Sky News and Sam Blitz visited the Ipswich Town Training Grounds to interview Director of Performance Andrew Rolls and Kitman Labs Founder & CEO Stephen Smith. They discussed the club’s multifaceted partnership with the high-performance technology company and its role in its successful bid for promotion to the Premier League.
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Sky News | Inside Tactics: The technology that helped Ipswich reach the Premier League
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Transcript
Sam Blitz: Ipswich became just the fifth team in Premier League history to go from League One to the top flight in just two years. Manager Kieran McKenna and his players take the credit, but do the club have a secret weapon? Ipswich use a technology software system called Kitman Labs, which is essential to how they choose and look after their players. It helps them with transfers, coaching recruitment, but its main focus is in player recovery, logging every bit of data from what the players do in training and games to how long bus journeys affect their health and how well they sleep.
Andrew Rolls: When players come in the door in the morning, we ask them three questions. How do you sleep? How’s your mood? Any muscle soreness?
Andrew Rolls: And that probably starts how we log that in the system. We’ve done really well on getting players very fit, keeping them free from injury, and a lot of that starts with asking them how they are every morning and then adapting their day around that. That’s probably the basic side of it. It cares for players.
Andrew Rolls: There’s a conversation happening now at this very minute around, should this player do four days in a row, or should he do three, or how should we adjust his week? And that player’s week will get adjusted.
Stephen Smith: It’s not just analyzing the data from games. It’s not just analyzing specific information on the physical fitness of the athletes. It’s not just looking at psychological data. It’s not just looking at tactical or strategic information.
Stephen Smith: It’s actually looking at everything. Everything across the life cycle of the athlete. How they recover, how they sleep, you know, what they’re eating, how they’re performing week to week, what they’re doing in training, what their medical profile actually looks like at that point in time as well. And that that’s a hugely important aspect because now we’re understanding everything about the athlete, not just one specific piece.
Sam Blitz: The demands of the Premier League mean Ipswich need to expand and evolve. That’s where Kitman’s data comes in. The software system not only helps them to improve Ipswich’s players, but also their coaching staff.
Andrew Rolls: If I’m looking for a new member of staff, they’d be one of the first few people I’d ring up. We’ve increased our staff in my performance team by four or five this summer because we understand the players will come from clubs that have had more staff and are more demanding, have different attributes and more things. We’ve been putting an extra masseur, an extra S and C coach. And a lot of those, recommendations were from Kitman Labs and people they had worked with that they recommended.
Stephen Smith: Since they’ve been a League One club, they’ve been operating like a Premier League club. They’ve been thinking like a Premier League club. They’ve been putting the people in place that operate at the at the level of the Premier League. They’ve been thinking about their strategy and how they wanna behave every day like a Premier League club. And and that’s ultimately why this has been so exciting because they never saw themselves as a League One club, never saw themselves as a Championship Club. This group of people have been a Premier League club for the last two years, and and here they are today showcasing that.
Sam Blitz: And it’s not just the performance staff that use it. It is used right at the very top. Majority shareholder, Ed Schwartz, would also ask the data advice about the club, especially when it comes to transfers.
Andrew Rolls: You often look back on the data. He wants to be kept up to date. And some questions he’s had around transfers and football, he’s asked Kitman Labs, could you investigate this? Could you research this for us? So, again, it’s something the club, the training ground, and the investors would all use.
Sam Blitz: Now Ipswich aren’t the only team to use Kitmann’s technology. German double winners Bayer Leverkusen do as well, and so do the PGMOL to improve refereeing standards. But Ipswich have reached the Premier League like very few before them. Can they actually use this tech to now stay in the division?
Andrew Rolls: It’s at the stadium. It’s with the investors. They are an integral part of Ipswich Town. We know we have to be fitter in the Premier League. So there’s some different thresholds we’ve changed, and Kitman have helped us with that.
Sam Blitz: It’s just you’re going from strength to strength in the Premier League. And this technology and the numbers behind it could be the perfect remedy to help them get to that magic number forty nine. Sam Blitz, Sky Sports.
Andrew Rolls: When players come in the door in the morning, we ask them three questions. How do you sleep? How’s your mood? Any muscle soreness?
Andrew Rolls: And that probably starts how we log that in the system. We’ve done really well on getting players very fit, keeping them free from injury, and a lot of that starts with asking them how they are every morning and then adapting their day around that. That’s probably the basic side of it. It cares for players.
Andrew Rolls: There’s a conversation happening now at this very minute around, should this player do four days in a row, or should he do three, or how should we adjust his week? And that player’s week will get adjusted.
Stephen Smith: It’s not just analyzing the data from games. It’s not just analyzing specific information on the physical fitness of the athletes. It’s not just looking at psychological data. It’s not just looking at tactical or strategic information.
Stephen Smith: It’s actually looking at everything. Everything across the life cycle of the athlete. How they recover, how they sleep, you know, what they’re eating, how they’re performing week to week, what they’re doing in training, what their medical profile actually looks like at that point in time as well. And that that’s a hugely important aspect because now we’re understanding everything about the athlete, not just one specific piece.
Sam Blitz: The demands of the Premier League mean Ipswich need to expand and evolve. That’s where Kitman’s data comes in. The software system not only helps them to improve Ipswich’s players, but also their coaching staff.
Andrew Rolls: If I’m looking for a new member of staff, they’d be one of the first few people I’d ring up. We’ve increased our staff in my performance team by four or five this summer because we understand the players will come from clubs that have had more staff and are more demanding, have different attributes and more things. We’ve been putting an extra masseur, an extra S and C coach. And a lot of those, recommendations were from Kitman Labs and people they had worked with that they recommended.
Stephen Smith: Since they’ve been a League One club, they’ve been operating like a Premier League club. They’ve been thinking like a Premier League club. They’ve been putting the people in place that operate at the at the level of the Premier League. They’ve been thinking about their strategy and how they wanna behave every day like a Premier League club. And and that’s ultimately why this has been so exciting because they never saw themselves as a League One club, never saw themselves as a Championship Club. This group of people have been a Premier League club for the last two years, and and here they are today showcasing that.
Sam Blitz: And it’s not just the performance staff that use it. It is used right at the very top. Majority shareholder, Ed Schwartz, would also ask the data advice about the club, especially when it comes to transfers.
Andrew Rolls: You often look back on the data. He wants to be kept up to date. And some questions he’s had around transfers and football, he’s asked Kitman Labs, could you investigate this? Could you research this for us? So, again, it’s something the club, the training ground, and the investors would all use.
Sam Blitz: Now Ipswich aren’t the only team to use Kitmann’s technology. German double winners Bayer Leverkusen do as well, and so do the PGMOL to improve refereeing standards. But Ipswich have reached the Premier League like very few before them. Can they actually use this tech to now stay in the division?
Andrew Rolls: It’s at the stadium. It’s with the investors. They are an integral part of Ipswich Town. We know we have to be fitter in the Premier League. So there’s some different thresholds we’ve changed, and Kitman have helped us with that.
Sam Blitz: It’s just you’re going from strength to strength in the Premier League. And this technology and the numbers behind it could be the perfect remedy to help them get to that magic number forty nine. Sam Blitz, Sky Sports.
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