Video: JYP Jyväskylä Players Reveal the Benefits of Player Monitoring

JYP Jyväskylä are showing that a roster who buy into player monitoring on and off the ice can reap the rewards. The Finnish ice hockey club were recently crowned winners of the Champions Hockey League and have finished in the top four of the Liiga (Finland’s top league) regular season standings for four straight years.

Having supplied data for the Jyväskylä-based team for over a decade now, Firstbeat’s heart-rate variability technology has been a part of that journey. Using equipment such as our textile heartrate belts and Quick Recovery Test to provide real-time physiological insights on the ice and aid recovery management, respectively, has become second nature to the players.

Player monitoring is increasingly prevalent in elite sport (Firstbeat, for instance, work with over 1,000 professional teams across the globe including over 50-percent of NHL teams). However, there are still some prejudices surrounding the use of player monitoring tools, with sceptics claiming some athletes may feel uncomfortable wearing the tracking equipment or feel like ‘Big Brother’ is watching them.

To put those myths to bed once and for all, Firstbeat sat down with several members of the JYP roster including former Finland international Jani Tuppurainen, as well as the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Jarkko Hyytiä, to hear what the people that use player monitoring everyday really think about it.

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