Lyon Olympique Universitaire becomes first European rugby club to adopt full suite of Catapult solutions

French Top 14 club Lyon Olympique Universitaire (LOU Rugby) has become the first European rugby team to adopt Catapult’s full suite of performance solutions.

LOU previously used OptimEye S5 devices to monitor the performance of first team players, but this new and expanded agreement will see the club receive 48 brand new Vector S7 units. In addition, the club will implement the Catapult Vision and Catapult AMS platforms for video analysis and athlete management respectively.

LOU will use Catapult AMS across the entire organisation, using the platform to manage performance and medical data for athletes across all senior and academy teams.

“We chose Catapult because they are the world leader for athlete monitoring,” says Brice Puthod, Strength & Conditioning Coach at LOU. “Catapult’s technology is the most efficient and the best in terms of quality, reliability and precision. Catapult is constantly developing its tools and provides great support in our analysis and the education of our staff.”

By using all three of Catapult’s core solutions, LOU are building an integrated performance infrastructure that supports more efficient workflows and greater levels of analytical depth.   

“Working with Catapult saves time through the simplification and centralisation of our data analysis,” says Puthod. “The players are equipped with the GPS devices every day to evaluate training load. From this summer onwards, individual follow-ups will be done using Catapult AMS and we will also work with the Vision platform to correlate GPS data with video footage.”

LOU having been using Catapult technology for several years and Puthod believes that improved athlete monitoring processes have been one of the factors behind the club’s recent success.

“We’ve been working with Catapult since 2016, a period that corresponds with the evolution of the club in terms of the consolidation of our Top 14 status and recent playoff appearances,” says Puthod. “Our players enjoy getting accurate, personalised performance insights as it helps them to be more efficient in training while also helping us as coaches to manage the squad through improved benchmarking and feedback.”

We look forward to continuing to work with LOU over the coming seasons as the club goes from strength to strength in both domestic and European rugby.

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