Manchester City teams up with Playermaker on wearable football tracker
Manchester City and Playermaker have teamed up on a smart wearable tracker that monitors your performance on the football pitch. It also provides content aimed at making you a better player.
The device is called CITYPLAY. It takes the existing Playermaker smart wearable football tracker and supplements it with educational and training content from Manchester City club. The wearable is already being used by players in the Club’s Academy. But now anyone can tap into Man City’s training philosophy and chart their progress over time.
Essential reading: Training sensors for football (aka soccer) players
To use CITYPLAY you need to attach it to your footwear. This is done with the aid of a silicon elastic strap. The sensors are squarish in shape, but small so should in no way impede your playing ability. As soon as you start playing stats will be collected. Although you can use the wearable on any pitch, the recommended surfaces are grass or artificial turf.
The data collecting tech includes a 6-axis motion smart sensor that is built with a gyroscope and accelerometer. This samples movement events at 1000 times per sec and measures every micro-movement, including impact with the ground, with the ball and the rotation of each foot. There’s no GPS on-board so the wearable works equally well indoors or out.
A wealth of stats, plus training content
As far as stats you can expect to receive, this includes info on both the technical and physical aspect of the game. In total, 15 football specific metrics are tracked. This includes ball touches, sprint distance, r/l receive balance, playing tempo, speed, agility and much more.
The tracker works with the CITYPLAY app. This is Manchester City’s contribution to the partnership. The app is full of the Club’s training methodology, personalised training advice and more. There are also position-specific instructions and training exercises that can be practiced at your leisure.
Finally, there’s also a social aspect to the whole thing. It lets you compare your performance with others and connect to peers in the CITYPLAY community.
Manchester City is not the only club using Playermaker’s wearable. Others include Leicester City, Liverpool, and Bodø/Glimt. Playermaker is also partners with the Rangers, Hull City, and Fulham FC.
You can check out CITYPLAY on Man City’s website. It comes with a minimum 6 month subscription that will set you back £149 (including the hardware).
The other option is to just purchase Playermaker. You won’t get Man City specific content but you will get most of the other technical analysis. The wearable typically retails for around £190 in the United Kingdom but will work indefinitely so is the cheaper option (check price on Amazon).
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