The first month of the NHL season is in the books and while it’s too early to predict the outcome of the grueling 82-game regular season, one thing is almost certain – the teams who are able to keep their franchise players healthy and on the ice will be the ones who rise to the top of their division and contend for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Strength and conditioning coaches, head coaches and general managers are no strangers to the idea of a healthy team = winning team, yet the processes for monitoring athletes’ performance and wellness has changed dramatically in the last few years and as technologies continue to evolve, the arms race for the next competitive advantage in applied sports science technology is on the rise.
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Data analytics has always played a role in monitoring athlete performance. Coaches have always looked at on-ice performance statistics to gauge a player’s contribution to the team. But, goals, assists and plus/minus numbers don’t tell the entire story. To know how a player may perform and why a player may perform a certain way, coaches need to know what is happening inside their players’ bodies. This concept isn’t new to coaches, but the days of mulling over piles of spreadsheets for hours can easily be eliminated with an athlete data management operating system allowing for predictive analytics.
CoachMePlus has emerged as an industry leader in athlete data management. The company was formed in 2013, to address the need for a more sophisticated system after working with the NHL Buffalo Sabres for many years delivering player workouts and manual data entry and analysis. It is now the go-to system for more than 50 professional and collegiate teams, including seven NHL teams: LA Kings, Nashville Predators, Columbus Blue Jackets, Edmonton Oilers, Arizona Coyotes, Minnesota Wild and Buffalo Sabres.
As the sports tech world is exploding around us, there is one person who has been waiting for this day not as a simple bystander, but as a thought-leader and practitioner. Longtime NHL strength and conditioning coach, Doug McKenney recently joined the CoachMePlus team as a sports performance specialist/founding coach. His experience spans more than three decades and he is always poised for a teachable moment. As one of the original advisory board members for CoachMePlus, he has seen the company grow and evolve with the demands of the industry.
Doug McKenney recalls when he first started 30 years ago, the heart monitor was the size of a cell phone. “Players couldn’t wear the monitors on the ice during practices or games because of the size and discomfort,” discussed McKenney. “We used the monitors in the weight room and on the cardio machines because the technology back then wasn’t where it needed to be.”
As the world moved from chalkboards to smartboards, the need to improve sports science technology became relevant. When it comes to player monitoring and sports science technology McKenney is most passionate about Hydration, Daily Assessment and Compliance/Education. These were areas he always focused on as a strength and conditioning coach and they are also intuitive features of the CoachMePlus system.
Hydration Monitor
Dehydration and glycogen depletion are two critical factors leading to chronic fatigue. These factors impact energy expulsion and performance. You need energy to get the work done and enough fluid to protect the muscles. When muscle cells are empty and dry it creates a situation where the athlete needs to work harder. If an athlete has dry muscles, there is an ease for muscle strains and then full-blown tears. With multiple game-days in a week, there is a stronger need in the NHL and NBA to manage hydration and energy loss. Such a critical element in injury prevention, yet according to McKenney coaches have been misguided by the antiquated “urine color chart.”
“Many coaches would have their athletes answer a questionnaire and mark the color of their urine on a chart. But, as a stand-alone, the chart may be wrong,” according to McKenney. “If an athlete just came off of the ice from practice, sucked down water and urinated clear, more than likely he is still dehydrated. The player needs to replenish sodium and potassium. He needs electrolytes first to hold in the water for proper hydration. Water is actually a poor hydrator – it’s a top-off drink. Athletes need to replace their electrolytes and then quench their thirst with water.”
The CoachMePlus Hydration Monitor takes the guessing out of what an athlete needs. Players weigh in before workouts, practice or games and weigh out afterwards. The scales alone detect pounds lost, but the hydration monitor, equipped with the team specific algorithms and methodologies, will calculate fluid ounces lost and instruct the athletes what they need to consume to replenish their sodium and potassium and properly hydrate.
Daily Questionnaire
Derived from the simple belief that athletes will always tell you they “know their own bodies,” the CoachMePlus Daily Questionnaire allows coaches to listen to what their players are saying and respond accordingly. Critical performance factors such as sleep, muscle soreness, nutrition and mood can be assessed on a daily basis when athletes answer a few questions on their smartphone.
In McKenney’s expert opinion, “there is a real need to get the assessment on a regular basis to recognize the limitations. He shares, “you never want to take away the coach’s eye, but at the same point in time you need to take this very elementary information, store it and use it. The answers to simple questions like “how much sleep did you get?” and “which parts of your body are sore?” can be triggers and indicators to dig deeper. They can be red flags to a bigger issue.” Each CoachMePlus client creates their own unique questionnaire and uses the information based on their methodologies.
Compliance and Education
McKenney recalls the early days of player monitoring. There was apprehension from coaches, players and management. But, early successes from sports science “gurus” like Chip Kelly (head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles) helped legitimize what coaches like McKenney were trying to implement. “It’s important for people like Chip Kelly to have continued success,” stated McKenney. “His success will lead to more teams embracing what should be daily behaviors.”
McKenney firmly believes you need to establish a culture of performance monitoring. It needs to be habitual and become part of the team’s system. “The first thing a head coach needs to ask when players hit the ice for practice or warm-ups is ‘Did everyone weigh in? Does everyone have their belts (GPS/Heart Monitors) on?’ If a player answers ‘No’ they need to be sent back off of the ice to comply,” says McKenney. ‘It’s not just one person. It’s everyone buying into the health compliance of the team.”
“The education of the positive effects of monitoring is a priority for professional athletes,” stated McKenney. “If channeled right and used properly, the players will accept it not as an assessment of where they are disadvantaged, but as a critical tool to the answers of how we can help them maintain optimal performance and stay injury free.”
The CoachMePlus system helps coaches and front office with instilling the sense of culture and compliance with its Assessment Monitor. A simple screen showing players’ headshots and compliance (red, green or yellow) to five or six required activities determined specifically by each team, allows anyone within the organization to know who is and who is not complying. Once the coaches and front office understand the benefits of this type of monitoring and compliance, athlete education and compliance becomes much easier to tackle.
What sets the CoachMePlus system apart and what has drawn teams from all of the professional leagues and the collegiate level to implement the CMP system into their sports science regiments is the system’s nimble ability to conform to a team’s specific methodologies. The enterprise software system has the capacity to integrate with over 35 wearable/measurable devices, saving coaches countless hours of data analysis and ultimately improving their ability to assess game day readiness. “It truly is the next- required piece of equipment for any sports program,” proclaims McKenney.
He is spending his early days with the company visiting current clients and working with them to maximize their usage of the system. When you talk with McKenney you immediately realize you are in the company of someone who is deeply passionate about what he does and also extremely knowledgeable and well-respected amongst his coaching peers.
McKenney is no longer the strength and conditioning coach for one team. He now has the opportunity to share his impressive knowledge and years of experience with the entire CoachMePlus family: those in paid contracts (more than 50), those in trial (more than 70) and the rest of the sports franchises waiting to take the plunge into the world of sports science technology. No one person can predict the future, but one thing is certain – sports science technology is the next competitive advantage a team can implore and the CoachMePlus system can assist in reducing the situations under which a season-ending injury may occur.
When millions of dollars are being poured into player salaries, the minimal investment needed to ensure those players are ready to optimally perform on a game day should be a no-brainer for any front office.