RICK FRANZBLAU,
DIRECTOR OF OLYMPIC SPORTS STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING
Over the past four years, Clemson University Men’s Soccer has emerged as an elite Men’s Soccer program, making a jump from six straight years without an NCAA Tournament appearance to winning an ACC title and landing in the Sweet 16 in 2014 and playing in the National Championship last year. Throughout their growth as a program, the Tigers have increased their use of technology and are using CoachMePlus’s dashboard system to efficiently analyze their data.
CoachMePlus’s Matthew Coller sat down with Director of Olympic Sports Strength and Conditioning, Rick Franzblau, who is in charge of training for the Men’s soccer team as well as baseball and track and field sports.
Interview with Rick Franzblau
WHAT LED TO CLEMSON’S DECISION TO USE COACHMEPLUS?
Over the past few years we’ve added a number of different technologies and we found that, while we were getting a lot out of them, so much of the day was spent emailing reports to our coaches, to our trainers, a lot of the day was lost just trying to communicate this information to our coaches for different sports and other support staff. So we did a little research and one of my assistants Stephanie Mock brought CoachMePlus to our attention. We spoke to some other universities and professional teams that are using it.
“Two things came across: One was great customer service and the other is how much the system would be able to help with organization and cutting down on unnecessary meetings and emails and making us a lot more efficient day-to-day with our process in collecting and using information.”
HOW DOES THE COMMUNICATION WORK BETWEEN DIFFERENT COACHING STAFFS AND MEMBERS OF THE TRAINING STAFF?
It’s really allowed communication to speed up. The most important thing for us is to get a snapshot of the guys and all the information before they roll off to practice. This is particularly helpful for Men’s soccer because our training block is from 8 A.M. to 11 A.M. so we have to have a system that can pull all this information in quickly so we can ask the guys some questions before they roll out to practice and make some adjustments. Another team that practices in the afternoon, you would have all day to look at the information and digest it.
“Particularly having the dashboard is helpful for us in that situation where guys are practicing in the morning and we need the assessment monitor that can take a quick snapshot of some important information.”
It definitely allows information to reach all the people that will have their hands on the athletes and make decisions with the athletes without having to email, call, text or walk up stairs.
CoachMePlus lets coaches manage hundreds of athletes all on one platform.
HOW DO YOU ANALYZE THE EFFECTS OF USING MORE DATA AND MORE INFORMATION AS IT RELATES TO THE TEAM IMPROVING OVER THE YEARS?
I think the mindset we have in using different technology and assimilating them with the CoachMePlus dashboard is that you aren’t looking to change everything you do but you are looking for that small marginal percent that can help you get better.
For us, a lot of it is looking at the loads that we are putting on the players both internal and external, so heart rate and GPS mechanical stuff, and allowing us to see an issue a little bit before it happens. Whether it’s a player is getting sick or some hamstring tightness becomes a hamstring strain or some groin or abdominal issues become a sports hernia. It allows us to get a great snapshot of all these different factors. The goal is that it allows you to stay ahead of the curve and be smarter in your decision making, which allows you to keep your players healthier and train them harder. That gives you a better chance to be on the right side of the scoreboard.
HAVE THERE BEEN PLAYERS WHO FOLLOW YOUR FOOTSTEPS AND PURSUE CAREERS IN FITNESS?
Absolutely. We’ve had a lot of former athletes get into training, conditioning, physical therapy and actually a player that just graduated and was drafted in the MLS draft is interested in sports science and that type of stuff. Our guys have been awesome. We have a former player who is with the new Atlanta MLS team in their front office, so you have guys going off into a lot of different professions that, in some way shape or form, comes back to this type of information and being able to know it and learn it is helpful.
DOES THE TIGER’S PUSH ON NUTRITION PARTNER WELL WITH COACHMEPLUS?
A huge thing, particularly with soccer, is making sure the guys are getting enough calories. With the heart rate system, we track calories burned. That’s something that pulls into the dashboard so our nutritionist has that information and we can build a plan for the guys by using that. We have some bigger guys and defensive players that might be 190 or 200 pounds and others who might be 150 or 160, so there are different caloric needs.
“You can pull that up on the dashboard every day and help make better decisions for the student athletes.”
HOW HAVE THE PLAYERS REACTED TO THE USE OF MORE TECHNOLOGY?
Our experience has been really positive. I can speak on behalf of the Men’s soccer team that, being as they have been a successful program over the past couple years, a lot of players want to go on to play at the professional level and they know these are some things being done at that level. Whether it be Omegawave, GPS, heart rate, questionnaires, they know a lot of these things are being done in the Premier League and MLS.
There is motivation to get to that level, so there is an easy buy-in on their part. Give Coach Noonan credit for that. Also we have a pretty cerebral team in their overall approach to training. Guys like to learn about a lot of different things and we try to give them a chance to see some of the data and involve them in the process.
If it was just collecting the data and digesting it, maybe it would be an issue with them buying into it, but we show them the heart rate and GPS stuff and questionnaire. We tell them up front: We’re collecting this information so we can make better decisions about their training so they know the ultimate goal is to be healthy and have a higher level of fitness.
CoachMePlus is integrated with over 50 devices and is always first in with the newest sports science technology.
