A year after joining the long list of Catapult Sports clients, a company who provides GPS tracking devices to sports teams to gather relevant athlete data, the New York Giants introduced a “recovery stretch” to help reduce soft tissue injuries. The post-workout stretch was devised as a direct response to data collected from the GPS devices.
Coach Tom Coughlin said, “The GPS information tries to help us structure the practice and let us know when we should be doing things like this. The whole purpose is to be able to come back and have a full-speed practice.” Recently, data from the GPS devices suggested the best thing for the players would be a shorter practice, so practice was cut an hour early.
In addition to shortening practices and incorporating preventative exercise, the team is also cleaning up their menu. Fried chicken is no longer a food choice and has been replaced with fish, turkey meatloaf, brown rice, flax, and chia seeds, among other healthier alternatives.