Major League Soccer just raised its’ game with a partnership with STATsports, a global provider of GPS performance analysis equipment. STATsports has teamed up with eight Major League Soccer organizations – the Colorado Rapid, Columbus Crew, Houston Dynamo, reigning champs, LA Galaxy, New York City FC, Orlando City SC, New York Red Bulls, and Sporting Kansas FC.
The SportVU installation technology offered to pro soccer teams is known as the STATSport Viper System. It is a tracking system that has its own fully integrated software and hardware, and delivers next-generation data to any platform of the team’s choosing.
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The Viper System enables daily player monitoring, and training loads and output analysis which allows team management to detect when players are susceptible to injury. It provides individualized data on each player that enables a complete analysis of the individual performance. The information this technology provides to coaches and other team management will protect the players’ health and physical condition, keep the athletes at their most optimal, and ultimately save organizations time and money due to player injury.
The Viper System is designed to help better prepare professional teams for the playing season. The game of soccer is physically demanding on its players, and the Viper System’s “dynamic stress load” feature will greatly assist in detecting the athlete’s fitness levels, thus minimizing injury.
As long as the player is wearing the Viper Pod, it will provide non-stop unobtrusive feedback all season long. This technology has been tested by top teams and research facilities around the world and boasts some of the highest accuracy for any player tracking tech.
The Viper System is actually a pod that is inserted into specifically designed viper garments which consists of a vest and base layer. This allows the data to be collected on the player’s performance. The Viper Pod has an ergonomic design that tapers and curves to fit the player’s back. The pod includes a heart rate receiver, 3-D gyroscope, accelerometer and digital compass, long range radio, four processors, and a state-of-the-art GPS module. The Viper Pod streams live data in real-time through its Viper Live Streaming software, as well as data logging for post-session download. This allows players and coaches to immediately analyze a workout or game.
STATSports was founded in 2007, and has many global partnerships with top professional sports leagues and federations. Its purpose is simple: data collection, aggregation and distribution to professional sports organizations for high level analytics. For more information on other cutting edge technology provided by STATSports, visit their website.