Catapult Sports ventures into Kenya, targets to propel sports science

Catapult Sports, a platform that helps sports teams manage their players health and wellness insights by acting as a platform for recording and storage of data and information, has been launched in the country after entering into an agreement with three sports teams.

The digital information recorder recently partnered with the Confederation of Africa Football CAF, during the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon where all  the participating 24 nations were kitted with the sports science device that analyse players performances during training sessions and on match days.

Catapult conducted sample runs with three Kenyan teams: record Kenyan Premier League champions Gor Mahia,  newly formed  men’s volleyball team and Kenya Volleyball Federation league side Trailblazers, and the Women’s Basketball Premier league club Equity Bank Hawks.

Catapult allows one to tailor their coaching to each player hence optimizing team performance and also helps players avoid injuries.

“Catapult is here to change the way coaches analyse their teams during training and matches”, said William Venter, Catapult’s head of sales in Africa  before adding  ‘’You can actually see the amount of time and the percentage of that time that a player has spent in each third on the pitch. As a coach you can rectify the positioning as the game is going on. It also helps the player understand the coach because he can actually see the data analysis from his performance,”.

A sample of 10 players wore the kit during Gor Mahi’s training session where data regarding  their top speed, distance covered, area on the pitch among other set of information was collected by the catapult chip inserted in the vests worn by the players.

New Gor Mahia head coach Andrea Spears acknowledged the impact of the chip in the sports across the globe.

“ This is sports science which is very important in modern football. Gor Mahia should pace itself with this progressive development because it gives a view of the players performance. For me I want to know how fast and how much they are running and their positioning on the pitch. We need it in our football,” said the Gor Mahia coach.

The technology was also tested on the Trail Blazers and the Equity Hawks basketball team.

“Technology is key in any sport because it improves performance. Sometimes we coach and we play blindly. We are not aware of what we are doing. Whatever we are doing is not measurable, but with the entry of catapult, this will now change,” said the Hawks head coach, Sylvia Kamau.