Netball is a game similar to basketball played between two teams of seven players and primarily by women in commonwealth nations. The England Roses — currently ranked third in the International Netball Federation (INF) rankings — recently brought on lead strength and conditioning coach Jools Murray to use Catapult Sports technology to improve the team’s performance on the court.
Murray comes from a background in physics. The ability to manipulate the equations was huge in the decision to partner with Catapult, a world leader in sports performance analytics that has partnered with more than 1,500 teams in 35 different sports,
Murray’s job is to make sure the 20 T6 Catapult devices provide the best possible data to maximize netball performance, and the partnership allows her to adapt the training and data for the variety of roles on a netball court.
“Catapult is one of the few units where I could explore the equations that they were using to calculate what units were reading on court,” Murray said. “They helped me develop a slightly different system (for netball).”
“For me, the most exciting piece is to create better training programs. I can create a more specific conditioning adaptation if I know more about what they have done on court.”
“It is crucial we have the best technology to perform at the highest level,” Tracy Neville, Head Coach of the England Roses, said in a statement. “The ability to analyze our performance data with the help of Catapult will allow the Roses to put out our best possible display on court and fight for medals on the world stage.”
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It’s important to note that the data is only part of the picture. It is designed to be an objective addition to the coaches’ subjective views on the game.
“The objective measure helps you to challenge your beliefs,” Murray said. “If the data matches your opinion, then it adds confirmation. If the data doesn’t match up with what you think, then you might have some prejudices you aren’t acknowledging.”
The T6 is Catapult’s lightest device to date and collects on average 1,000 data points per second. It features a state of the art gyroscope that registers up to 2,000 degrees per second. The weight of the device is a crucial factor in making sure the data given by the device is as accurate as possible.
“The units are small and light. They don’t bother shooters or affect their accuracy,” Murray said. “If the players are changing their mechanics because they are wearing the device, the data becomes skewed.”
Murray has only been with the Roses for six months and just recently began to work with Catapult. She has yet to actually manipulate the data or make recommendations to the coaches, but that hasn’t stopped the Roses from finding success.
The team just recently beat the No. 2-ranked New Zealand Silver Ferns in the first match of the Quad Series, which is the third time The Roses have taken down The Ferns in the last six months. They followed that win with a loss to world leading Australia on Monday, giving The Roses a split in the last international series before the Commonwealth Games.
Better performance analytics could be just what England needs to overcome its rivals down under and catapult into the top spot on the world leaderboard.
