EchoSports taking care of Zalgiris players’ sport results and workloads / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Zalgiris Kaunas Credit Zalgiris Kaunas

Zalgiris has added new technological solutions to its training system. To ensure that the training process is more productive and seeking to reach the optimal player workload and recovery would be tailor-suited to individual needs, the Lithuanian champions have begun a partnership with EchoSports.

For the last five years, the Latvia-based company has been working on an intuitive athletic performance analysis solution, that allows the coaches to closely follow player positioning, pace, speed, distance traveled, intensity, heart rate as well as many other metrics. During games and practices each of the player’s movements is traced and insights about player workload and general conditioning reach the coaches within seconds.

“Technology has always been pushing sportive results forward, and in the current day, team sports have started to become a technology race. We analyze our data to have a better understanding and control of our training process and to reach better results from our players,” – said Zalgiris director Paulius Motiejunas.

The creators showcased the implementation of their technology in Zalgiris’ system in the Zalgiris Hackathon back in 2019, and became partners of the Zalgiris Innovation Studio. Having begun cooperation, the team’s coaching staff shared some ideas on how the system could be improved and fully suited for the high standards of Zalgiris Kaunas.

Special attention to the green-and-whites

The partners paid extra attention to Zalgiris’ needs, welcoming feedback and implementing specific metrics specially for the Lithuanian basketball team.

“We’ve been using the EchoSports application for two years now. I like how easy to use it is. All the necessary functions are easily accessible by phone, computer or tablet, and the application can begin data collection after just a couple clicks,” – noted Zalgiris’ physical preparation coach Sigitas Kavaliauskas.

“EchoSports are real professionals of leading-edge software development. With the help of their program, technical tasks are automated, which allows the coaches to concentrate on data analysis. This is a great solution for teams like ours – those who are looking for insights, yet aren’t ready to hire a team of scientists and technicians. Our coaching staff can now use their competence to the full extent,” – admitted Paulius Motiejunas.

Lowered injury likeliness and higher self-assurance

One of the goals of EchoSports is helping decrease the likelihood of injuries. By tracking their condition in real time, coaches can make necessary adjustments, regulate workloads and use practice time to the fullest.

“The insights provided by the platform are very useful during an intense schedule, when you’ve got 3-4 games in a week. By tracking the players’ physical condition, we can adjust training intensity for each player individually, thus both decreasing the likelihood of injuries and keeping them in peak condition. Attention to details like this has worked wonders this year, as we managed to increase the overall workload. Now you don’t need to base your decisions only on your intuition – we now have a concrete plan,” – highlighted Sigitas Kavaliauskas.

Another positive point from the system is the opportunity to better communicate with the players and showcase their results and physical condition to them directly.

“The EchoSports system provides an easier approach to the players when it comes to talking them into working additionally, or taking a rest. Even during the practice, you can show the results to a player, compare them to their teammates, thus increasing motivation for practices,” – pointed out the specialist.

“We’re happy that the implementation for Zalgiris has given us cooperation with coaches of the highest caliber. We believe the system will benefit Zalgiris in upcoming years through stronger and healthier players. The goal of our fully automated solution is to make elite-level insights accessible – without complexity and huge investments,” – concluded member of the EchoSports board Maris Dreija.

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