The MLS season is now over and we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our clients competing in North America’s flagship football League.

Following ‘our teams’ in 2019

The MLS play-offs featured several “TSO derby days”, with our client clubs meeting each other. Toronto FC won the Eastern Conference title. They battled it out against fellow TSO client Atlanta United and defeated them 2-1 in the final.

Toronto then moved on to the MLS Cup where they played Seattle Sounders. Toronto FC previously won the MLS Cup in 2017. On that occasion, they beat the Sounders 2-0, making them the first Canadian club to win this MLS trophy.

Unfortunately, history did not repeat itself this November as Sounders beat Toronto FC 3-1 to lift the trophy.

Our clients Atlanta United also performed well in the Campeones Cup, the annual clash between the MLS champions and Mexico’s Liga MX winners.

A fantastic MLS season has passed and we look forward to continuing our work with our clients and supporting them to optimise Athlete Management in elite football.

The Soccer Squad

Our performance management system for elite football, The Soccer Squad, provides a centralised system to collect, analyse and monitor athlete performance data. Many clubs within the MLS and Australasia’s A-League use The Soccer Squad. Many leading football Academies also use our systems, including every Premier League club, via the Elite Player Performance Plan.

For more information on the systems that support leading teams across the MLS, Premier League, A-League and more, then contact The Sports Office now.

The Sports Office has further enhanced its features which enables users to drive evidence-based, technical and physical improvements in their players and athletes.

This Benchmarking feature is a powerful data analytics function that harnesses the cloud computing nature of our systems. It allows users to compare performance metrics and physical characteristics. This can be within age groups and across a range of other desired categories. 

Comparing player performances can easily be completed in an unlimited number of physical and technical tests. These tests are customizable to benchmark athletes in any required field.

The Sports Office’s Andy Gorski commented: “We believe our benchmarking functionality is unrivaled. It offers elite sports teams and organizations a unique opportunity to gain powerful, game-changing insights.

“It gives them the opportunity to use robust evidence to drive and deliver technical and physical improvements in their players and athletes. We look forward to working with existing and new clients to help them gain the most from this powerful element to our systems.”

How it works:

Data for an Under 18s player could be compared or ‘benchmarked’ against every player that a club holds records for. Significantly, the benchmarking function allows for the normalization of data from various sources. This allows clubs to analyze a player’s testing, physical or performance data against several parameters, including cohort or maturity status.

One possible example of usage would be for a young player to complete a series of annual tests. Several of our current clients already use our growth and maturation measurements to benchmark players. Their results are used to compare to other mature players.

National Governing Bodies using The Sports Office with a ‘Parent/Child’ relationship can hugely benefit from benchmarking results against any other data.

Throughout long-term athlete development, staff can use the Benchmarking process to optimize progress and outcomes. This includes both junior development and performance structures, such as Academies and representative teams. The function can also enhance personalized athlete development plans.

The Benchmarking functionality is available within The Sports Office systems. To find out more about how your organization can benefit from Benchmarking, contact us now.

In the aftermath of the World Cup, the English game’s Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project (PRISP) is continuing and will now switch its regular focus to domestic competitions.

PRISP monitors the injury risk of players at Premiership, European and England level. It is underpinned by a powerful information management and medical recording system from The Sports Office. 

The Rugby Squad

The system captures medical and injury data generated by England’s players. This includes major competitions such as the Rugby World Cup, where South Africa defeated them in the final 32-12. The system also operates 365-days a year to monitor players’ training and competing for their clubs. PRISP is the most comprehensive and longest-running injury surveillance study in professional rugby. This project is overseen by Senior Medical personnel.

The Sports Office Head of Client Services, Andy Gorski commented: “PRISP provides the game in England with important data to support the improvement of player welfare and effective medical management.” 

Gorski added: “Our system is a powerful tool which supports rugby’s sports medicine and performance practitioners in this important area. We look forward to working with all the PRISP stakeholders in the future.”

RFU Chief Medical Officer Simon Kemp has previously commented on the Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project. He said: “[PRISP] is an important study that helps us understand injury trends in the professional game in England.”

Other Sports Office clients also featured in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Ireland and Argentina both use our performance management system for elite rugby. 

The Sports Office

The ‘Rugby Squad’ offers a range of powerful functions for coaching, fitness, video, data analysis, and medical management. Management information and data generated by players is available in real-time to coaching and fitness staff, via The Sports Office App and our Monitoring App.

Many elite rugby organizations throughout the world are among The Sports Office’s varied client base. As well as governing bodies such as the RFU, IRFU and Argentina Rugby Union, teams in the SANZAR Super Rugby competition and the Australian NRL are also users.

The Rugby Squad users also include current Rugby League Super League Champions St Helens and teams in North America’s Major League Rugby. 

• To learn more about our performance management systems for elite rugby, contact us today.

The Match Hub provides significant additional benefits for coaches and analysts in elite football. This new page brings together goal scoring analysis, fixtures and game-time to improve overall workflow and usability. 

 The new functionality means users can drag and drop players onto a new 3D pitch from an enhanced players list. This list now includes details such as positions, appearances and potential game minutes. Users can also apply filters to see players’ individual match minutes.

There is a new ‘opposition rating’ field which is customisable. This allows users to report on how many minutes a player has played against different categories of opposition. For example, how many minutes Player A has played against an opponent, categorised as ‘very easy’.

Users can also now add a player’s game time, match minutes, position, goals and disciplines from this page. This saves significant time.

A new ‘Match timeline’ incorporates the goal-scoring analysis section of the system within the Match Hub. Users can drop a football icon onto the timeline to highlight goal scoring in the match. This can also be done for bookings and sending-offs, substitutions or positional changes.

All this functionality then feeds data to the Reports Hub, ready for analysis.

For more information on The Match Hub and how it can assist your coaching and analysis team, contact The Sports Office now.

The Sports Office would like to congratulate one of our oldest rugby clients, St Helens, on their performance this season. After a five-year wait, they are Super League Champions once again.

Saints defeated Salford Red Devils 23-6 in the Grand Final at Old Trafford. They produced a dominant display to secure the Super League trophy.

Saints’ players not involved with international teams will now enjoy a break before starting pre-season training for the 2020 Super League campaign.

Many elite rugby organisations throughout the world are among The Sports Office’s varied client base. As well as governing bodies such as the RFU, the Irish Rugby Union and Argentina Rugby Union, teams in the SANZAR Super Rugby competition and the Australian NRL are also users.  The Rugby Squad users also include clubs in the UK’s Rugby League Super League and teams in North America’s Major League Rugby.

To find out more about our athlete management system for elite rugby, used by champion clubs like St Helens, contact us now.

The Sports Office team sends its congratulations to Canberra Raiders, who capped a fine season in Australia’s NRL with an appearance in last weekend’s Grand Final.

Unfortunately, the Raiders were defeated 14-8 by Sydney Roosters in the showpiece event, despite a brave and committed display. But they qualified for the NRL title-decider thanks to much improved performances throughout the year.

In 2018, Canberra began using The Sports Office athlete management system for elite rugby. At the time, Head of Client Services, Andy Gorski, travelled to the Australian capital to deliver a full system implementation. All Raiders’ teams, including the first-grade side, the Jersey Flegg team plus the Junior and Women’s teams use our ‘Rugby Squad’ platform.

The Raiders benefit from the system’s range of powerful functions to support coaching, sports medicine, sports science and sports administration at elite level. They have also used the system to assist with injury prevention and sports analytics.

Andy Gorski commented: “We have followed the progress of Canberra Raiders this season with great interest and we congratulate them on their achievement of reaching the NRL Grand Final.

“We look forward to continuing our work with them. Supporting their use of our Rugby Squad system so they gain even more from it and optimise all aspects of performance and preparation.”

Many elite rugby organisations throughout the world are among The Sports Office’s varied client base. As well as governing bodies such as the RFU, the Irish Rugby Union and Argentina Rugby Union, teams in the SANZAR Super Rugby competition and the Australian NRL are also users.  The Rugby Squad users also include clubs in the UK’s Rugby League Super League and teams in North America’s Major League Rugby.

• To learn more about our performance management systems for elite rugby, contact us today.

Injury and medical data generated by England’s players during the current Rugby World Cup tournament is being captured by The Sports Office system used in the Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project (PRISP).  

England has made a successful start to the tournament. They won their first three games against Tonga, the U.S.A and Argentina and play their final group match against France this Saturday (12th October).

PRISP

The PRISP is the most comprehensive and longest-running injury surveillance study in professional rugby. It monitors injury risk of players at Premiership, European and England level. The project is lead by RFU Chief Medical Officer Simon Kemp.  

The study is intended to improve professional player welfare. The project was first commissioned in 2002 and was jointly created by the RFU, Premier Rugby and the Rugby Players Association. 

The Sports Office worked with senior medical staff at the RFU to design and develop a powerful system. It allows sports medicine and performance personnel at participating clubs and England teams to easily input an extensive range of medical and performance data. Information can be shared quickly and easily through the system so that coaches, directors of rugby and other key staff can receive vital data. The system also generates baselines and create comprehensive reports. This allows users to identify patterns and trends of injuries via comparison with previous seasons.

The Rugby Squad across the world

The Sports Office performance management system for elite rugby is also in use during the Rugby World Cup by Ireland and Argentina. Both nations have recently adopted the system which offers elite teams a range of powerful functions. Management information and data generated by the Ireland and Argentina squads will be readily available, and accessible in real-time. The respective coaching and fitness staff can input and view this via The Sports Office App and our Monitoring App. Our systems also support coaching, fitness, video, data analysis and medical management.   

Many elite rugby organisations throughout the world are among The Sports Office’s varied client base. As well as governing bodies such as the RFU, the Irish Rugby Union and Argentina Rugby Union, teams in the SANZAR Super Rugby competition and the Australian NRL are also users. The Rugby Squad users also include clubs in the UK’s Rugby League Super League and teams in North America’s Major League Rugby.

• To learn more about our performance management systems for elite rugby, contact us today.

The Sports Office’s Director of Development, Craig Bailey has attended the 2019 International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam. He was able to gain insights for improving the video analysis functions within our athlete management systems.

The event attracted over 400 delegates. Craig met with representatives of Microsoft to discuss the company’s latest advancements. He met with video analysis specialists Kaltoura to understand their future developments. There he was also able to view groundbreaking technologies, including 8K video and OTT streaming.

Craig Bailey commented: “The International Broadcasting Convention is an important event. We regularly attend it, in order to ensure the video functionality within our athlete management systems are fully optimised and use the latest advancements in video technology.”

The video analysis module within The Sports Office systems accepts XML files from third-party data sources including Opta, STATSport and Sportscode. Players and athletes can view footage and watch tagged sequences in real-time, to improve learning and personal development.

Another key feature is the video annotation toolkit. Analysts can pause footage and annotate the screen with feedback for players and in-game video analysis.

The Sports Office development team will continue to enhance these game-changing video features. Alongside other areas of our systems including medical, sports science and coaching.

To find out more about our Performance Management System for elite sport, contact us now.

The Sports Office clients England, Ireland and Argentina are finalising their preparations for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.   

Our performance management system for elite rugby is used by both Argentina and Ireland. Medical and injury data generated by England’s players during the tournament will be also captured by The Sports Office system used in the Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project (PRISP).  

The performance management system will provide Ireland and Argentina with a range of powerful functions. Management information and data generated by each squad will be available, and readily accessible in real-time, to the respective coaching and fitness staff, via The Sports Office App and our Monitoring App. Our systems also support coaching, fitness, video, data analysis and medical management in elite rugby.   

The PRISP is the most comprehensive and longest-running injury surveillance study in professional rugby. It monitors the injury risk of players at Premiership, European and England level. The project is lead by RFU Chief Medical Officer Simon Kemp.   

The Sports Office Head of Client Services, Andy Gorski commented: “We are delighted that our systems will be supporting three Tier 1 nations during the 2019 Rugby World Cup.  We would like to wish each of them the very best for what will be a hugely competitive tournament.”

Gorski added: “We believe our performance management systems for elite rugby offer unrivalled support to any team or governing body seeking to attain world-class levels of performance. Our elite rugby client base continues to expand across the world.”   

Ireland recently completed their Rugby World Cup warm-up games with a 19-10 victory over Wales in Dublin. That win means they currently rank as the number one nation on the planet. Argentina completed a 74-0 victory over leading Australian club side Randwick in Sydney as part of their tournament build-up. And England have already landed in Japan and are holding a final training camp in Miyazaki. 

The 2019 Rugby World Cup kicks-off on Friday 20th September when host nation Japan face Russia. Argentina play France on day two. Ireland begin their campaign 24-hours later against Scotland and England face Tonga later on the same day. 

Many elite rugby organisations throughout the world are among The Sports Office’s varied client base. As well as governing bodies such as the RFU and Argentina Rugby Union, teams in the SANZAR Super Rugby competition and the Australian NRL are also users.  The Rugby Squad users also include clubs in the UK’s Rugby League Super League and teams in North America’s Major League Rugby.

• To learn more about our performance management systems for elite rugby, contact us today.

Read about our work to support injury prevention in elite rugby here.

Read about our work with a leading NRL club here.