The 2017 Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Finals were the culmination of the club season for the continent's premier junior squads, as their coaching and support staffs were able to learn more about the players' in-game performance than ever before thanks to the introduction of WIMU PRO sensors from RealTrack Systems. WIMU PRO was used to monitor the movements of every player in every game at the ANGT Finals, one of the parallel events at the 2017 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Istanbul, Turkey, and provided great amounts of data.
The players each wore small sensors, which tracked their movement during the games. Afterwards, the program's software was able to provide information on the players' running, jumping and movement. WIMU PRO tracked the vertical distance and hang times for jumps as well as the number of such leaps during the game. It provided both the cumulative and per-minute distance covered; acceleration, deceleration and maximum running speeds; and also compiled the impact and load for each player over the course of the game. The data, which can be viewed from a spreadsheet, can also be shown in conjunction with the game feed to present information for specific plays.
Once parsed, coaches and trainers can see how their teams stack up against the competition in terms of player load, running, jumping ability and hustle stats. The data can be viewed by individual, by position or by team. Likewise, it can see how fatigue affected players by looking at how performance varied by quarter. A heat map gives coaches another tool showing where on the court players spent the most time.
“We would like to thank RealTrack Systems for their support in performing such an innovative test,” Eduard J. Scott, Chief Operations Officer for Euroleague Basketball, said. “Since the creation of the U18 Tournament in 2002-03, Euroleague Basketball have always looked for ways in which technology can be applied to provide increased data for fans, media, clubs and leagues alike. WIMU PRO has validated its functionality for use in professional basketball by clubs as well as officiating departments. We will continue evaluating this and other technological solutions that potentially improve performance analysis for the benefit of all stakeholders in the sport, with improving our competitions for the benefit of fans remaining the ultimate objective.”
Among the scores of information the final report from the ANGT Finals shows is that Sergi Martinez of U18 FC Barcelona Lassa, who was selected to the All-Tournament Team, covered the most distance during the event by running 4.98km. Martinez also scored the highest through the WIMU PRO Basketball High Performance Index, which takes data from the sensors and forms a score that can be used to simplify the analysis of player performance. Finals MVP Ivan Fevrier of U18 CFBB Paris was the fastest man on the court with his average max speed reaching 21.3 km/h.
"We are proud to have written a new page in basketball history with Euroleague Basketball," Carlos Padilla, Technical Director for RealTrack Systems, said. "WIMU PRO has proven itself to work at the highest level and with the most advanced and dependable technology during four days, 13 games, 96 players and referees in two different venues. There was no margin for error for offering data in real time and big-data reports one hour after each game. It was a tough test that we come out of very satisfied for having reached a high level of precision."