Vodafone UK is expanding its ground-breaking PLAYER.Connect platform following success with the British & Irish Lions and Welsh women’s rugby teams.
The platform will be used to support both 30-time Grand Slam winner Alfie Hewett and the British men’s wheelchair basketball team ahead of their international summer competitions – the first time this technology has been available to wheelchair athletes.
Vodafone PLAYER.Connect enables athletes to track a wide range of performance data, from fatigue, muscle soreness and training load to energy levels, sleep and mood. As a mobile platform, it can be accessed and updated anywhere there is a phone signal – a critical advantage for athletes travelling and competing internationally over the summer.
The platform also allows athletes to automatically message their team psychologist when they need support. This is especially important for sports where it is often not possible for sports psychologists to travel on tour, making it more difficult for them to identify individual needs.
Together, these features help athletes and their performance teams make decisions that optimise their mental and physical preparation by taking steps to prevent injury and support overall wellbeing. To adapt the platform to support wheelchair athletes, Vodafone worked with Alfie and British Wheelchair Basketball’s medical staff, tailoring the data players want to collect to specific performance needs.
For example, tracking metrics such as muscle soreness is important for wheelchair athletes. Using the same muscle groups for both fine and gross motor skills puts increased pressure on those muscles, increasing the risk of strain and injury. By adding more specific metrics, athletes and their performance teams can manage discomfort and mitigate impacts on performance and well-being.
Vodafone PLAYER.Connect was first deployed by the British & Irish Lions during their 2021 tour of South Africa and has since undergone three years of development to adapt it to the unique performance needs of Vodafone’s partners. This includes the launch of menstrual cycle tracking in 2022 to support the Welsh women’s rugby teams, followed by concussion symptom tracking in 2023, as well as further development in 2024 to optimise the platform for wheelchair athletes, starting with Alfie Hewett during his build-up to his Wimbledon victories.
Dale Thomas, Clinical and Performance Psychologist, British Wheelchair Basketball
Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has already been a huge help in preparing for the tournament. Since many players live abroad, Vodafone PLAYER.Connect allows us to stay in touch with these athletes and monitor their performance, recovery and – most importantly – their wellbeing outside of the training camp.
Alfie Hewett OBE, 30-time Grand Slam winner and three-time Paralympic silver medalist
The level of personalisation possible in Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has opened up a whole new level of analysis for me and my team. Being able to see exactly how I react to certain situations both physically and mentally has been fascinating and has already helped to gain a different perspective on everything from pre-match energy intake to decision making on the pitch. There is so much more I want to delve into and I am excited to work with Vodafone to further develop the PLAYER.Connect offering for wheelchair athletes.
Terry Bywater, four-time Paralympic bronze medallist in British men’s wheelchair basketball
I can’t stress enough how groundbreaking this platform is for us. Being able to track our data off the pitch is invaluable as it helps us ensure we are in the best shape both physically and mentally to compete. And having a tool that is completely tailored to our performance needs as wheelchair athletes is something I have never seen in the 20+ years I have been competing at this level.
Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director, Vodafone UK
We are incredibly proud of the impact Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has already had in improving support services for athletes across a range of sports. Our aim has always been to develop innovative connected technologies that really make a difference, so it is great to be able to use the insights gained from Alfie and the Great Britain men’s wheelchair basketball team to develop something that directly benefits wheelchair athletes. We are excited to see how this helps prepare them for an exciting summer of wheelchair sport.
