College invests in data vests for sports students

A Shropshire college has invested in data vests, which it says is improving the performance of its sports students.

Telford College has used the vests, which track statistics on areas such as sprinting, run-intensity and movement, for those studying sports including football, basketball and volleyball.

Alongside the vests, practical sessions are filmed so that students can see how the data correlates.

"It just helps us to develop the performances of the players and the participants, even more so than we were able to do five or 10 years ago," said sports lecturer Jason Jones.

"We realised a few years back that technology is the future of the sport, and we wanted to get on to the ground floor of it, really, so we've invested quite heavily into it this year... and the students are really engaging with it."

Trackers are put into the vests, which collect performance data - meaning coaches, students and lecturers can identify areas for improvement.

"Previously we had a student who thought he was fantastic at passing - we watched the video back, we looked at the stats, we looked at the data... he's not fantastic at passing," said Mr Jones.

"We've actually been able to apply that as a development plan for him within the practicals, and all of a sudden he's now passing."

The data is readily accessible to students via their mobile phones.

"It's really meeting the needs of the newer generation really, who are quite savvy... with all of this technology," he added.

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