Vodafone expands PLAYER.Connect to support wheelchair athletes ahead of international summer competitions

Together, these features help athletes and their performance teams to make decisions that better optimise both their mental and physical preparation, by taking steps to aid injury prevention and support overall wellbeing. To adapt the platform to support wheelchair athletes, Vodafone has worked with Alfie and British Wheelchair Basketball’s medical staff, tailoring the data players would want to collect to address specific performance needs.  

For example, tracking metrics such as muscle soreness is important for wheelchair athletes. This is because the use of the same muscle groups for both fine and gross motor control places increased pressure on these muscles, raising the risk of overexertion and injury. The addition of more specific metrics allows athletes and their performance teams to manage discomfort and mitigate impacts on performance and wellbeing.  

Dr Dale Thomas, Clinical & Performance Psychologist, British Wheelchair Basketball, said of the platform: “Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has already been a massive support to our tournament preparation. With many players living abroad, Vodafone PLAYER.Connect means we can stay connected to these athletes and continue to monitor their performance levels, recovery and, importantly, their wellbeing, even when they are outside of camp.”

Alfie Hewett OBE, 30-time Grand Slam Champion and three-time Paralympic Silver medallist, said: “The level of personalisation available within Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has opened up whole new layers of analysis for me and my team. Being able to see exactly how I respond both physically and psychologically to certain situations has been fascinating, and has already helped provide a different perspective on everything from pre-match fuelling to on-court decision-making. There’s so much more I want to dive into and I’m looking forward to working with Vodafone to continue expanding what PLAYER.Connect can offer to wheelchair athletes.”

Terry Bywater, four-time Paralympic Bronze medallist with Men’s British Wheelchair Basketball, said: “I can’t overstate how game-changing this platform is for us. Being able to track our off-court data is invaluable, as it helps us make sure we’re in the best place to compete both physically and mentally. And to have a tool completely tailored to our performance needs, as wheelchair users, is not something I have ever seen in the 20+ years I’ve competed at this level.”

Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director, Vodafone UK, said: “We’re incredibly proud of the impact Vodafone PLAYER.Connect has already had on increasing the levels of support available to athletes across a range of sports.

Our aim has always been to create innovative connected technologies that genuinely make a difference, so it’s great to be able to use the insight from both Alfie and the Men’s British Wheelchair Basketball team to develop something that directly benefits wheelchair athletes. We’re excited to see how this contributes to their preparation ahead of an exciting summer of wheelchair sport.”

Vodafone PLAYER.Connect was first used by the British & Irish Lions during their 2021 Tour of South Africa and has since undergone three years of development to adapt to the unique performance needs of Vodafone’s partners. This includes the addition of menstrual cycle tracking in 2022 to support the Wales Women’s Rugby teams, followed by concussion symptom tracking in 2023, as well as further development in 2024 to optimise the platform for wheelchair athletes, beginning with Alfie Hewett during his preparation for his Wimbledon victories.

The full list of teams currently using Vodafone PLAYER.Connect includes Wales Women’s Rugby teams (Senior & Pathway), Celtic Challenge teams Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning, Alfie Hewett OBE, Men’s British Wheelchair Basketball, UK Armed Forces Women’s rugby team and Durham, Edinburgh and Cardiff University Women’s Rugby teams.

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Notes to Editors

Vodafone PLAYER.Connect is a first-of-its-kind performance dashboard that uses cutting-edge Vodafone IoT technology to view data from multiple existing player wearables in real-time, allowing it to be viewed, analysed and acted upon by players and their medical orcoaching staff instantly, from anywhere in the world. 

PLAYER.Connect was produced by the Vodafone IoT.nxt team, with the support of specialist performance consultants who advised on the sport science requirements.  

Benefits of PLAYER.Connect include: 

• The ability to view and compare all data for any given individual across a team, allowing for fully contextualised decisions that consider everything from physical fitness and performance on the pitch to sleep and recovery off it. For example, a team-wide drop-off in training performance could indicate an issue with adapting to altitude, rather than individual shortcomings. 

• The ability to track performance and welfare across multiple days, weeks and months, allowing better optimisation of workload and preparation. For example, a player could already have played longer during an early tournament game, meaning they need to focus on recovery rather than training during non-game days, ensuring they’re in the best possible condition for their next fixture. 

• The ability to monitor player welfare 24/7, on and off the court, allowing for better support of both mental and physical wellbeing. For example, a change in a player’s sleeping habits is often an indicator of a shift in their mental health, allowing coaches to provide support. 

Full data that can be inputted into Vodafone PLAYER.Connect by athletes includes:  

• Readiness to train 

• Sleep 

• Mood and energy 

• Anthropometrics (bodyweight, height etc.) 

• Health and sickness  

• Medication 

• Injury screening 

• Muscle soreness screening 
• Training load
• Fatigue