USA World Cup Winners

The USA Women won the World Cup finals in soccer yesterday!

The US team coaches are using heart rate training, aka Heart Zones Training, extensively in their preparation for what lead to this victory.

I wanted to share with you an article released yesterday about how that training is accomplished using training load points and player position specificity - and comments that I made in that regard in the article. You can read it here.

While members of the U.S. team will no doubt play their hearts out during the Women's World Cup final against Japan, a coach on the sideline will be receiving real-time data about their actual hearts.

Credit forward-thinking coaches who embraced sport science to improve performance: Each U.S. player wears a heart rate monitor -- not unlike one you'd find at your local sporting goods store -- when she trains and plays games.

But what makes these special is where the information goes and how it's used.
Whereas a commercial monitor (or "wearable") is designed for information to go to a wrist unit, an iPhone or iPad, and be used by the individual, for the U.S. women, there is a receiver that simultaneously collects the heart rates of 28 athletes to be analyzed by a coach.

[That "receiver" is the same as what's used to connect participants to the Display Training systems in cycling studios - John] 

"What evolved [with the technology] was the ability for coaches to not only record the data, but be able to see it live," says Josh Simonsen, a training specialist for Polar, the company that supplies the U.S. team with its heart rate system.

The data shows how hard a player is working, and can help a fitness coach determine everything from individualized training programs to deciding how much rest a player needs after a tough game. "If you take the women's national team, they're all fit. But it comes down to what type of fitness each player has," Simonsen says.

What type of position an athlete plays also makes a difference, explains Sally Edwards, a heart rate expert and founder and CEO of Heart Zones, a fitness technology company. "In team sports, each player's position has unique physiological requirements, so the forward on a soccer team has to have different training than a defender," says Edwards. "Some positions might need quick acceleration. Others might need endurance late in the game."

With the use of sensor technology, a training program can be tailored to each player to make the fit even fitter.

If you'd like to learn more about this technology and how it could improve your team's performance, Use this contact form to request more information.

Sally
Sally Edwards, Founder and Head Heart
Heart Zones, Inc.

Sally Edwards

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