While the Cleveland Cavaliers may have bested the Golden State Warriors in an exciting game 7 this week, the Warriors had an outstanding regular season fueled partially by a high-tech approach to training.
Golden State was one of the first NBA teams to begin using player tracking cameras inside the stadium. These cameras record everything that a player does during a game, and allows analysts to give coaches insight into patterns during the game. The technology is called SportVU, and almost every NBA team now uses it.
“We use a lot of technology in the arena, we have this fort view camera system inside the arena,” said Golden State owner Joe Lacob to Bloomberg in April. “We look at and analyse all of the motions of every player on the court — how fast they’re moving, how much they dribble right versus left, what speed they do against certain players versus other players.”
They also have players wear monitors that can track heart rate, stamina, and movement during practice. Produced by Catapult Sports, these monitors can help coaches understand athletes’ fatigue levels and better accommodate their workloads.
The players on Golden State’s minor league team are currently testing out a new smart sleep mask that helps to combat jet lag. Minor league players frequently test out new technologies that could eventually be adopted by the Warriors’ NBA team.
“From top to bottom, we believe in innovation and pushing the boundaries,” Lacob says. “Anything we can do to get one extra win is huge.”
