Driving Catapult Sports’ acquisition of Playertek last year was the chance to crack into not only the amateur market but also lower rungs of professional sports. Louisville City FC of the United Soccer League recently joined the latter ranks a month ago.
Playertek is a GPS-enabled, sensor-embedded device much like the elite Catapult harness but more affordable to the sub-elite level, such as clubs in the USL, one tier below Major League Soccer. Given a recent match with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees in St. Louis, for instance, LouCity had better data to monitor workload in that sweltering heat, as well as in training.
“We can sit with guys and show them exactly how hard they’re working, the need to re-hydrate, the need to make sure they’re eating correctly, and the need to rest,” coach James O’Connor told the team website. “I think people underestimate how hard people work and the distances players cover in training especially.”
LouCity hasn’t been using the Playertek wearables long enough to accumulate a vast data archive for comparisons — and not every player will be as keen on seeing their quantified workout load — but already a few insights have become apparent. Defender Paco Craig noted that he’s more fatigued after practice yet the game intensity is empirically more strenuous.
“Interestingly, the Playertek always says the game is the hardest thing we do,” Craig, the son of Culture Club bassist Mikey Craig, told the site. “That’s quite interesting. Apart from that, I don’t look into it too much. I just try to train and play. We just have to run around with these little bras on.”
The sports bra-looking harness is becoming an increasingly common site around the pitches of North American pro, college and even high school teams. Playertek, originally from Dundalk in Ireland, began humbly, originally marketing itself to the weekend warrior athlete. Founder Ronan Mac Ruairi told Irish culture site Joe a couple years ago that amateurs could settle such questions as, “Why am I heaving after 20 minutes of a match? Is it because I covered a large distance or is it because I had a late night last night?”
That said, Playertek counts a few A-list clients as well, such as Scotland’s Celtic FC, Barnsley FC of England’s second tier and the Liverpool women’s club. Louisville City has reached its league’s Eastern Conference final each of the past two seasons.
