Sleep Monitors Could Help Us Players Rest

SLEEP MONITORS COULD HELP U.S. PLAYERS REST EASY DURING WORLD CUP SPORTS SCIENCE

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The U.S. World Cup team has a nightmare schedule, with games against Ghana, Portugal and Germany, but the Americans don’t plan to lose any sleep over it.

Since the start of training camp last month, the players have been wearing wristbands that detect their sleep and wake periods, and characterize the quantity and quality of their sleep. That data is analyzed and applied practically.

If a player is struggling during training, was it because he woke up several times during the night? Or was it because he slept with his iPhone or TV on or used his laptop shortly before bed?

“It’s an interesting concept,” the team’s fitness director, Masa Sakihana, told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. “Sleep can affect your reaction time and your performance.”

In Brazil, where the Americans will travel 9,000 miles for their first three games, combating fatigue will be almost as important as scoring goals. The team will board flights back to its base in Sao Paulo after games in Natal, Manaus and Recife.

Sleeping on the plane isn’t a great option, so Sakihana said the team will be given plenty of rest once back in Sao Paulo. Hydration and nutrition will be carefully monitored to reduce the effects of the demanding schedule. Jozy Altidore stretches during training in preparation for the World Cup. (AP)

The company behind the technology, Fatigue Science, also works with several pro teams such as the Seattle Mariners, Dallas Mavericks and Seattle Sounders. From the data, or sleep numbers, teams can make scientifically based decisions about travel, training and rest to help limit fatigue.

Sakihana, who works for EXOS (which was formerly known as Athletes’ Performance), has ample experience on the topic of World Cup preparation. At the last World Cup, he was on Joachim Loew’s staff when Germany reached the semifinals.

In Brazil, other members of EXOS will also be working with Germany. Though the USA and Germany meet in the third game, no trade training secrets have been exchanged, Sakihana said.

In 2004, when Jurgen Klinsmann was preparing his German team for the 2006 World Cup, he brought in trainers from Athletes’ Performance, and they introduced new conditioning methods. These radical methods — thick rubber bands around players’ ankles! — were widely mocked. The fact Klinsmann was working with U.S. trainers was front-page news in Germany.

2 As Klaus Schlütter, a sports reporter at Bild, the country’s largest newspaper, told USA TODAY at the time, “The rubber bands take a lot of getting used to; they’re not common here. They look more like something you would use for a women’s gymnastics team or for a pregnancy fitness class. What bothers me personally is that the people who lead the exercises with the team come from the USA. Here in Germany we also have people who are talented in gymnastics and as trainers and coaches. Why should we import them?” Of course, in the 2006 World Cup the Germans captivated their country with a run to the semifinals, and those rubber bands returned in 2010 and now 2014. Surely the monitoring of Die Mannschaft’s snores and sleep cycles aren’t far behind.

Once Germany was drawn to play in Salvador, Fortaleza and Recife, team officials decided to build their own training base in the north at Campo Bahia near Porto Seguro.

The Germany Football Association picked the site because flight times are less than two hours for each of the three games. “I’m sure we’ll feel right at home there,” said German general manager Oliver Bierhoff. “The camp offers everything we could possible want during what we hope will be a lengthy stay during the World Cup. We can train, recover and focus there equally well.”

The Americans are training in Florida for Saturday’s game against Nigeria before they depart for the their coveted base camp at Sao Paulo FC. Though the facilities are excellent, it isn’t close to the team’s far-flung games and the USA will log more miles than any other team during group play.

“One of the things we decided to do is have our players live in a country that’s big and warm in parts of the summer,” U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said facetiously. “Some of our players are used to it because they travel 3,000 miles for a game, play and then fly back. There aren’t many in the world that do that.”

While the USA is monitoring its players’ sleep cycles to avoid fatigue, other countries are going low tech to fight tired legs. Mexico’s Miguel Herrera has said, “If a player can’t go one month or 20 days without having sexual relations, then they are not prepared to be a professional player.”

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari isn’t prohibiting his players from having sex, but he wants the Selecao to avoid any “acrobatics.”

Klinsmann isn’t into such proclamations.

“I think we are very casual in the way we approach things. Their families can come pretty much any time. They will be at the games, they can come by at the hotel, we will have barbecues together,” Klinsmann said in an interview with Fusion TV’s The Soccer Gods.

“I’ve played in different countries where, you know, you didn’t see your girlfriend or your wife for two months. Every team and every country handles that differently, based on their culture. I think we have a group of guys together and an environment together that is very open, very casual. But once we go on the field for training and also for the games, we are very serious and down to business.”