Wearable technology has revolutionized sports science across the globe, especially at the grassroots level, enabling athletes to have real-time access to data that can improve their performance, reduce the risks of injury and also provide optimal training regimes.
Is Wearable Technology Affordable At Grassroots Level?
In countries like India, grassroots level sports are beset by resource and infrastructural constraints. So high price tags for wearable technology effectively excludes many of the young sports talent from benefiting from them. If prices of sport wearables come down, it could change everything at grassroots levels and may create new potential future sporting talent.
Wearable Technology And Sports Science
Gradually sports science in India is picking up pace with wearable technology being the prime component to this development. The use of fitness trackers, smart watches and heart rate monitors gives an athlete an incredible amount of information regarding a person’s performance, providing even the minutest detail for heart rate, speed, distance travelled and recovery rates. A detailed data enables the coach and the sportsperson to tweak the training process, analyze their strengths and weaknesses and also minimize the possibility of suffering from injuries through accurate monitoring.
However, there is this cost factor that is deterring mostly from the grassroots. Many grassroots athletes in India can’t afford advanced wearables at the base level, especially the ones living in underdeveloped rural areas. They miss some of its advantages in getting their self-maximized potential through sporting science
Price Tag Plays A Major Factor While Purchasing Wearable Technology
Grassroots level sports in India are the foundation of the nation’s sporting ecosystem. Here is where passion, talent and potential are juxtaposed with the harsh realities of limited resources. In stark contrast to this reality are the top-tier athletes, who enjoy the most up-to-date training facilities and technology at their disposal. The price tag associated with wearable technology-often perceived as an elitist tool-means that only the most privileged groups can actually access the data-driven insights that it offers.
Reducing The Cost Of Wearable Technology
Reducing the cost of sports wearables can democratize access to sports science and bring it within easier reach at the grassroots level. More athletes would monitor their progress and train better, thereby improving performance at all levels. Grassroots coaches can then use such insights to craft personalized training programs for every athlete to maximize development while minimizing injury.
Potential Impact
Making sports wearables affordable, India could unlock the hidden talents of young athletes in different parts of the country, thereby making sports science outreach to the remotest part of the country where talent otherwise goes unnoticed for a want of resources. With data-driven training becoming more accessible, India’s sports ecosystem could experience a significant uplift with improved grassroots level sports through better-informed coaching and improved athlete performance.
This could help in bringing cost advantages to grassroots levels, that would benefit the most and hence help in bringing into play the benefits of sport science among athletes. Going by this aspect, the progress of wearable devices in furthering the cause of grassroots level sport in India would be at the forefront; helping the future sporting stars to flower in this sector.
Do you also think that a reduction in the costs of wearable technology will increase its usage more at the grassroots levels in India?
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye
