Blog

At adidas, our focus is to make athletes better through a deep and traditional understanding of what athletes need to perform at their best. Athletes, teams, and coaches are constantly looking for an edge over their competitors and in the elite world of sports every bit counts.

As the paths of sports and technology continue to converge and create performance advantages, adidas and miCoach in collaboration with Athletes’ Performance are leading through innovation. We strive to be at the forefront of technological sporting advances and deliver cutting-edge solutions to help our athletes find that edge. Based on years of research, innovation, and development, we’ve developed miCoach elite, a state-of-the-art, real-time performance monitoring solution for sports teams.

From the outset, the focus of miCoach elite has been to understand and improve on existing performance monitoring solutions and deliver a market-leading product. We travelled the globe, visiting teams on the cutting-edge of utilizing data to improve their performance. From the top football, rugby, basketball, and Australian Rules football teams, we explored how technology was being used to increase performance on the field. This research led to a deep understanding of the performance driven needs of elite teams. We knew that miCoach elite had to be able to:

• Transform large amounts of data into usable information.
• Provide accurate and repeatable real-time insights for training.
• Present an intuitive, user-friendly interface that’s easy to use and manage.
• Track total training impact.
• Be highly portable.
• Be non-invasive for the athlete.
• Be cutting-edge with the latest sensor technologies.   

With these key criteria in mind, miCoach elite developed five components, including:

miCoach elite PLAYER_CELL

The miCoach elite PLAYER_CELL is a small, sophisticated sensing device that captures the key metrics of an athlete’s performance in training and on the field. Metrics collected include speed, distance, heart rate, acceleration, power, and position. Each system will include 30 miCoach elite PLAYER_CELLs.

Techfit elite

Techfit elite is an advanced medium compression base layer that tracks heart rate through integrated sensor technology. The base layer shirt is designed to comfortably integrate the miCoach elite PLAYER_CELL between the shoulder blades without interfering with training or game play.  

miCoach elite base

Each team will be equipped with a miCoach elite base, a portable receiver that collects data from all 30 miCoach elite PLAYER_CELLs and relays it back to an iPad in real time. The base is a rugged, water-resistant, transportable device. 

miCoach elite dash

The miCoach elite dash is a native iOS application built for live monitoring and provides real-time data to trainers and coaches. The application allows trainers and coaches to view the performance of athletes across multiple metrics including speed, distance, acceleration, heart rate, and power.

miCoach elite Web application

Post-analysis of training and games can be performed online through the Web application. Each team has their own customized and secure Web space. Data is analyzed to gain insight into an athlete’s workout intensity, fitness level, and conditioning needs based on the metrics produced during training and games. 

These components are integrated seamlessly to provide one of the most advanced physiological monitoring and management systems available and are already improving the performance of top teams, including A.C. Milan.

As a key development partner, A.C. Milan was the first team to receive the system and integrate it into their sophisticated training regimen. Major League Soccer in the U.S. introduced miCoach elite as a league-wide initiative, enabling all 19 teams in the league to benefit from performance analysis technology. The German National soccer team began implementing the system into their program in preparation for the 2014 World Cup. As an innovation partner, Athletes’ Performance provided their training expertise to give the teams listed above the opportunity to take their training and game performance to the next level.

In the coming months, miCoach elite will continue to be rolled out and utilized by top teams around the globe to get the most out of their athletes and ensure they maintain peak performance. adidas and miCoach will continue to innovate and improve the technology and always push the boundaries of what is possible to bring the biggest possible advantage to our athletes and teams.

By Athletes' Performance

I. An Overview

The SPEED_CELL is a performance training tool that takes key measurements throughout your competition, allowing you to analyze and evaluate your game. The SPEED_CELL fits invisibly in miCoach compatible boots or shoes (and comes supplied with a lace clip for everything else).

The SPEED_CELL supplies up to 8 hours worth of speed, distance, and pace data. So after your game, you can view key data such as your total distance, high-intensity distance, maximum speed and sprint count.

These data points and the associated graphs help you track your performance and see how you measure up.

For example, check out this analysis of Leo Messi’s SPEED_CELL data.

Then continue reading below to learn more about how to analyze your SPEED_CELL data, make adjustments to your training plan, and continue to elevate your level of play.

II. How to Analyze Your SPEED_CELL Data

Depending on the level of competition, your number of sprints and time spent in high-intensity zones may vary. One thing that should stay consistent is your ability to work hard for the entire game or match. Your energy should be just as high in the final minutes as it was at the start of the game.  Use the miCoach app and miCoach.com to track these levels.

How to read your timeline

In the app, the data is gathered under your profile. 

What to look for in your Game Profile

On the Web, there is more detail under the tabs “Timeline or Game Profile,” where you can see spikes in speed.  You can tell from this if your sprints were as fast and consistent as the game went on. You can also see the time spent in each intensity zone for each 5 min block of the game, so it’s easy to see if you’re performing consistently.

As you improve your fitness, the distance covered should increase. As you become more fit, you need less time for recovery in the Grey Zone (which means walking or not moving at all) and more time spent in the Blue and Green Zones.

If your sprints are decreasing in the final phases of the game, it could mean...

There are a lot of variables to consider such as game or tactical factors, but typically if your sprints decrease, your fitness is likely not where it needs to be in order to work as hard at the end of the game as in the beginning. Your body is not recovering optimally from hard work, so you’re not able to put forth enough effort to sustain your performance from the first minute to the last. This could also be due to muscle fatigue or not being able to produce the power necessary to change pace to a sprint. To increase your sprints in the last quarter or final phases of the game, start a miCoach cardio training plan to condition your body with the miCoach Zones. To learn more, read “How the miCoach Zones Work.”

If you’re not able to reach your high-intensity zones in the second half, it could mean…

Again, we need both strength and power to reach high-intensity zones on demand. In the second half, endurance also becomes more important. Has fatigue set in?  Do your legs feel heavy? Combining a miCoach cardio plan with a miCoach strength and flexibility plan will help you improve conditioning and give you the power needed to reach the high-intensity zones all game.

If you don’t win the long rallies in the 3rd set, it could mean...

You may be feeling fatigued, either in terms of your cardiovascular fitness or your muscular strength and endurance. Have you only done cardiovascular work on the court? Are you also training your muscles with miCoach’s strength and flexibility training? It’s important to develop both a cardiovascular and strength base through training in order to withstand these tough back-and-forth bouts with little rest.

When comparing the pie chart to the bar graph with the 5-minute breakdown of zones, what do you look at?

When you first open the app, you’ll see the screen below on your Game Profile. It also appears on the Web. This screen is helpful for an overall view of your performance during the game.

The pie graph shows the overall amount of time spent in each zone throughout the game. Remember, the colors of the zones are associated with your intensity:

Red – Sprint

Yellow – High Speed Run

Green – Run

Blue – Jog

Grey – Inactive / Walk

The bar graph shows the amount of time spent within each 5-minute interval and which zone you were in. Use this graph to see if you were able to perform at the same intensity throughout the game. Since it isn’t possible to work at a high intensity for the entire game, see if your ability to work at a high intensity drops off near as the end of the game approaches. If it does, this means that you should work on improving your fitness base.

For technical or support questions about your SPEED_CELL, please visit the Help section.

Get your own SPEED_CELL here!

Introducing, the miCoach elite System.

The days of long-distance, gut-wrenching, sick inducing training sessions are long gone as we land the miCoach elite System, the most advanced player performance innovation, in the US ahead of its roll-out across Major League Soccer in 2013.

Combining cutting edge technology and science, the miCoach elite System is the most comprehensive and technically advanced system to help players play fast, stay strong and sharpen their game. By measuring every move, heartbeat and step and relaying that data to a coach on the touch line in less than a second, the technology enables a better understanding of the physical and physiological impact on the team, or any individual, during a game or training session.

Simply by monitoring his iPad, a coach can now fully understand the physical impact on the body, including work rate, stamina, speed, distance, performance efficiency and, for the first time, power of every player, in every position.

From influencing in-game managerial decisions, such as substitutions and team tactics, to analyzing trends to prevent overtraining and risk of injury, the technology will help maintain optimum levels of player performance week in, week out throughout the season.

The micoach elite System includes a small data cell that fits into a player’s base layer in a protective pocket on the back between the shoulder blades. Connected by a series of electrodes and sensors woven into the fabric of the base layer, the cell wirelessly transmits more than 200 data records per second from each player to a central computer and then is displayed in a series of simplified insights and results on the coach’s tablet.  At the touch of his fingertips, a coach can monitor the work load of an individual player, compare one athlete with another or view the whole team to gain a complete picture of the 90-minute game.

SEE IT IN ACTION TONIGHT July 25th

MLS will debut the new adidas micoach technology on-field for the first time during the AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 25 in Philadelphia, when the best of Major League Soccer take on UEFA Champions League winner Chelsea Football Club, before being rolled out across all 19-MLS Clubs in next year.

• See real time display on the coaches iPad as the game unfolds.
• See interviews from coaches, managers, and players throughout the game and here first hand what they're saying about it.

Check out the app which will be updated throughout the game in almost real time, across five tabs. The app displays, speed, distance, intensity, and power. http://apps.facebook.com/adidasmicoachelite