THE CHALLENGE
Many coaches who run an applied sports science program focus on monitoring their players before they get hurt, not after they get hurt. In order to avoid player fatigue and soft-tissue injuries associated with dehydration, many CoachMePlus teams closely monitor pre-workout and post-workout weight.
Weighing an entire professional hockey team multiple times per day generated a few problems in the locker room. First, how do you get 60 athletes weighed quickly and accurately, and second, how do you get a scale that will not fall apart after repeated trips by 350 pound NFL linemen or 250 pound NHL defensemen?
THE SOLUTION
CoachMePlus and METTLER TOLEDO distributor Brady Systems teamed up to solve this problem for multiple NFL, NHL, and NCAA teams.
METTLER TOLEDO is a global leader in providing scales for weighing everything from supermarket produce to construction trucks. CoachMePlus’s Athlete Management System helps coaches manage all of their athletes’ information on a daily basis. The two companies teamed up to quickly and accurately get players’ daily weight information onto the coaches’ desks.
When the Buffalo Sabres were looking to include athletes’ weight data into their sport performance practice, they turned to a world-leader in the scale industry and an industry-leader in sport performance data delivery to help them. By working with both CoachMePlus and Brady Systems, the Buffalo Sabres are utilizing equipment with the highest degree of performance reliability and accuracy. Headquartered in Buffalo, NY, CoachMePlus works with professional and collegiate sports teams to manage their athletes’ sports performance data. By integrating with numerous wearable and measurement devices, CoachMePlus develops unique reports and dashboards for teams that allow faster, more accurate and all-encompassing data delivery; ultimately improving an athlete’s game-day readiness.
Weight is a critical component in performance monitoring. Tracking an athlete’s weight before and after training sessions helps coaches determine hydration levels. Understanding an athlete’s hydration level can help a coach in prevention of injury in athletes. One only needs to look at hamstring pulls in an injury report to understand how important this is.
CoachMePlus worked with Brady Systems, a premier METTLER TOLEDO distributor with over 50 years of experience in the scale industry, to develop an innovative interface for its sports clients. The equipment used for the solution is the METTLER TOLEDO IND560 with a PBA430 platform. The weighing equipment allows teams to capture the athlete’s weight in the software. Monitoring weight helps determine an athlete’s fluid loss triggering changes in specific strength and conditioning workout routines, custom diets and suggested recovery.
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DOUG MCKENNEY
STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH
Doug McKenney, Strength & Conditioning Coach for the NHL Buffalo Sabres, has been using CoachMePlus for over three years including the integration of the METTLER TOLEDO weighing equipment. Doug provided a brief insight for us:
INTERVIEW WITH DOUG MCKENNEY, BUFFALO SABRES
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN USING COACHMEPLUS AND METTLER TOLEDO WEIGHING EQUIPMENT?
We have been working with CoachMePlus for several years now and we installed the METTLER TOLEDO scale in the summer of 2014. The data collection of weigh-ins and weigh-outs to ascertain fluid loss is so much easier with the system.
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING AN ATHLETE’S WEIGHT AT SPECIFIC TIMES?
The nature of our sport creates a battle of maintaining proper fluid balance and having enough stored energy to perform optimally. Seemingly, we are always in a state of dehydration and glycogen depletion because of our schedule. These two issues can lead to fatigue and potential injury. We want our players to be aware of what their optimal scale weight is before practice and games. We have created methods for them to hydrate and replete energy stores. The scale weight measurement is a key method for recognizing if they are safely and optimally prepared to compete. We always have them weigh in before and following the practice or game and provide them with the needed guidelines to restore.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE BRADY SYSTEMS AND METTLER TOLEDO WEIGHING EQUIPMENT?
The simpler you can make it for the athlete the more likely you will get consistent follow-through. We used to have to constantly ask our players if they weighed in and out and how much fluid did they lose. We rarely have to do that anymore. As a team, we are definitely doing a much better job rehydrating because of our approach using this system.
BEFORE THE INTEGRATION WITH COACHMEPLUS SOFTWARE, HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO USE ATHLETES’ WEIGHT DATA IN PERFORMANCE TRAINING?
As part of our development program with our players, we educate them on the importance of maintaining proper fluid balance and being hydrated so that the working muscles are completely ready to perform without risk. The data we collect allows us to provide them with their optimal playing weight on a daily basis. With the help of CoachMePlus we designed our hydration procedure using this model. We have been doing it this way for several years. The METTLER TOLEDO system has just made it much easier to collect and read the data over time.
Brady Systems continues to support and install new weighing equipment for teams in the National Football League and National Hockey League and is now shipping to the global customer base of CoachMePlus.
CoachMePlus and Brady Systems will continue to work together to supply successful athlete management solutions to the sports and fitness marketplace.
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