Kiekko-Espoo Utilizes Firstbeat Sports’ Premium+ for Liiga Promotion

Firstbeat Technologies and the elite Finnish ice hockey team Kiekko-Espoo are thrilled to announce a new three-year partnership. Through this agreement, Kiekko-Espoo will utilize the Firstbeat Sports Premium+ package to optimize their performance both on and off the ice.

This partnership coincides with Kiekko-Espoo’s promotion to the Finnish first league (Liiga) for the upcoming season, marking a new chapter for the team. On the partnership, Jyrki Aho, Head Coach at Kiekko-Espoo says:

“Right from the beginning it was clear that the athletic requirement is much higher in the first league than in the second league and therefore we need to fit our tools to match those requirements.

I have been using Firstbeat since 2006. For me, it was very clear from the beginning that also at Kiekko-Espoo we need to take advantage of the physiological analytics of Firstbeat. Our summer is going to be rougher than the players have experienced before. Therefore, we need to monitor closely the load and recovery of the players.

It’s not only a tool for the coaching staff, but also for the players. They learn more about their bodies, how they react to training, and what are their recovery needs.

Firstbeat is the best solution that I have ever used for training load & recovery management.”

Joel Wenning, Customer Success Manager at Firstbeat comments on the partnership:

“We are excited to start our partnership with Kiekko-Espoo to support their ambitious goals. We are there helping them to analyze their game, training, and recovery. The performance demands of the Liiga (1st league) are much higher than from the Mestis (2nd league) which we have also seen in our data as well confirmed by the physical analysis of the Finnish ice hockey association. For many of Kiekko-Espoo’s players, it’s a whole new level that they need to reach when talking about physical capabilities.”

Firstbeat Sports data has been used in ice hockey for over a decade, with more than half of NHL franchises and several national federations integrating the technology into their training and recovery protocols.

About Firstbeat

Firstbeat provides advanced performance analytics for over 1,000 sports teams around the world. Firstbeat Sports is the leading athlete performance management platform, providing data on athlete training load, intensity, fitness, performance readiness, stress, and recovery to optimize performance, reduce injury risk, and fast-track athlete development.