Temple University men’s soccer

Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Division I Temple University men’s soccer team competes in the American Athletic Conference. The Owls were founded in 1926 and have a long history of success in NCAA competitions.

Assistant Coach Alex Shinsky is a central figure within the Owls program and in his role, he uses both Catapult wearable technology and Catapult Vision, our video analysis solution. 

Through using both performance solutions, the assistant coach is able to develop a more efficient analysis process, objectify performance strategies, and improve the program’s remote working capacity.

Integrating Catapult Vision: More efficient analysis

By using both wearable and video analysis solutions, the assistant coach is able to identify and take advantage of a more efficient performance analysis process.

“The integration of both solutions makes the whole analysis process much more efficient. We no longer have to use loads of different programs, we now just have one.

“What we really like is that we can overlay the metics derived from the devices on top of the video. This allows us to provide better feedback to the players as they can clearly see the context of gameplay and we can get a better sense of the players overall health and performance.”

Objectifying performance

With Catapult, the assistant coach is able to lead an objective program and align performances closer with the Owls’ goal of reaching the NCAA National Championships.

“Catapult really forms the basis of our performance knowledge as we can access a whole host of different metrics, for instance, sprint speeds, distance covered, and PlayerLoad. It provides us with a better understanding of what we are putting the players through physically and from that, we can shape our program in a more objective way and avoid relying on purely intuition.”

With this objective approach, the assistant coach is “able to break down the goals we set for each player by day, week, and month to make sure we are consistent with our practice. With this, we’re able to benchmark performances to know where the players are with their performances, capacities and overall health and align our performances with our goals and objectives.”

“To put it simply, Catapult just makes sure we are consistently performing at the highest possible level,” says Shinsky. “It really provides that confidence to know that we are doing the right things on- and off-the-field and gives us a competitive advantage.”

Remote working made easier

The Owls were forced to to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic and have only recently returned to training. In this time, Shinsky and the rest of the coaching team found Catapult Vision to be of particular benefit as they continued with remote video analysis sessions.

“The telestration tool has been fantastic especially since the players were away from the facility. To keep the players engaged whilst remote is difficult although the tool allows us to convey the messages we want despite the restrictions we face. Being able to show them something visually rather than just talking at them was really helpful.”

Commenting more generally on the video analysis solution, the assistant coach says, “Vision is great for player feedback and reflection, you can really educate the players on the areas of improvement they should be working on in their games.”

“Strategically, the players are getting better and developing their understanding of the game to a level, which a few years ago, would only be seen in a handful of players.”

Temple University x Catapult: More to come

“Overall, we have enjoyed our experience with Catapult and long may it continue. The technology has done and Catapult staff has provided everything we have asked for. 

“In our time together, the data has allowed us to move our performances closer to the levels we want to achieve. We have some ambitious goals that we want to achieve as a team and the technology really helps the players do more and develop into the players they want to become.”

 

Interested in finding out how Catapult can help your team find its competitive edge? Get in touch, today.