Danny de Abela-Borg – Training my way to the top

I have always had an interest in the GPS tracking inside the game of football and have been trying to get my hands on the previous technologies used by professional teams. I came across PLAYR and that has been a watershed moment in my footballing career.

It was very eye opening just how much work I was going to need to put in to get to where I needed to be. In my first training session wearing PLAYR I was able to complete only one sprint. 

Progress

Six months in and the transformation was incredible; I was hitting similar numbers to the professionals and it reflected in my game. The main change I had seen was a new-found focus. Having the pod on my back when training made me concentrate on putting maximum effort into every session I do, with added motivation to beat previous scores from past sessions. It’s impossible to slack off during training, as the 5-minute interval graphs will emphasise any time you take your foot off the gas.

In this game, I covered 12km in 90 minutes – and the PLAYR app showed that was 2km more in the game then an average professional footballer. In the Premier League, Christian Eriksen covers an average 11.94km per game – meaning my distance covered in this game was at a high level, and I could now shift my focus to being more explosive, through adapting my training to be more interval based, focussing on sprinting technique, explosive power and resistance running.

Towards the end of pre-season, each metric is close to matching a professional’s performance. My top speed peaks are above average for most of the game as I hit a burst of sprints every 5 minutes throughout the full 90. My team was pressing and attacking early in the first half with pressure being very high as my attacking sprints were coming in thick and fast. As the game progressed and the team shifted to a more defensive stance the peaks begin to drop as I become more stationary and defensive looking to counter the defence and catch them on the break.

Current Day

I still credit a large part of my success to the PLAYR and feel without it I would not be in my current position. I make great use of the PLAYR technology both at semi-pro playing level, and coaching, as I can use it to personalise coaching sessions for players and track who is performing at their peak and who is taking it easier than they should be.

Danny de Abela-Borg

@deborg96