Athletics is Getting a Tech Upgrade
Ah, yes - the age old struggle of geeks versus jocks. I can see it now: The jock rules the halls and the geeky kid watches fearfully from inside his locker. The divide between the two is ironclad, or at least it was.
Technology has become pervasive in our society - and it's not limited to any one group anymore. In a stunning twist of irony, technology has become important even to athletes. The perception of gadgets as uncool is simply outdated. The technological evolution of the athlete is primarily aimed at increasing athletic performance. This occurs in two primary ways: Biometric technology and enhanced equipment.
All right, all right. See, we're already delving into technobabble. Biometric tech in this case refers to devices that can monitor and measure various changes occurring in and out of the body. A pedometer could be seen as a biometric device. FitBit and various other sport wearable products often measure your steps via pedometer as well. They can do things like track your speed, record your location via GPS, and even estimate how many calories you've burned. Many new sports smart-watches contain heart-rate monitors built in. For the purpose of monitoring and improving health and performance, these are all helpful.
It gets even more intensive and specialized, however. The MotusPro is a device geared specifically toward Baseball players, as opposed to the generalized fitness nature of a FitBit. It's also wearable and contains multiple sensors that measure the strength and speed of throwing as well as batting biomechanics. This information is invaluable to batting and pitching coaches because it provides measured data that can be used to create an actionable plan for improvement. Blasphemy! Who would have ever imagined athletes using gadgets to learn how to be better athletes?
There's another device that was created for the opposite of what every locker-stuffed nerd wants: preventing athlete injuries. Catapult has developed a wearable analytic device that tracks not only heart rate, but determines fatigue. When combined with medical data, it can give advanced warning to prevent joint wear and tear. I know getting payback for those years of torment sounds tempting, but I promise this is good for you too. Beyond that, these systems that track biomechanics are already used to rehabilitate injured people - even non-athletes. Many of these devices are linkable to smartphones, and this allows you and your doctor to monitor your health and overall progress when recovering from an injury or illness. While your physical activity is automatically recorded, you can manually enter any symptoms as well as your emotional state.
The next part is an extension of the first. Smart-watches are the combination of a simple everyday object and technology. Similarly, tech is being combined with sports equipment like tennis rackets. This is two-fold: advanced polymers and composite materials can be used to build lighter-weight and increased durability equipment. Sensors could be applied to measure swing speed and generally analyze the way the racket is used.
While this focuses on the performance of an individual athlete, there's a larger picture still. Simply put, information is power. The more we all know about how our bodies are working, the better off we are. You can't fix a problem unless you know it exists. Technology gives us all - jocks and nerds alike - the ability to take charge of our fitness and health.
David Kirby is a screenwriter and columnist. Follow him on Twitter @kirbywrites.
