The Scottish FA has today announced an exciting new partnership with Playermaker, a wearable football tracker at the leading edge of player development.
The Playermaker sensors, which will be used in the Scottish FA JD Performance School programme, is placed directly onto the player’s boots, generating technical and physical data and analysis from the source of motion.
The partnership aims to proactively drive the standard of Scottish football higher through increased analysis of performance, creating healthy competition and supporting coaches to understand player development principles.
Each Performance School player has now been equipped with Playermaker technology, enabling the Scottish FA coaches to remotely monitor and support the technical development of each player, regardless of whether they are training with their Performance School or for their respective club.
The data will allow Scottish FA coaches to effectively impart their methodologies and philosophies, using the data to inform increased personalised training, having identified individual strengths to harness alongside specific areas for improvement.
The Scottish FA will encourage grassroots clubs to adopt Playermaker technology through its regions and Coach Education programme, with a view to allowing all levels of the game access to this advanced technology, to allow better player development, empower coaches and identify talent.
The Scottish FA will also be able to gain better insight through this data and research, which will lead to improving coaching methodologies and player development.
Scottish FA JD Performance School manager Brian McLaughlin: “We’re always trying to find ways that we can maximise player potential and look for any knowledge that we can use to our advantage.
“Playermaker is an ambitious technology company, one whose philosophy of data and analytics dovetails with our own approach to player development.
“We believe their product will help us, as coaches, work at the leading edge – looking at training sessions in a more specific way, while also encouraging players to take responsibility and accountability for their own development.
“This partnership will also help influence the development of the next generation of players, not just at the elite level but down to the grassroots game.”
Guy Aharon, Playermaker CEO: “We are honoured to partner with the Scottish FA, supporting their innovative talent development and talent ID roadmap. Our mission is to empower coaches and players with accessible valuable data to help those aspiring players to improve their Speed, Ball Control, Power and Agility.”