Players don GPS units to track fitness
By TOBY ROBSON - The Dominion Post
Hi-tech GPS technology has taken the Hurricanes' fitness levels to new heights and left lazy trainers with nowhere to hide.
The team's players have been fitted with GPS units during off-season conditioning sessions and the information has been combined with heart rate monitors to chart not only how far, but how hard, they have run.
Trainers even have the ability to monitor the results in real-time on a laptop from the sidelines and adjust drills to raise or lower intensity levels.
Coach Colin Cooper said players and their trainers were now equipped with a more accurate gauge of their physical abilities than ever before.
"We have had it [in the past], but we haven't been able to use it to the extent we are now. It's how we are using it to improve the players.
"It tells you a lot more than just the distance you've
travelled. You might have done six kilometres that day and in that six you might have run two or three kilometres at the most intense and fastest you can run.
"But for some it might be only 1km or two or three, so you can see who is working hard and who needs to improve. There isn't really anywhere to hide."
A Google Earth feature also lets trainers map a player's movements and intensity as well as compare performance. The technology is provided by Lower Hutt company VX Sport with Wellington
and the Hurricanes buying 14 GPS units, which have been combined with the 20 heart-rate monitors already in
action.
CRAIG
SIMCOX/The Dominion Post
TECH WARS: Charlie Ngatai and Corey Jane with the new heartbeat monitors strapped to their chests.
"In the past you have just
gone off gut, but now its all on
computer and its live,"
Cooper said.
"I can watch them and they can get a reading on when their heart rate is in the nineties, for instance, instead of cruising around in the mid to low eighties."
Sessions are cut short, or players pulled out, if they have been working at 90 per cent of their capacity for too long.
"If you work too long at those levels you are overcooking them."
Information is collated at the end of the week and put into graphs for players and trainers to monitor.
Hurricanes strength and conditioning coach David Gray, who was the driving force behind the initiative, said the gains were already starting to show through in terms of the player's fitness levels.
"We've really pushed the intensity in training rather than volume. The heart-rate intensity is up there and, when we are looking at the GPS stuff, the moderate to high-intensity running, they are getting some quite good distance covered."
Gray expects real gains to be made in coming seasons when the data has been properly gathered, analysed and collated to benefit each individual.
Specialists
in
Childrens Fitness, Speed and Agility Training, Power Training, Quickness and Sports Training Equipment, Rugby.
Whether you are a teacher, coach, personal trainer, athlete, or physical therapist we have something for you. SPSS represents the very best in quality sports training aids, physical education, strength conditioning and training education.
