The landscape of sports is changing and a new-age Darwinism is prevailing. Gone are the days of brute strength. Enter the days of intelligent strength. Today’s “fittest” competitors are training smarter, not harder. Last week, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) put on a day long showcase, called The Sports Innovation Conference (SIC), about how the greatest minds and bodies in sports are changing the game.
SIC gave it’s attendees a first-hand experience of the broad spectrum of innovations that are happening in the sports industry. In summary, only those with the mindset to grow, embrace innovation, and implement the latest technologies will survive.
Virtual Reality Training Provides Real Zero-Impact Results
The day began with 2007’s 3rd round draft pick, quarterback, Trent Edwards, running reps. With each rep he gained muscle memory, memorized routes, and got his adrenaline rushing. However, he wasn’t outside on the field, surrounded by his teammates. He was wearing business slacks and an Oculus Rift helmet, surrounded by an audience watching in wait for him to fall off the stage. Without causing stress on his body through impact — or falling off the stage — Edwards demonstrated the future of training that is being developed by one of the world’s leading researchers of virtual reality (VR) and founder of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Jeremy Bailenson. Together with Stanford assistant football coach, Derek Belch, STRIVR Labs was born.
STRIVR has created a fully immersive, fully customizable virtual reality experience, specifically for football training. STRIVR, which uses real footage to deliver VR zero-impact physical and psychological training, has become a favorite training tool of Stanford’s head football coach, David Shaw. “By reducing the hours and impact traditionally required for high-level training, STRIVR has enabled my student-athletes to focus on being students first, both on the field and in the classroom,” says Shaw. “VR tricks the brain. Without taxing their bodies, my players are learning to react more quickly to high pressure situations.”
According to Bailenson, the goal with VR is to train the brain and body to react as fast as possible, thus improving the decision making process on the field.
The “I” in Team is for “Individualization”
We’ve all been taught that there’s no “I” in team…sure, we can spell. But some of the brightest minds in high performance innovation are arguing for a different notion of team training… the kind that has an “I.” This powerful letter stands for the needed focus on individualized training of players that will lead teams, as a whole, to successes like never seen before. As Mark Verstegen of EXOS brilliantly pointed out, “each movement of an athlete is like a fingerprint…no two are alike” and because 90% of our daily motions are unconscious, individualization is key!
Speaking on the “Innovating for the Athlete” panel was Andy Beckman (Director: Garmin), Richard Heal (CTO: SPARTA Software Corp), Brian Kopp (N. America President: Catapult Sports), and Mark Verstegen (Founder: EXOS, formerly Athletes’ Performance).
Key Takeaways:
- The overarching goals of recent high performance innovations are to enable athletes to perform at their best by reducing the risk of injury, increasing training efficiency, and speeding recovery. These goals can only be accomplished if coaches and team trainers take the time to focus on the biomechanics of each of their athletes, individually.
- Five years ago, there wasn’t enough data available for coaches and trainers. Now, all of a sudden, there’s too much data. The companies represented on the panels are all working on cohesive ways to tell the story of that data that can be rapidly understood and actionable.
- The question of “who owns the data?” is a growing concern. Most teams and organizations are still trying to understand the implications. Data collecting companies come in with good intentions, but it’s important to acknowledge that the information can be used both ways. When surveyed, most NFL teams could not definitely state who owned the data, where it was being stored, or who had access to and owned the rights (ie- the team or the manufacturers).
“Get your Head Out of the Game”
Another panel addressing the needs of innovation at an individualized level explored a hot topic in football today: concussions. Whether you’re a fan, parent, athlete, or coach, just a quick glimpse of PBS’ Frontline Concussion Watch should raise cause for alarm.
How long can players be expected to hold up given the growing prevalence of misdiagnosed concussions and the lack of accurate, real-time assessments? As Stanford’s Director of Athletic Training, Scott Anderson, points out, “the baseline for every athlete in determining a concussion is slightly different.” Hence the need for continued individualized innovations.
When asked what assessment tools he sees as being the key to sideline diagnoses, Anderson responds: eye tracking and accelerometry. The EYE-TRAC helmet system is leading the charge by producing a dynamic visual synchronization (DVS) score that can be normalized. In the field of accelerometry, bioengineers in Stanford’s CamLab are working to design a mouthguard with a built-in accelerometer to measure head impacts. As eye tracking and accelerometry are being improved upon, Anderson predicts that oculomotor performance analytics will be the next big thing.
The rest of the panel, which included Dr. Erik Swartz (Ph.D & Kinesiology Chair: U. of New Hampshire), Dave Marver (CEO: VICIS, Inc.), and Maurice Jones-Drew (former NFL Running Back: Oakland Raiders), discussed the issues of concussions from their personal home field vantage points.
Key Conversation Snippets:
- As Dave Marver of VICIS reminded the audience, sometimes it’s the most obvious pieces of the equation that get overlooked. “Football helmet technology has not changed in 50 years, and they are doing what they were initially tasked to do: prevent skull fractures.” 50 years ago, no one understood concussions enough to be concerned with the design of technical gear to prevent them.
The evolution of football helmet design:
- Dr. Erik Swartz gave the audience an interesting piece of the prevention spectrum to ponder: “Adding protective measures, such as the hardening of the football helmet, has actually increased the risk of injury over the years.” The hardening of football helmet gave players a false sense of security that changed the physical mechanics of the player’s techniques: players started hitting one another with their head. While Swartz likely isn’t against the design of a new helmet that prevents concussions, his approach to reducing the number of concussions lies within fundamental player form: “Players need to be re-taught improved tackling mechanics.”
- Former NFL player Maurice Jones-Drew reminded the audience that things that are good in theory are not always good in practice. After hearing all of the scholars speak on their research in the field of concussions, Jones-Drew transported the audience out of the textbooks and into the life of a real NFL player. His words sent a vital message to anyone working on any innovations in the sports industry: “Before you try to change something, it’s critical to understand the culture that you’re going into… innovators need to protect the integrity of the game.” The nature of football is a hard-hitting sport intended for tough people. Softening the game changes the game for both players and fans.
As exciting as all these new innovation concepts are, the rapid influx of them means that coaches, trainers, and athletes need a heavy dose of education on the now foreign landscape. Coaches who have been doing things the same way for 20 years will be forced to change. As put by SPARTA’s Richard Heal, “Good coaches will use the new technologies, but the great coaches will use them as time savers to spend more time coaching.”
It’s going to take time, commitment, and patience to adapt to the changing climate. Those who have already embraced the change are reaping the benefits. Those who want to preserve the old ways of doing things will be left in the dust.