CATAPULT TECHNOLOGY ASSISTS SAINTS CAPTAIN’S REHABILITATION

The fundamental component of a successful return from injury is a well designed program. But within that program the ability to monitor and manage workload is just as important.

In the modern age of sports technology, finding tools that can assist in this process adds to the understanding of how a player is responding to that program.

Down at St Kilda Football Club during the rehabilitation of Nick Riewoldt’s hamstring injury Catapult Innovations, a sport technology company based in Melbourne, provided technology that enabled the conditioning staff at the Saints to closely monitor Nick’s running progression.

Catapult is well known for their GPS technology, and within this technology is the ability to track speed, distance, heart rate and workload in live time.

David Misson, St Kilda’s Elite Performance Manager, explained how Catapult’s technology was used during Riewoldt’s rehabilitation process; “The process involved Nick wearing a small GPS unit on his back, which signalled to a receiver stationed on the ground and connected to a computer. This enabled conditioning staff to closely monitor Nick’s running velocity during every phase of his rehabilitation process, ensuring that each step was not excessively loading the repaired hamstring.”

Misson further explained; “Once Nick had moved away from the initial running rehabilitation and into football specific rehabilitation, the Catapult wireless system remained by allowing traditional measures of distance, number and intensity of efforts to be tracked in live time. This ensured that any cumulative fatigue that may affect the integrity of the hamstring could be negated. This last point is also critical, not only from the injured hamstrings perspective, but also for managing the load of his remaining musculature.”

“Basically, Nick was completing another pre-season and we needed to make sure that his body as a whole responded well, not just the hamstring. The Catapult system was a key component of the success in returning Nick to competition standard, and we would like to thank the Catapult team for their support”, concluded Misson.

Managing fitness for a national team like Australia has a number of unique challenges. The players are based all over the world in difference time and weather zones and often have to fly 20-30 hours for matches or camps in Australia.

minimax has been a key tool for managing both this challenge, and the teams final preparations for the World Cup. Darren Burgess, Head of Sports Science for the Socceroos has years of experience using athlete tracking technology, having filled similar roles at Port Adelaide AFL Club during their successful 2007 season (where they were runners up to the eventual premiers Geelong), Sydney Swans AFL club and Parammata Power from the former National Soccer League.

Individual Band Tables

You now have the ability to assign custom band tables to each individual athlete in your player database. This includes the bands used for real time wireless and the band table settings are automatically synchronised with the players specific minimax device.

Updated meterage/min statistics

A new form of the meterage/min statistic has been added that is independent of the recent window setting. This enables you to monitor the recent meterage/min along side the average value for the session, period etc. This new form takes on the old name of “Meter/Min” while the original form is called “Recent Mtr/Min”.

New bench all function

It is now possible to bench all players using “Control-A” on your keyboard during real time wireless mode. This is a good way to pause your statistics during short breaks in training drills etc.

Updates to reported data parameters

The field time and bench time parameters have been added to the report data. This allows you to easily compare field time with the period duration and calculate percentage game time for example. Also the work to rest ratio data is now exported in a better format to make it easier to work with when used with CSV exports.

Rowing & Canoeing reports updated

A new single page rowing reported has been included as well as several updates to the canoeing reports.
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A note about compatibility:  Please note that not all features are available in all minimax models. Please contact your Catapult representative for more information.

Edge Hill University, Central Lancashire University, and Northumbria University have all purchased systems for a variety of applications.

Northumbria have links with Sunderland FC in the English Premier League which is expected to be a major application.

Central Lancashire work with Burnley FC in the EPL also.

Along with Leeds Metropolitan, University of Hull and Teeside University minimax is now developing a very strong user base at the researcher level in the United Kingdom.

“We aim to be a customer driven organisation, taking our research and applications direction from key practitioners”, said Catapult CEO Shaun Holthouse. ” We are delighted to be increasing our user base amongst research organisations who can add such valuable input to our development program”.

Wearable/Team Sports models:

- minimaxL3 is an entry level unit designed especially for sub elite level clubs and schools. Packaged with LoganLite its designed for the elite athlete to monitor training workloads and competition performance using GPS, heart rate monitoring and accelerometery

- minimaxX3 is a cost effective solution for elite teams wanting to utilise athlete tracking technology in monitoring team performance and workloads. It boasts full inertial sensors, wireless real time monitoring, tackle analytics and fast GPS

- minimaxS4 is designed for teams who want to take athlete monitoring beyond basic workload monitoring to the next level. 4th generation GPS allows deeper insight into smaller movements, accelerations and decellerations with unparalleled accuracy. Entry level tactical analysis is also available

- minimaxV4 adds ball tracking including possession chains, ball movement as well as linking physical effort to game effectiveness. This is for teams wanting to leverage value out of their athlete tracking system beyond fitness staff to tactical and technical coaches.

minimax Rowing models:

Catapult also has 2 new models for boat sports such as rowing, kayaking and canoe. minimaxR3 is our entry level unit designed for the serious athlete for complete measurement of training and competition performance.

minimaxB4 is our high end unit for boat sports. It has full inertial sensors, wireless and 4th generation, 10Hz GPS.

Contact your Catapult representative for full details and pricing.

Melbourne Football club is one of the oldest football clubs of any code in the world, dating from 1858. Under coach Dean Bailey it is establishing an exciting young list and will use minimax in training and game applications for the coming season.

Read more about Melbourne Football Club

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/

Fremantle Dockers, based in Perth is one of the AFLs newest clubs. Read more about Freo at:

http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/

North Melbourne football club has just appointed a new coach and opened a multimillion dollar training facility. minimax will be an integral part of their preparation for the coming season under high performance director Ray Breed.

http://www.kangaroos.com.au/

“We see the AFL at the forefront of many aspects of sports science and strength & conditioning” said Catapult CEO Shaun Holthouse, “so for us, its both exciting to work with this leading edge of the industry, and very rewarding that the AFL consistently chooses our products as their preferred athlete tracking technology”.

Melbourne Australia ‐ Catapult, market leader and pioneer in athlete tracking technology, continuesto innovate in the AFL, introducing the SmartBall for professional clubs and media applications.

SmartBall integrates with Catapults existing athlete tracking products and allows users toautomatically collect statistics on disposals, possessions and ball movement during training andmatch day. Co‐developed with Sherrin, the AFLs official ball supplier, SmartBall uses patent pendingmicrotechnology to determine the balls location and proximity to players.

Tom Hollis, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Sherrin says: “We are excited to be bringingsuch an innovative concept to AFL. Sherrin prides itself on being at the forefront of technology. Sherrin is synonymous with footy, and this long standing relationship has been made possiblethrough years of dedication to craftsmanship and providing the game with the best possibleproduct.”

The SmartBall technology integrates with official AFL approved game and training balls.

Coaches can use SmartBall to analyse ball movement and possession chains with real time tacticalanimations of play, as well as automatically measuring key stats like disposals in both free andcongested space.

Fitness staff can use SmartBall to link efforts and work rate to output. ‘How many leads of a fullforward resulted in a possession? How effective or efficient are player’s efforts? How does the work rate of a team change when they are in defense?’ SmartBall provides automatic stats around these crucial questions in real time, enabling coachingstaff to make more informed decisions.

For media, SmartBall in conjunction with the minimaxX system provide fans with real insight into thegame. Through clear, real time graphics, you can show things like:

Catapult expects applications in both television, and internet/mobile phone based coverage.

Shaun Holthouse, CEO for Catapult Innovations says: “Ball tracking has been the missing piece of thepuzzle for teams who are increasingly using technology to track every aspect of performance.Combined with the rest of the minimaxX system, SmartBall provides a complete solution foranalyzing team strategies, space and movement around the field, defensive and offensivestructures.”

On sale through Catapult and Sherrin from December 2009, SmartBall will be available in both KBRed and KB Veg Tan Yellow Sherrin balls. For more information see the Smartball product page.

• SmartBall ball tracking compatibility
• Improved heart rate analysis for post training and real time
• Tackle and Repeat High Intensity Effort Analytics
• Expanded options for data export and report configuration

and more. . . .

Log onto the download section of our website to get your copy!