14 Aug How STATSports Sonra Watch Makes Rehab & Conditioning Easier For Everton Coaches
By the end of November in last season’s Premier League, Everton had ranked second for most distance covered (1255km), sixth for most sprints (1,602), and topped the league for most individual player pressures (2,416).
Sean Dyche is known to expect his teams to be extremely well-conditioned.
His sports science, strength and conditioning, and medical staff play a huge role in making sure the squad can meet his demands.
STATSports and Everton have been partners in performance for nearly a decade, with the Toffees using our suite of technology to its fullest effect.
The Impact of Sonra Watch
With 28 real-time metrics updating for up to 8 players, the Sonra Watch app is perfect for return to play, rehabilitation, and conditioning sessions.
The Performance team at Everton headed up by Mark Howard, is a fantastic example of how to use the Sonra Watch effectively, unlocking several game-changing benefits.
Informed decision making
The Sonra Watch enables practitioners such as Everton Physical Performance Coach Jack Dowling, to make informed decisions live on the training pitch.
The watch is ideal for a rehab setting 1 on 1 or if you’ve got a small group of players, we can look at the watch quickly make an informed decision, and it gives us any information that we may need.
The ability to make informed decisions is vital for players who need to be closely monitored, such as those who are returning to play after injury.
Having the Sonra Watch has allowed Everton to seamlessly integrate sports science and medical input into return-to-play protocols with players such as Seamus Coleman.
‘We’ve got a current situation with Seamus, where Seamus is coming back after a lengthy period and there’ll be sports science and medical input to each rehab right at the very start. They follow that journey all the way through and feed back to the full group so everyone can have a say on anything that needs to be discussed.’
Speed & Accuracy
Another aspect of using the Sonra Watch is the speed and accuracy at which those informed decisions can be made.
‘Speed is massively important for us. How quick can we get the data? How quick can we feed that back to the players and make informed decisions? We can make that informed decision straight away.’
Having live accurate data available so quickly makes lives of coaches easier and allows them to maximise their time on the training ground with players, ensuring there is no room for error within small group and RTP sessions, such as that with Coleman.
‘It saves a lot of time, you’re not just guessing, you’re not just going in blind. You’ve got the data there live, you know it’s accurate data. When the session is finished you know what you’ve done before you even download it, so you’re saving a lot more time.’
Practicality
Part of making coaches’ lives easier is ensuring data is available in a practical, coach-friendly format.
The portable and practical nature of the watch is one of its greatest strengths. The Sonra Watch app connects via Bluetooth to the players’ GPS unit, removing the need for beacons. Certainly, at Everton they love this aspect of the technology.
‘Practicality of it is the main use. You’re not having to take a big system out for one player individually, you can just have the information on the watch.’
Everton use the full Sonra suite with their wider squad and use the watch to home in on more specified training sessions, where players like Coleman are training to come back and make a difference.
The award-winning Sonra Watch app brings together 28 key metrics for up to 8 players, and the ability to set individual thresholds on a customisable format, all on one wearable device.
Gone are the days of guessing, waiting hours & hours for information, or taking endless equipment out to the pitch.
STATSports technology makes the lives of practitioners significantly easier and helps to get the most out of each session and each individual player.
