Vodafone UK is expanding its landmark PLAYER.Connect platform, following its success with the British & Irish Lions and Wales Women’s Rugby teams.
Ahead of their international summer competitions, the platform will be used to support both 30-time Grand Slam winner Alfie Hewett and the Men’s British Wheelchair Basketball team – the first time this technology has been available for wheelchair athletes.
Vodafone PLAYER.Connect enables athletes to track a wide range of performance data, from fatigue, soreness and training load to energy levels, sleep and mood. As a mobile-first platform, it can be accessed and updated anywhere there is phone signal – a crucial advantage for athletes travelling and competing internationally over the summer.
The platform also allows athletes to auto–message their team psychologist when they need support. This is particularly important for sports where it often isn’t possible for sports psychologists to travel on tour, making it more difficult for them to flag individual needs.
Together, these features help athletes and their performance teams to make decisions that better optimise both their mental and physical preparation, by taking steps to aid injury prevention and support overall wellbeing. To adapt the platform to support wheelchair athletes, Vodafone has worked with Alfie and British Wheelchair Basketball’s medical staff, tailoring the data players would want to collect to address specific performance needs.
For example, tracking metrics such as muscle soreness is important for wheelchair athletes. This is because the use of the same muscle groups for both fine and gross motor control places increased pressure on these muscles, raising the risk of overexertion and injury. The addition of more specific metrics allows athletes and their performance teams to manage discomfort and mitigate impacts on performance and wellbeing.
Vodafone PLAYER.Connect was first used by the British & Irish Lions during their 2021 Tour of South Africa and has since undergone three years of development to adapt to the unique performance needs of Vodafone’s partners. This includes the addition of menstrual cycle tracking in 2022 to support the Wales Women’s Rugby teams, followed by concussion symptom tracking in 2023, as well as further development in 2024 to optimise the platform for wheelchair athletes, beginning with Alfie Hewett during his preparation for his Wimbledon victories.
Dale Thomas, Clinical & Performance Psychologist, British Wheelchair Basketball
Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has already been a massive support to our tournament preparation. With many players living abroad, Vodafone PLAYER.Connect means we can stay connected to these athletes and continue to monitor their performance levels, recovery and, importantly, their wellbeing, even when they are outside of camp.
Alfie Hewett OBE, 30-time Grand Slam Champion and three-time Paralympic Silver medallist
The level of personalisation available within Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has opened up whole new layers of analysis for me and my team. Being able to see exactly how I respond both physically and psychologically to certain situations has been fascinating, and has already helped provide a different perspective on everything from pre-match fuelling to on-court decision-making. There’s so much more I want to dive into and I’m looking forward to working with Vodafone to continue expanding what PLAYER.Connect can offer to wheelchair athletes.
Terry Bywater, four-time Paralympic Bronze medallist with Men’s British Wheelchair Basketball
I can’t overstate how game-changing this platform is for us. Being able to track our off-court data is invaluable, as it helps us make sure we’re in the best place to compete both physically and mentally. And to have a tool completely tailored to our performance needs, as wheelchair users, is not something I have ever seen in the 20+ years I’ve competed at this level.
Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director, Vodafone UK
We’re incredibly proud of the impact Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has already had on increasing the levels of support available to athletes across a range of sports. Our aim has always been to create innovative connected technologies that genuinely make a difference, so it’s great to be able to use the insight from both Alfie and the Men’s British Wheelchair Basketball team to develop something that directly benefits wheelchair athletes. We’re excited to see how this contributes to their preparation ahead of an exciting summer of wheelchair sport.