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What Makes GPS Football Trackers So Reliable?

Author: Paul Niehaus

Using an athlete tracker, aka a player tracking device, for load management is almost a necessity for soccer and American football coaches and trainers. The grind of the long season, combined with the enormous amount of energy players exert in games, makes it challenging to keep everyone fresh until the end of the season. But GPS-based athlete trackers can help make it easier.

An athlete trackers, which is also called a player tracker is prepared by a coach for a player to wear during a practice.

Not only can the data be sent directly to the AWS cloud, but when combined with a sports app, the latest technology can help you customize workout and workload plans for each of your players.

Paul Niehaus is a sports science consultant for KINEXON Sports who works with teams in multiple sports including football and soccer.

With the GPS system, our clients have the possibility to monitor the training load of their players live everywhere and at any time and can thus directly influence the monitoring of the training.”

Paul Niehaus, KINEXON Sports Science Consultant

This technology is also helping coaches translate sports data into reducing injuries and developing return-to-play protocols. Studies already show that GPS is the most used monitoring tool for managing workload, and now it’s even better, and can be applied to multiple sports. 

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Demand Planners In Sports

A demand planner is a load management tool used that help players with their sports performance training.

Demand planners play an essential role in the supply chain of a company. In business, demand planners use a company’s analytical, marketing, and sales data to estimate future product demands effectively. 

But for our purposes, it’s a load management tool. We are now using sports performance software and GPS-based athlete trackers to provide coaches and trainers with sports data that you can analyze to estimate load management demands (and other needs) for your players.

The KINEXON software not only serves as a visualization tool for coaches to describe the load on athletes but also allows them to use the live Session Goals feature to back up future decisions with clear threshold numbers.”

Paul Niehaus, KINEXON Sports Science Consultant

The goal is to keep track of how your players respond to the enormous energy levels they reach in a game and/​or practice and then manage it accordingly to keep them fresh and injury-free all season long.

GPS-Based Athlete Trackers

A coach sets up a football GPS tracker to monitor players at a practice, but it can also be used during a game to collect real-time sports data on players..

KINEXON PERFORM GPS Pro is more than just an athlete tracker. It contains many new features that, when combined with our app, make it easier to customize load management plans for each player. 

We have learned that every team and player is unique, and there is no universal formula for creating a demand index that works for everyone. That is why we created a method for coaches to personalize the demand of each training session individually. 

It’s target load management for players. This customization is based on a load of 100% on match day, allowing coaches to tailor the sessions according to their team’s specific needs and requirements. 

This approach is already being used to develop menstrual cycle-syncing workouts for women athletes.

Sports Technology Helps Coaches

Football teams use sports technology, like wearables, to learn information about players like acceleration and sprints.

With a GPS-based athlete tracker and load management tool, you can get answers to the questions coaches and trainers have been asking for years, including: 

  • How do I track my players’ workloads over the long-term? 
  • How challenging can I make a practice session compared to a typical match? 
  • Can I track my players’ goals live? Or review after a practice session or game? 

The new dashboard feature is a valuable tool for coaches. It allows you to plan training sessions based on specific metrics. The feature is highly flexible and customizable, allowing you to personalize your approach.

Paul Niehaus is a sports science consultant for KINEXON Sports who works with teams in multiple sports including football and soccer.

An important prerequisite for directly influencing or changing decisions in training is to understand the collected data precisely and to put it into the right context. The Demand Planner Dashboard provides our users with a tool that allows them to accurately calculate the goals for each training session based on the time of the season or week.”

Paul Niehaus, KINEXON Sports Science Consultant

Football GPS Trackers for Load Management

Additionally, coaches can monitor the demand in real-time and adjust accordingly. This ensures that practice sessions meet your exact needs. With these new dashboards, coaching has become more efficient and effective than ever before. It can help keep your players fresh all season long. 

If you’d like to learn more about the new target load management feature, download our guide. In it, you’ll find information on how to follow four easy steps to start individual plans for each player. 

Our experts help coaches and trainers generate data they can use to manage player demand and load. Now you can, too. 

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