When the Green Bay Packers went looking for a system designed to track an athlete’s physiology, choosing which tracking system to buy was a “no brainer,” according to Packers’ strength and conditioning assistant Grant Thorne.
“We are using the Polar Team Pro system,” says Thorne. “Polar has been the standard in monitoring fitness and heart rate.”
Thorne cites Polar’s ease of integration with other systems as a primary factor in why the professional football team decided upon the Team Pro system. In order to get any system through the doors at Lambeau Field, it must integrate well with other systems already in use.
“In terms of our usage for it, we are trying to get a basic understanding of what the athletes are going through – physiologically – during their training sessions,” he says. “We don’t use it for measuring external forces or mechanical outputs like speed or distance. We want to see how their bodies are responding to training. To do that, the best and least invasive method has been the Polar system.”
The Polar Team Pro system helps to individualize data by athlete so coaches can track how a player is reacting to various forms of training.
“It helps us understand the intensity of the training sessions these guys are going through,” says Thorne. “By understanding the intensity of training, we can add characteristics to the days and to the individuals in terms of what type of athletes they are, how they respond to training and what we can do to make sure that they stay available to play.”
On top of intensity, the Packers track a variety of individual and team metrics to help athletes improve.
“That’s one of the primary reasons we went with Polar,” says Thorne. “It’s one of the puzzle pieces we are using because it integrates so easily with those other systems as a means for tracking our guys.”
About Polar – www.polar.com/teamsports
Polar is the Pioneer of wearable sports and fitness technology and leader in heart rate monitoring, activity trackers and training computers. With nearly 40 years of experience and a proud heritage in innovative physiological and sports medical research, we cater to all levels of fitness by offering a comprehensive product range including cycling computers, wearable sports devices and activity trackers, training apps and online services. Our award-winning training computers are the number one choice among consumers worldwide, being sold through over 35,000 retailers globally. Headquartered near Oulu in Finland, Polar is a privately held company that operates in more than 80 countries including U.S. headquarters in Lake Success, NY.
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