Tag: sports technology

Wearable technology played a vital role in the Warriors win, says Iguodala

| October 2, 2015

The NBA Finals MVP has declared that wearables are exceptionally helpful to athletes.

Andre Iguodala has given tremendous praise to wearable technology when he recently spoke about the role that it played in the title win by the Golden State Warriors.

Wearables have been increasing in popularity among athletic teams and individual athletes, alike.

Iguodala spoke at a panel, recently, where he said that “The wearable market helps athletes more than anybody. You can say they helped us win a championship.” This is no small statement, as wearable technology was just credited with assisting the athletes to an actual championship win. Teams have been using these mobile devices at a growing rate to not only better understand the performance of the players, but also to help them to reduce the risk of injury.

The NBA player also recently visited the headquarters of Jawbone in San Francisco for more wearable technology.

Wearable Technology - Andre IguodalaWhile there, he met with Hosain Rahman, the CEO of Jawbone. This allowed him to share the personal sleep data that had been collected by Iguodala’s UP activity tracker and the related mobile application. An analysis was conducted comparing the amount of rest that the player was able to receive and his performance during a game the next day.

What they discovered was that when Iguodala was able to receive at least eight hours of sleep on the night before playing a game, he was able to play for an average of 12 percent more minutes per game, and his scoring was 29 percent higher per minute. Moreover, he was also able to boost his free-throw shooting by an average of 9 percent and he saw a 2 percent increase in his three-point shots. That minimum of eight hours of sleep also led to a 37 percent decrease in his turnovers and a 45 percent decrease in personal fouls.

While it was not the wearable technology, itself, that allowed for the improvement in Iguodala’s performance, the device is what collects the data that can then be analyzed in order to understand the relationship between factors such as sleep and other health and wellbeing stats with his ability to play during a game.

Athletes use wearable technology to gain performance advantage

| November 3, 2014

A growing number of sports pros are being spotted with wearables that have sensors meant to provide bio-feedback.

As wearable technology just starts to gain a little bit of interest from regular consumers, professional athletes are being spotted with these gadgets to help to gain an edge over their competition.

These devices are helping during the training sessions of the athletes, to better understand their performance.

Among the rising number of athletes using wearable technology have been Amar’e Stoudemire, from the New York Knicks in the NBA, as well as Dwayne De Rosario from the Toronto FC in Major League Soccer. They have each been spotted using performance sensors to get the most out of the understanding of the way that they are performing in practices so that they can make the appropriate changes in order to enhance their capabilities.

Some teams have been spotted with wearable technology on all of the players during practice.

Wearable Technology - SoccerFor example, the Toronto FC Major League Soccer club is now using wearables on all of its players during their practices in order to better understand the workload and heart rate of each individual player. The coaches and doctors for the team then use the data that has been collected through these devices to know when a player should be taken from the field or when to slow them down in order to be able to avoid injuries and to ensure the best possible performance.

That team is actually not new to wearables. In fact, it has been using them for around five years. At that time, players admitted that they didn’t see the point to it – including De Rosario, who has completely changed his opinion on the tech. He said that “Even the coaches and I were like, ‘This is a joke, you know?’”

That said, over time the opinion of wearable technology has changed. He added that “as the years have passed and it progresses, we take it more and more seriously… Things have definitely evolved in terms of the importance of tracking the data and how useful the therapists and the trainers are finding it.”