Live player tracking is now being extended to women's and youth football, with German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg investing in the latest real-time tracking technology from KINEXON. From the 2021/2022 season onwards, all women's and men's teams, from the senior professionals down to U-14 junior level, are being equipped with the latest GNSS-based KINEXON PERFORM live tracking and analysis solution.
Live data-based analysis
This makes VfL Wolfsburg the first football club whose coaching and analytics teams are able to access seamless real-time performance data from all players, regardless of where they are. As such, it will now be possible for the first time to analyse the workload and performance of all teams in a uniform data-based manner and to compensate for differences in performance in a targeted manner.
After the successful use of KINEXON technology last season, VfL Wolfsburg are now taking the next step, with the Wolves being the first club in the world to use live-tracking-based performance analysis from KINEXON not only for the men's professional team, but also for the women's team and for all youth teams from U-14s onwards.
Coaches able to evaluate live performance data remotely
Wolfsburg’s work with the Munich-based KINEXON company and its technology began in the 2020/21 pre-season, and gives its athletics coaches and performance diagnostics team an exclusive advantage. Using mobile, automated live data transmission, they can evaluate performance data from all players, even remotely. The objective of the coaches is to obtain complete and scientifically comparable performance data for all players, enabling benchmarks to be defined for specific age groups and individualised workload levels controlled. The team can also identify and react more quickly to differences in performance.
New benchmark in club football
By taking this next step, VfL Wolfsburg are proving themselves a driving force in international innovation. More than 190 players will wear the latest KINEXON sensors in training, providing the coaching and analytics staff with hundreds of types of performance data in real time. In addition to seamless performance data analysis across all teams and age groups, there is another advantage for VfL. “Our new generation of GNSS-based live tracking and analysis solution gives coaches and analysts a decisive time-saving advantage,” explained Maximilian Schmidt, CRO at KINEXON Sports & Media. “They can access all performance data live from anywhere in the world. No matter whether individual junior players in Wolfsburg are working special shifts with athletic trainers or the professionals are working on their individual training programmes one by one on holiday – detailed data on workload, performance, development and even match data can be analysed centrally in our software without manual, time-consuming uploads and downloads.”
“Uniform data collection across all levels”
For VfL Wolfsburg, the large-scale use of state-of-the-art tracking analysis technology is a central component of the club’s extensive infrastructure modernisation, with all levels set to benefit. “KINEXON technology provides us with uniform performance indicators for all playing positions and age groups,” said VfL conditioning coach Christoph Tebel. “This allows us to give our players the best possible support on the athletics side of things as they make their way from the academy to the pros, and to meet the individual requirements of the respective age levels.”
Next-level tracking tech arrives in women's and youth football
Over the past ten years, the number of KINEXON users has grown rapidly to over 400 international teams. After innovation-driving clubs in the men’s professional sector invested in this trend-setting technology, live data-based training workload management is now also increasingly being used in the women’s and youth sectors. “With our latest intelligent live data and analytics solutions, we are addressing the wishes of our partners and opening the door to the world of live performance data to all ambitious teams,” Schmidt added. “On the one hand, data collection is thus becoming cheaper, and on the other hand, it will become easier. In future, not every team will need its own data analyst to use the technology. Handing out sensors and switching them on will be enough, and this can be done by anyone. The analysis is carried out via a fully automated Cloud connection and can be done from anywhere. The streamlined, mobile infrastructure and the high degree of automation will make performance analysis much more economical and practical for clubs.”
“The fact that all our data collection is now done via KINEXON – and thus via a central provider – will also simplify and speed up certain internal processes and workflows,” said Tebel, who heads the conditioning and rehab team at VfL.
