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Suddenly it’s A Level Playing Field Again!

Jason Lear
Sep 6, 2015
4 min read

While developing some sales literature over the weekend I decided to write my thoughts of the product in question down and then extract the USP’s from it. I ended up with something that read more like an article as my sales pitch so decided to share it with you.

The majority of us have some passion for a sport, for some it is about the passion of spectating, for others it is the thrill of playing/competing and for many it is about landing a dream job in sport. I have worked in several sectors, previous jobs included senior management in the motor trade and construction industry. When I decided to transfer my skills to my passion in sport I thought I was going to live the dream, and to a degree I am but it is also possibly the most challenging job I have ever had. Every day is like a match, a buzz about what is possible, nervous about the what if’s, disappointed about the knock backs, jubilant about every success, and ultimately driven by our goal of ‘being the best we can possibly be’ to please our supporters (customers/partners).

Over the years I have looked to develop partnerships with manufacturers and partners that offer opportunities to bring ‘elite’ level tools and process to the masses at grass roots and intermediate levels of sport, I often refer to the pyramid being upside down with all the resources pumped into the elite level at the top and the pyramid balancing on fragile tip, I suppose we hope to rebalance the pyramid. Drawing back on my 20+ years of experience in sports and sales and the hundreds of products that I have seen come and go, this week I was very pleased that Lear Training agreed a deal that sees us become a preferred supplier for the Playertek GPS system, a coaching tool that meets every value we stand for.

It started weeks ago when one of my associates shared a link via Facebook with me, I made a few

enquiries and quickly realised that Playertek is revolutionising how sports is analysed and coached by boldly challenging the status quo in sports technology. Sports GPS for tracking physical demands of training and competition was once the exclusive domain of wealthy elite sports club. Playertek has produced a GPS system not only affordable to all but inclusive of the features you and I have come to demand or expect of professional level systems.

The team at Playertek have also achieved something else, the web based data management interface is technology has it should be, intuitive without all the fuss. The functionality enables coaches to quickly identify actionable data and spend more time coaching your players than trying to create reports and understand or interpret numbers. Having said that, the system has retained its ability to provide additional interrogation of data via a simply export feature for those that share my investigative mind-set to create more work for myself.

Playertek has the ability to revolutionise how coaches, trainers and scouts evaluate players at amateur, semi-professional and professional teams operating on smaller or prudent budgets. Talking of budgets I often think of the status quo in sport and how people spend budgets because they have it. I think budgets can have a negative effect on investment, I ten to think of it a little like a politician being told he/she has an expenses budget of 40K, what does the majority claim/spend, yes 40K. If you are told you have 20K to spend do you set off in search of that 20K purchase or do you look to spend 5k or 10K? A colleague once coined a phrase that I use to challenge this status quo, he was very impressed with the ‘Cost to Power Ratio’ of a product we were using on one of our education programs. When sourcing new ‘tools for trade’ I feel we often forget to explore the ‘Cost to Power Ratio’ and just spend the budget on the status quo because someone else is using it so it’s bound to meet our needs.

For coaches and players the Playertek system has been developed to implement a forward looking analysis process at all levels. Designed with key player metrics to keep athletes at peak performance and understand effect of training programs.

For our clubs supporters Playertek enables you to produce proprietary data that you can effectively utilise to enhance your supporter’s experience. With inbuilt social media tools you can push compelling new performance insights to your fans. Supporters can receive graphics illustrating players’ pitch maps, or you can tweet about top speeds, distances covered and much more. Enhancing the connectivity to your supporters provides for a more immersive experience, increasing their attentiveness and generating new income potential through data linked sponsorship opportunities.

While I may or may not for some answered the more obvious benefits, for me the real ‘Cost to Power Ratio’ comes from the education potential of investments. Equipment is often purchased for a specific purpose or perceived need, on some occasions it is simply a want because others are using it so they believe it must provide benefits or solve a problem. I always think about the aggregator effect of capital investment, what indirect benefits does it have on my people?

Being better informed on player performance is a cup half empty, the positive, your cup is also half full. If you consider coaches at all levels now have the ability to gain in-depth visibility on the effects of training then the system also provides a life-long learning experience to the coaching staff. Furthermore, the improved data and understanding of the interconnections between training and competition enhances the coaches knowledge of their athletes and their own practice, it’s like having your very own automated self-reflection tool. Regardless of best practices you need to test and explore data and practice for yourself because each team and coaching environment is going to yield very unique and very different results. You can ask very important questions about your own training regime, your coaching and about your own knowledge of player’s to make more insightful improvements to ourselves, our programs and our players.