How wearables can help players compete at the World Cup

【51CTO.com Quick Translation】Compared to tennis and golf, football has been a little slow in accepting new technologies. However, this situation has changed in this World Cup. I remember that four years ago in Brazil, we first saw the debut of goal-line technology. This year, in Russia, we saw the adoption of Electronic Performance Tracking Systems (EPTS), Near Field Communication (NFC) footballs and a large number of wearable technologies.

While wearable technology has struggled in the B2C market in recent years, it has been a huge success in industrial settings and elite sports. Let’s take a look at what they bring to football:

PlayerTek by Catapult

When we talk about sports technology, the leading company is Catapult, an Australian company. It provides various solutions, involved in 35 sports, and has benefited 1,520 sports teams. Catapult's customers include 12 World Cup teams such as Egypt, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Uruguay. Their leading product is a smart vest called Playtek. It records the speed of players, the distance they run in the game, the movement trajectory of each player, and their sprint frequency through a device called tracking pod installed on the back.

Although it was adopted by FIFA at the "first minute", FIFA had already recognized it as a safety wearable device during official matches as early as early June 2018. Moreover, players of many teams have been using this vest in their training.

miCoach Body Wearables

Do you remember Darcy Norman, a German national athlete performance data analyst? He shared his experience of using Adidas miCoach before and during the last World Cup in Brazil at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a few years ago. They used the post-training analysis data to further understand the performance of each athlete. Coaches use this information to make more effective future offensive and defensive plans, as well as better personnel arrangements and decisions.

Of course, given Germany's poor performance in this World Cup, some people question whether they will continue to use the suite. Maybe miCoach is not used correctly, or it simply doesn't work! Or maybe it's due to too much competition from Catapult, which is planning to shut down the service at the end of the year after acquiring runtastic.

Viper Pod

STATSports' Viper Pod has similar features to other competing products. It is a sensor that can be installed on players' jerseys and can be used both on the training field and during games. The Viper Pod is equipped with a GPS module, a series of motion sensors, and a heart rate receiver. From pre-season to the entire season, coaches can use it to effectively manage the team's training load, players' condition levels, and prevent injuries. It can continuously monitor indicators such as movement distance, speed, acceleration, step balance and heart rate, and can also report players' collisions and fatigue levels in a timely manner. Customers of this product include the national football teams of Croatia, England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Poland.

Can we buy a pair of smart sneakers?

Although smart shoes have been tested several times in recent years, most products for professional football players are still in the prototype or exhibition stage. However, the most successful one is the smart insole. SportScientia has developed a wireless smart insole designed to significantly improve the performance of football players on the field.

This wireless three-point (3P) smart insole can establish a constant parameter baseline for athletes by collecting data in real time and analyzing pressure distribution, pad recovery and performance during training.

For young players, the insole can monitor their progress from a young age and thus discover their potential in sports. This also means that the insole can avoid the threat of career-threatening muscle injuries by counting and recording the players' sports performance.

Not all attempts are successful

In order to train players, Arsenal Football Team purchased 100,000 pounds of virtual reality technology products from a Dutch company called Beyond Sports. They built a smart room with various TV equipment, a small football field and virtual reality headsets. Through VR design, they can allow players to observe the entire field and other players from any time point and from any angle during the 90-minute game.

The technology gives players the opportunity to improve their performance by reviewing their reaction times and decision-making skills. Data collected from Premier League matches is then recreated in 3D. Unfortunately, some elite players developed nausea after using it, so the technology has been made available only to junior players.

***Players promoted

If your athletic ability isn't quite at world championship level, try Zepp Play Soccer, a tracker that attaches to a player's calf sock. The device pairs with a smartphone app via Bluetooth and uses a soccer-orientated algorithm to convert the numbers into performance data.

You can also get sports-related reports and optional video highlights. In addition, it also has a "Team Game" mode that allows multiple players to connect to the same game scene by entering a code or turning on a location discovery service to discover nearby games. Of course, you can also merge or compare your data with other teammates.

I wonder if the team you support is also using wearable technology to improve their game skills? I wonder if those devices can really work? In fact, wearable devices are just a set of tools. They can only play a supporting role for rigorous on-field training and players with natural skills. They are more suitable as an additional dimension of accurate analysis to help players perform exceptionally well in training and real games.

Did Wearables Help World Cup Players Stay in the Game? by Cate Lawrence

[Translated by 51CTO. Please indicate the original translator and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]