NFL: Is it like Trackus? Or different?

[Grits]

At the beginning of Thursday night's game between the Giants and the Redskins, I heard Jim Nantz announce that for the first time players had, placed in their shoulder pads, sensors that would track their movement on the field, acceleration, velocity, etc.

Wonder if, and how, this differs from Trakus--that we have.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/07/30/metrics-sensor-shoulder-pads-zebra-speed-tracking/13382443/

How will they competitively make use of the data?

add (Sorry for spelling error in header.)

[horses4courses]

At the beginning of Thursday night's game between the Giants and the Redskins, I heard Jim Nantz announce that for the first time players had, placed in their shoulder pads, sensors that would track their movement on the field, acceleration, velocity, etc.

Wonder if, and how, this differs from Trakus--that we have.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/07/30/metrics-sensor-shoulder-pads-zebra-speed-tracking/13382443/

How will they competitively make use of the data?

add (Sorry for spelling error in header.)

I'm not sure the value of it for football.
Maybe just certain positions.

I could see it being invaluable, though, in both soccer and basketball.
See how much ground players are, or are not, covering during a game.
It could weed out the slackers pretty quickly :ThmbUp:

[Robert Fischer]

sounds cool

[Tom]

The best use of it for football is to make them wear if off the field.

[Dark Horse]

It depends. If it's just measuring distance covered, as in soccer, it's useless. But if it is accompanied by bird's eye view pictures from above, that show the positions of players and how they respond to formations, as the shots studied by QB's at the sideline during the game, it could be huge.

[cj's dad]

All about future lawsuits !

[JustRalph]

Put it on Wes Welker, Jason Witten, develop a baseline. Then use it at the NFL combine to compare draft picks. Etc etc etc

[burnsy]

Acceleration data is very important. The best receivers, runners and even tacklers..are not always necessarily the fastest people on the field. Some people can go from zero to fast in the matter of steps (and make turns or cuts). In football that is a vital element of being good. Not just being fast.......how many steps does it take get there with agility. A guy that's fast at 40 or 100 yards, may not be as quick as others in a confined area. That's how Wes Welker does it, he makes moves and bursts, even if the defender is faster, they can't stay on him.

[Robert Fischer]

Acceleration data is very important. The best receivers, runners and even tacklers..are not always necessarily the fastest people on the field. Some people can go from zero to fast in the matter of steps (and make turns or cuts). In football that is a vital element of being good. Not just being fast.......how many steps does it take get there with agility. A guy that's fast at 40 or 100 yards, may not be as quick as others in a confined area. That's how Wes Welker does it, he makes moves and bursts, even if the defender is faster, they can't stay on him.
Good point.

Randy Moss comes immediately to mind.
He had a fairly fast baseline playing speed, but then when he came to the crucial part of the route running, or the time to run "through" the catch, he was 'electric'. He was one of the few who had that eye-popping raw talent AND the ability to use acceleration with the agility. One of the few players from past eras who could time-machine to 2014, and dominate (no era-adjustment needed).

But guys like Moss are easy to spot.

Guys like Welker require savvy coaches who understand the game, are able to spot such players that use acceleration and agility to "out-run" their raw talent, and understand their own systems in order to utilize them.

:ThmbUp:

[Grits]

What is odd to me is that the towers transmitting the sensor's data have only been put in the 17 stadiums that are hosting CBS' NFL Thursday Night Football. The article, too, included comment about enhancing the fan experience. So, was this another marketing decision, ie, drawing more moves on the screen or are the coaches going to use the data in leading their players throughout practice and all of the season? This could add an entire layer as far as accessing players, week to week.

[Stillriledup]

Acceleration data is very important. The best receivers, runners and even tacklers..are not always necessarily the fastest people on the field. Some people can go from zero to fast in the matter of steps (and make turns or cuts). In football that is a vital element of being good. Not just being fast.......how many steps does it take get there with agility. A guy that's fast at 40 or 100 yards, may not be as quick as others in a confined area. That's how Wes Welker does it, he makes moves and bursts, even if the defender is faster, they can't stay on him.

I've heard this about some players who seem to have to run fast because they're either out of position or just not fast enough to get from Point A to Point B....this is why certain MLB players always seem to be making great catches and others make it look routine....the guys making it look routine are players who are more in the right spots as well as having better closing speed. So, when you see an amazing catch, at least some of that catch is due to possibly the guy being out of position, or too slow to have caught the ball without having to lay out.