The use of GPS is trickling down to lower levels as products become more budget-friendly, so expect to see more teams using player tracking in a few years. While the concepts are similar, loading is trying to measure the demand on the body for managing adaptation and injury risk, while tracking is more superficial observation of what work was done. Tracking a player is simply observing simple indices and locations of what the player is doing, and loading is trying to estimate the general summary of demand on the player’s body. The difference between tracking and loading is like the old square and rectangle analogy-a square is a type of rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square.

Athlete data is now a part of the job requirement of new hires, and if you are not familiar with technology, some jobs will simply not be available to you no matter how great your coaching is. In a few years, the wearable device for athletes will be ubiquitous, just like the smartphone is currently the new normal for the general population. Player tracking or monitoring is growing beyond just a few cutting-edge teams, and it’s now at the high school level. Some Definitions of Player Tracking and Player Loading ConceptsĮven someone in the sports technology field will use incorrect terms like “GPS” or similar because the wearable market has a stigma, so it’s important to get on the same page with proper terminology. We’ve also included some sport science history, so teams can better use other data sets that might make more sense than buying inappropriate devices. Instead of just including a list of what is popular or available to coaches, we’ve decided to explain the evolution of the equipment and software so coaches can see where things are going before investing a lot of money in them. Tracking and managing the external load of training is here for good, and the space is only going to get busier and more demanding. The wearable sensor market is growing, and has now stabilized enough to review the leading companies and systems available.