Appalachian State’s Coaches Use GPS Football Technology to Manage Player Loads in Real-Time
Live GPS football data helps keep players fresh for game day. Just ask the Director of Performance for the Appalachian State Football team, Matt Greenhalgh. He shares what he thinks are some of the most critical load management metrics in the game.
The Appalachian State Mountaineers are heading into the 2024 season off a second-place finish in the Sun Bowl Conference (East) and a win in the Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl over Miami (Ohio). But now they want more, and they’re using GPS football data to get it.
Load Management in Football Has Never Been Easier. Find Out How to Get Started
The team’s Director of Performance, Matt Greenhalgh, is using KINEXON PERFORM GPS Pro to get ready for the season. He appeared on the 247Sports “App State Mania” podcast to discuss how he and his staff are using the data.
“With our football program, we’re using a real GPS system, similar to how you’d use Waze or Maps in your car. It shows us the route and its length,” Coach Greenhalgh said. “This technology provides us with live, instant feedback, allowing us to monitor players in real-time.”
He says having live, real-time data is a big help when it comes to managing the load of skill players from pre-season to the bowl game.
“For example, if a wide receiver is going to run a go route and the pass might be incomplete, they’re going to turn around and jog back to the huddle,” Coach Greenhalgh said. “Then, they’re going to get lined back up and run a deep post. After that, they’ll turn around, jog back, and suddenly be running a curl. But if the play is to the opposite side of the field, they’re running and chasing the ball, then getting lined up again,” he added.
“So, the accumulation of those yards (tracked by the GPS) keeps us very aware during a week of practice leading into Saturday. When you have guys who take a ton of snaps, we look at what that yardage looks like and what speeds they are hitting. And make sure we are still attaining the maximum speed we want. It really provides us the ability to view thresholds we need guys to hit and when we need to back them off,” Coach Greenhalgh said.
“If you don’t have it (GPS) you’re falling behind. It provides us with an all-encompassing picture of what an athlete is doing and what they’ve done. This allows us to infer what will be most beneficial for them next.”
Use GPS to Track All Positions in Football
Coach Greenhalgh says the system is helping them to track each position on the team individually and set up thresholds for all of them.
“It doesn’t only give us miles per hour and total yards; it gives us all these different load metrics in regard to their body weight,” Coach Greenhalgh said. “How much power they’re producing, how fast they accelerate, and how fast they decelerate. It’s been great to look at different positions and understand their demands. That helps us create these thresholds. We’ll look at it on Tuesday, and boom, good, he hit his threshold. Wednesday, bang, perfect, he hit his threshold,” Coach added.
“We even wear them during our walkthroughs and jog-throughs because that allows us to get a bigger picture of the actual yardage that we’re putting on these guys,” he said.
Coach Greenhagh calls the ability to see how fast his players run each day and get immediate updates on their performance, including the yardage they are putting in at practice, a game changer.
To hear more from Coach Greenhalgh, you listen to the 247Sports Podcast, or if you have questions about how to collect live data for your team, contact KINEXON Sports at any time.
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