More Football Programs in Illinois Beginning to use GPS Technology
- Amber James
- Apr 22, 2019
- 2 min read
Photo Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune
According to www.chicagotribune.com, the University of Illinois has made a recent purchase of "Catapult vests", which are athletic vests that include a Global Positioning System (GPS) device to track performances. Coaches and athletic trainers are collecting data from the vests to help them optimize physical conditioning in practices.
Players wear the vests under their pads; the vests have a pouch for a GPS device to monitor movement and physical output. According to www.catapultsports.com, 2,100 teams across 39 sports use its wearable technology product.
The University of Illinois is among a growing legion of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs in Illinois that are embracing new ways to incorporate technology and analytics. Northwestern University has used these vests for several years across different sports, including basketball.
“There’s multiple advantages,” University of Illinois head athletic trainer Jeremy Busch told www.chicagotribune.com reporters. “We can look at it from a strength and conditioning side. We can also look at it from injury prevention side. Coaches can look at it on the performance side as well.”
To use the device, a staff member sits at a corner of the field with a laptop next to an antenna that tracks and monitors players — and not just their speed. The vests record data points such as the duration of work, how long players maintain certain capacities of work, distances run, route running and “explosiveness” off each leg, according to www.chicagotribune.com.
“Once we know their top speeds, we can take a percentage,” Busch said. “How hard were they working? Maybe they’re working too much or maybe they’re not working hard enough. It depends on the goals for that week.
According to www.chicagotribune.com, the data has also revealed that players were working nearly as hard in warm-ups as the game, meaning they were exerting the same energy for five quarters.
“It’s not about backing off. It’s not about doing less. It’s about being smarter in how you do things. That’s what the technology does for us,” Busch explained.
