Rik van Waes is the strength and conditioning coach for Heroes den Bosch, a Dutch professional basketball club based in the Netherlands, and playing in the BNXT League. He's been there since 2019. The team has won the Dutch National Championship, the Dutch Super Cup, and this year's Dutch Cup, which Heroes has now won 8 times.... Including 17 national championships. Coach van Waes talks about how much of a role data played in all of that success.
🏀 Data-Driven Insights
Rik explains that collecting data from every practice and game is crucial. One of the key metrics they focus on? Accumulated acceleration load, which provides a holistic view of practice intensity.
📊 Fine-Tuning Workloads
Heroes Den Bosch doesn't stop at raw data. Starters avoid overwork, while bench players develop effectively. It's all about finding the sweet spot between load and recovery.
🏋️♂️ Practice Insights
Analyzing practice phases reveals surprises. Rik's keen eye interprets the data, informing coaching decisions. If the numbers say it was a tough practice, the players felt it—even without asking them.
👥 Player Acceptance
Half the team was already familiar with IMU data from their Dutch national team experience. They understand that it enhances performance and recovery.
🏀 Using Data for Injury Rehab
Coach also explains how he uses data when helping injured players rehabilitate. He says the data provides him a sense of direction to take with each player, it forces him not to skip any steps in his return-to-play protocol and explains how some players come back even stronger.
👍 Recovery Stories
Rik tells a couple of great stories about how he used data and analytics to help the fastest player on the team get back after an ankle injury and what data did for another player who injured his knee.
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