Catapulting into the NFL

GPS technology has many applications, besides just finding your way to a new restaurant. It can be used today for finding everything from your phone to your kid in a mall. It’s no longer limited to cars, either, as everything from bicycles to boats can be fitted for equipment to send and receive GPS signals. The latest mode of transportation to be equipped is the human body of an NFL player. Catapult is the company that is blazing the way into the NFL to help both players and coaches.

Technology and Sport Timeline for Catapult

• 1972: Australia’s disappointing performance at the Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, where they only won 17 total medals among 168 athletes, compared to the Soviet Union’s 99 total medals, leads Australia to invest heavily in technology for athletics


• 1972 to 2010: Australia works to use technology to improve the performance of their athletes


• 2010: NFL executives observe new data being used in Australian rules football and begin to explore its use for American football


• 2013: GPS technology used during practice by NFL football teams: the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Buffalo Bills, and possibly as many as ten others


• Today: S4 monitors worn by athletes in practice that uses magnetometers to diagnose and monitor the athlete’s vitals and fed through GPS transmissions to sideline receiving units


• Tomorrow: Seeing in-game tracking of athletic performance to gauge performance in real time

Coaching in the 21^st Century

NFL teams are always looking for an edge to give their teams. Catapult has created a way to help coaches monitor players to make sure they are getting the most out of each practice and game for their players to give them an edge on Sunday in the preparation and conditioning stage of the game. Data analytics is a new technique used by some teams to varying extents that can allow for some advantage if interpreted and implemented correctly. Teams that stay ahead of the curve will achieve the competitive edge they desire for each game.

The Buffalo Bills are one NFL team that is taking advantage of this GPS technology. Both players and coaches are seeing the benefit in this new way of monitoring player health, fitness, and fatigue. Running back C.J. Spiller was surprised to realize just how much running he did on a daily basis in practice. After realizing that he ran about 2,000 yards in practice, Spiller was singing the praises of this system that lets him and his coaches know just how much work he is getting in. The goal is never to have players work so hard at practice that they are not ready for the games on game day, but to make sure that the players are being monitored to make sure they are in the best physical shape they can be in.

Snapshot of NFL player C.J. Spiller during preseason practice
Total distance run in one practice	2,000 yards
Top speed	18-19 miles per hour

Bills strength and conditioning coordinator Eric Ciano sees many benefits to the use of GPS technology for the players. He points out that many players are more than one-dimensional and often work with multiple coaches at practice. One way this can help out is to monitor how many reps and how much running a player gets with each coach to make sure that the player is not overworked throughout the course of a practice. Receivers who also double as special teams players can very easily run all day at practice and never get adequate rest, becoming overtaxed and more prone to injury.

Coaches and players also like this system because it offers information that can help allow players to get back on the field faster, based on records of their performance from when they were healthy. Sometimes it is important for players to come back slowly from an injury, and this GPS technology will allow a coach to determine better if a player is trying to come back too soon or even not giving enough effort. In addition to getting players back on the field, a team will be able to get certain baseline information that can help them evaluate players that are trying to make the team.

The NFL is working to take better care of their players. Football is a violent sport with many variables in motion on any given play. Collisions and fatigue are a part of the game. Using GPS technology to get a better glimpse into how fast these variables are moving can be the next step in making the sport safer for all who play it.

Catapulting into the NFL