Amy Acuff has been a prominent figure in the track and field world over the last two decades. Her accolades during her college career include third in the World Juniors in 1994, winning the NCAA Division I National Championship in 1995, and winning the 1998 World University Games. Simultaneously, the digital revolution began, which eventually caught the attention of Acuff. But first, Acuff was focused on her blossoming track and field career.
In 2001, Acuff competed in the World Championship (finishing fourth) and the IAAF Grand Prix Final (finishing second). Next, she competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. There, Acuff finished fourth— only 3cm away from the second seed.
Looking forward to the next Olympics in 2008, Acuff was gained the reputation of being one of the elite female high jumpers in the world. Here in Beijing, Acuff was crushed after missing the finals. Her disappointing performance “deflated” her, so she shifted her focus elsewhere— to computer development and programing. This piqued her interest during her college career, but with a focus on track and field, computer developing had been pushed aside.
After taking courses in computer programing, she created her first application in 2009. This application located vaccines for children. Creating this app allowed Amy Acuff to “learn the language” of applications— opening the door to her future ventures. Her focus shifted from athletics to family life during this time as well. After having a baby, she thought she was done with track and field.
Soon after, Acuff moved back to her home state of Texas. When she wanted to get back into shape, she was led back into track and field. Her speed and strength did not waver after her break from track and field events, but her jumping did— “I don’t know what to do other than do the kind of workout I did before: sprint and lift weights. And it didn’t take very long until I pretty much was as fast as I was before and very strong actually. I think from lifting the baby. It’s like a constant med ball workout. Then I started jumping and it was just awful.”
Acuff’s persistence allowed her to compete in high jumping again. In order to get back to her former level, she would video her jumps. Having video replay allowed Acuff to break down and analyze her event. Her videos also allowed her to closely compare her form to other great jumpers of both the past and present.
With these videos, Acuff could also compare her current work to her past events. Acuff explained her video technology, “I actually built my own video analysis tool and found it immensely useful. I released a few video analysis tools at that time. I started my own company and just released them under the name Winning Edge Apps.”
Acuff described her transition into the technology world and creation of Winning Edge Apps, “In 2008, I started learning to code and program software via self-study. I love a big challenge and have never been afraid to go after one that is worthwhile. There is always the possibility of failure, but what you gain in the process always proves to be more valuable than the result. Winning is an amazing thrill and is hard to match. I would love to help equip others who are willing to put forth the effort to achieve success, and so I named my company Winning Edge Apps.”
Winning Edge Apps includes a number of applications for track and field events including pole vaulting, throwing, and parallel action.The newest application created under Acuff’s company Winning Edge Apps is the iAnalyze application.
With codes written by Acuff herself, this application is designed for all athletes and coaches for any event.
iAnalyze is an application that allows athletes to analyze in-depth videos of sports video clips. It records at 30, 60, and 120 frames per second (fps). The fps is actually inherent to the recording process for this application. The standard for video recording is a speed of 30 fps. But when utilizing slow motion, it is imperative to record at a higher frame rate in order to have a smoother video— thus the need for 60 fps and 120 fps speeds. By having a smooth video in slow motion, subtle movements can be noticed.
The features of this application include tools for draggable angle, stopwatch, and shape drawing. Videos can be compared through this application either side by side, or through transparency overlays of slow motion and ghosting. The app can also calculate velocity over a known distance in meters.
Data from the application can be imported using iCloud Drive—making video clips captured through the app available across all of a users’ devices. Also, file sharing is supported from iTunes. This allows video clips to be imported from computers.
Technology was a key component to Acuff’s return to track and field. Events like high jump and pole vault are extremely technical and video technology allows athletes to examine essentially all of their movements. Therefore, athletes with the assistance of this technology, can study how to execute their technique and timing as efficiently as possible.
The self-taught high jumper and self-taught coder will be utilizing video analysis in her training in an attempt to make her sixth Olympic appearance at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. Not only is Amy Acuff inspiring other athletes with her Winning Edge technology, she is inspiring herself to redeem her past performances and achieve her own success. Amy Acuff is committed to continuing her innovation of sports performances with technology— “Although my areas of interest may seem non-congruent, to me they fit together very harmoniously. I am parked at the intersection of sports, health, and technology.”