New technology to give Australia advantage on court
Netball Australia will be the first worldwide to use newly developed indoor player tracking technology to gain a competitive advantage ahead of this year’s World Youth Netball Championships, 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup in Sydney.
Victoria University PhD student Alice Sweeting will use the Australian developed technology, called RF Tracking, which provides real time information such as distance, velocity and positioning, with the Australian national netball squads, including the Australian Diamonds.
“A lot of outdoor sports use GPS units to track player’s movement however indoor sports have been unable to do so because of access to satellite signals so this system, which was developed by the CSIRO and Australian Institute of Sport, is based on radio frequency,” Sweeting said.
“I will be collecting data for the next three years from a cross sectional group, including the Australian 17/U, 19/U, 21/U netball teams and the Australian Diamonds, updating the data as I go and looking for reoccurring patterns and new trends.”
Sweeting’s research into load monitoring continues this week at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra with the Australian 21/U squad put through its paces at selection camp before a 12-player Australian team is picked on Thursday to defend the World Youth Netball Championships title in August.
Netball Australia’s Head of High Performance and Australian 21/U coach Carol Byers said the technology, previously unavailable to indoor sports, would provide revolutionary data on player load management ahead of the sport’s most important tournaments.
“We understand that the data collection process is going to take time so we’re not expecting results overnight but with the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup in Sydney approaching, it will assist with our preparation for these pinnacle events,” Byers said.
“Early data has already shown this research has the potential to influence our High Performance netball programs, in terms of our benchmarking, program development, athlete preparation and possible playing strategies.”
The player tracking technology will be used during the Australian Diamonds selection and team camps in July and August respectively, however no decision been made yet as to whether they’ll be used during competitive fixtures.
