Mathiesen: “I’m the very best instance of how kickers can make the most of TrackMan to get higher”
Because the American soccer operations and gross sales director for TrackMan, Simon Mathiesen has an awesome story to inform when he speaks to Nationwide Soccer League groups. The identical dual-radar monitoring expertise trusted by the world’s finest golfers can be utilized by the world’s finest placekickers to enhance their video games, too.
However when Mathiesen met with Dallas Cowboys officers at this 12 months’s NFL Scouting Mix, he had a possibility to disclose his handiest gross sales device: Himself.
“I confirmed them a few of my kicks on video they usually stated, ‘Wow, Simon, you’re fairly good,’” Mathiesen recalled. “And I stated, ‘Yeah, I’m, truly.’”
Mathiesen hasn’t kicked competitively since 2016, when he helped his Northwest Missouri State College staff win its third Division II championship in 4 years. Throughout his collegiate profession, Mathiesen was 61-of-74 on subject objectives and 237-of-243 on additional factors.
Mathiesen’s on-field expertise helped him land his function at TrackMan. The method of testing new options and conducting product demonstrations has stored his kicking recreation sharp.
After seeing these follow kicks, the Cowboys have been . So was Mathiesen. He fared nicely at a free agent tryout, then traveled to Dallas in April for a TrackMan demo-slash-private exercise, the place he confirmed sufficient to earn an invitation to the staff’s rookie minicamp in Could.
Mathiesen went 11-for-12 on the primary day of minicamp, together with 5-for-5 from 50-plus yards. He adopted up with a 12-for-16 efficiency the subsequent day, together with some sturdy kickoffs.
“Total, I used to be proud of how I carried out,” Mathiesen stated. “I kicked very nicely, and I received some actually good suggestions from the coaches, too.”
Mathiesen left camp with out a contract because the Cowboys have been already at their 90-man roster restrict. However roster shake-ups are frequent through the spring and summer season, so the staff informed him to maintain his leg heat. With just one kicker on the roster — Jonathan Garibay, an undrafted rookie out of Texas Tech — Mathiesen might nonetheless get a shot at kicking for “America’s Staff” this season.
“We’ll see,” Mathiesen stated. “I’m simply gonna go about my enterprise with work and coaching, taking good care of my physique and staying prepared, and we’ll see what occurs.”
Mathiesen has lots to maintain him busy within the meantime. He’s nonetheless answerable for pitching different NFL and school groups within the U.S. on the worth of TrackMan.
The expertise has been used on “Sunday Night time Soccer” TV broadcasts since 2018, offering real-time knowledge reminiscent of ball velocity, apex and “good from” distance — i.e., the utmost yardage from which a subject purpose try would have been profitable. In follow environments, the system can present kickers with much more knowledge, together with launch angle, spin fee and ball peak on the line of scrimmage.
That’s the form of data kickers can’t get wherever else. Data they’ll use to kick a soccer larger, straighter and additional. And nobody understands the worth of that data greater than Mathiesen.
“I feel I’m the very best instance of how kickers can make the most of TrackMan to get higher,” Mathiesen stated. “I haven’t performed in a recreation for just a few years, however I really feel like I’ve a bonus as a result of nobody else has had entry to the system as a lot as I’ve. I’m so significantly better now than I used to be 5 years in the past, it’s not even shut, and there’s no method I’d be the place I’m with out TrackMan.”
“That’s the story I’m excited to inform.”