Pune, Aug 25 (IANS): The Indian football team implemented a player tracking system for the first time in their ongoing preparatory camp at DSK Shivajians Football Club here on Tuesday.
The players wore the GPS systems inside their vests. The technology is widely used all over the world to monitor fitness levels of footballers.
The development kicked-off under national coach Stephen Constantine with sports scientist Danny Deigan monitoring the entire process, according to an All India Football Federation (AIFF) release.
"From now on, we will be using them in every training session, even during matches. FIFA approved them two months ago to be used during the match. It just needs to be approved by the match commissioner a day prior to the match," Deigan said in the release.
"The trackers will facilitate injury prevention. We know that we need to condition players so that they are prepared for the match conditions. It's also about seeing where the players are at the moment. We can see the maximum speeds which they have attained, their heart rates, speeds at which they work, and understand where they stand at the global level."
"We will use them to monitor our players, seeing how they tolerate training load and we will be working with individuals to bring them up to the required standard," he added.