Client: St Helens Rugby League

Matt Daniels, St Helens, Head of Strength and Conditioning: “We collect reams of data on our players via daily wellbeing questions, physical marker scores, strength testing, RPEs and GPS. To do this in one central system allows us to collate, monitor and analyse the demands and workloads of our players and to alter training accordingly. The data collected from the strength and conditioning staff supports our medical team who document and record all injuries, notes and fitness tests within the system. This allows us to take objective information to our coaches on the state of players so we can support them to perform at elite level”.

Mike Rush, St Helens, Chief Executive: “The Sports Office rugby-specific system The Rugby Squad has proved an invaluable tool for us. To have one centralized system that has information on all of players from scholarship to first team allows me to see what has happened and what it is going to happen. It allows me to access information away from the training ground and feedback precise and important messages to our owner and board members to maintain and continue to develop elite rugby league players for our club.”

Client Requirements: Club require the capability to capture, monitor and analyse data on players on a daily, seasonal and long term basis.

Solution and Benefits: St Helens Rugby League Club was one of the first to adopt The Sports Office performance management solutions. Over the years they have collected millions of data points on their players, which has proved invaluable in recent times. St Helens make comprehensive use of The Rugby Squad throughout their organisation, including:

• The identification and reporting of junior grass root players.
• Educational feedback to academy players.
• Delivery of post-game videos.
• Daily capture of physical markers.

The selection and monitoring of players from domestic teams and clubs for the national sides is a complex and time consuming process. It involves a wide number of people across a variety of departments.

Information also needs to be communicated back to the players’ clubs and the staff within these organisations.

The Sports Office was selected to help in the two-way communication between the national or representative side’s management and a player’s parent club, with particular emphasis on the medical status of each athlete. A quicker, more streamlined system has helped to monitor player wellbeing and injury, making considerable savings in time and money.

The regular measurement of cortisol and IgA with IPRO saliva test kits has given the club an instant reading to measure the impact of intense training and its effect on players’ immune systems.

This data can now be immediately linked using the centralized database from The Sports Office to analyse and compare with each player’s RPE and workload.

Never before have the coaching staff and conditioners been able to link the results with a player’s overall wellbeing so rapidly and effectively.

The club in question is delighted that they can now adapt their training plan in real time and prevent fatigue or injury

Asking players to concentrate for long periods in a video analysis room is always an issue for coaches and finding the time to show specific videos to individual players can be even more difficult.

Thanks to The Sports Office the club is now able to stream both team and individual videos, which allows the players to view these at their leisure.

Furthermore, videos are now accessible on personal mobile platforms which means players can watch them on the move whether travelling to games, in the changing rooms or wherever and whenever they see fit

Gathering information from professional rugby players, particularly on a daily basis can be problematic. The data can become irrelevant by the time it is processed.

By using The Sports Office mobile application rugby clubs have found that their players are more willing to co-operate with data gathering, predominantly the completion of ‘well being questionnaires’.

Many have found that player completion of such daily questions has increased by over 25% as the players now provide their answers using their mobile devices.

With the data gathering process now ‘live’, coaches, sports scientists and medics have been able to implement and adapt training specifically to players needs immediately upon receiving the information.