Wearable technology has been in high demand in recent times in sports.
What Is Wearable Technology?
Wearable technology in sports is the advanced electronic devices that athletes wear to monitor their performance, health and physical condition. Some of these include GPS trackers, heart rate monitors and motion sensors. Data is collected in real time for the purpose of helping athletes and coaches optimize performance, improve training efficiency and minimize risks of injury.
Types of Wearable Technology In Sports
Wearable technology in sports includes devices that capture performance metrics deemed important by athletes. The most common types of wearable devices in sports are as follows:
1. GPS Trackers
There exist GPS trackers, which analyze movement patterns of professional athletes either in training or competition. The device records real-time speed, distance and positioning data to enable the coach or athlete to deduce movement, observe performance and develop a strategy for improvement.
2. Heart Rate Monitors
Probably the most important monitoring device which an athlete could carry is the heart rate monitor. Real time heart rate monitoring allows one to know how much exertion has been expended and recovery time and fitness levels. Coaches will be able to tailor training to appropriate intensity while avoiding overtraining and the attendant risks of injury based on such information.
3. Motion Sensors
Acceleration sensors will follow the type of move an athlete could make; for example acceleration, deceleration, or changes in the direction. These provide athletes with insight into how quick and responsive they are, because these are really huge factors to sports that may require rapid adjustment in movement change and turning in direction. Defects in a movement determine if a motion sensor enables athletes to amend their form; hence, thus limiting the risk for injury.
4. Accelerometers
Accelerometers measure the rate of an athlete’s acceleration and deceleration, therefore delivering very rich information about explosive movements. In such sports as football, basketball, or rugby, it can be truly important to analyze these rapid acceleration-deceleration actions. An athlete may even be measured by the degree to which power and explosiveness is present in an athlete’s capability to accelerate and decelerate.
5. Wearable Cameras
First-person views of performance are gained using wearable cameras installed on a helmet or a jersey. It combines very well with American football and ice hockey as tactics is such a strong ingredient in the overall game. As for the captured video, further improvement can also be seen through strategic planning side by side situational awareness at the time of the game.
6. Smartwatches and Fitness Bands
The smartwatches and fitness bands are versatile wearables that can monitor virtually every metric of health and performance, whether it’s your heart rate or the number of steps taken or calories burned in a workout. Such gadgets can be very handy for amateur athletes but also use them as pros to get essential data. This multifunctionality and ease of use is why such gadgets remain popular among the athletes in each field and enable them to possess an easily available tool for fitness tracking and assessment of performance.
This would transform sports, as it delivers highly accurate actionable insights that may be used both to enhance performance as well as minimize the risk of injury. Or in other words, such technologies are likely to expand their penetration significantly into the space of training, strategy and recovery within sports.
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye