CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – “Why are the players wearing bras during training?”
Throughout preseason, this is a question that pops up daily on virtually every form of social media. And it’s a fair question; the devices strapped around the players’ upper bodies are impossible to miss, and they do look a bit odd at first, particularly when they’re worn over their training tops.
The answer is that the devices aren’t bras, but instead highly sophisticated GPS tracking devices and heart monitors, and they’re a critical part of how a coaching staff develops a training session.
Each device has a unique tracking number attached to a specific player, and throughout a training session, critical information is gathered and logged in a central database. Data points like heartrate, distance covered and top speed are recorded for every player, every day.
And every day, New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps and the rest of his technical staff analyze the data, assess the overall workload of the squad, and tailor the next day’s session accordingly.
“It’s really important for me to know how hard they’re working, what kind of runs they’re making in training, how much distance they’re covering in training,” Heaps said. “At the end of that, all that information comes in and we can see how hard the training session was.”
If the players were pushed to the maximum one day, for example, they might pull back the next day to avoid overexertion. Conversely, if a session didn’t work the players hard enough, a more intense workload might be incorporated moving forward.
“The truth is, it’s very important,” Heaps said. “Every training session is logged, so we know what we’re expecting from the day and then we get the data. It helps us prepare for the next day and how much we need to do, and what else we can do.”
While the information gathered is helpful from the standpoint of an overall team workload, it’s perhaps more important on an individual basis. Each player’s data is monitored day-to-day, and if the staff notices anomalies in the numbers – say, for instance, that a player has to work harder than normal to get through a standard training session – it may lead them to dig deeper into the underlying reasons.
“Injury prevention has a lot to do with that,” Heaps said. “If someone’s numbers don’t look right or look like a little bit of an outlier from past data, then we might look and ask: is he sick? Does he have an injury coming? Is he holding something back? Is he having sleep issues?
“It’s a lot deeper than just tracking where they are on the field and how many miles they’ve run. It’s a matter of pulling it all together and using the data to get a complete picture of each player.”
While the devices might be most noticeable during preseason when pictures from camp are prominent, players actually wear the monitors in every training session throughout the season, and some players even wear them during regular-season games, but that’s a matter of personal preference.
In short, you’ll continue to see the devices strapped to the players in pictures throughout the season, and now you’ll know why.
