RebKell's Junkie Boards

[CBiebel]

An interesting article on using technology to keep the players in better shape and help prevent injuries:

http://www.und.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/112614aaa.html


Cheek monitors about 300 different data points from the GPS technology. Irish players wear a small chip embedded in the back of their jerseys. The information allows Cheek and Marquez to give recommendations to McGraw regarding conditioning, practice and therapy, with evidence to back it up.

"What the GPS allows us to do is quantify exactly what we're doing, instead of just guessing, 'Yeah, that was a hard practice,' or, 'Yeah, that was an easy practice,'" Cheek said. "Now, we can assign a number to it and say, 'Yeah, that really was a hard practice.' It helps the coaches make better decisions. We talked with Coach (McGraw) before the (Quinnipiac) game and looked at the numbers, and we were able to say that we're in pretty good shape, just because we've been able to recover. It's technology that will help her make strategic decisions down the road."

GPS numbers are specific to each player.

"We can say, 'Look, Lindsay (Allen) had a really, really hard game. We need to hold her back a little bit in practice. Have her take fewer reps,'" Cheek said. "I won't advocate that they need a day off. I won't say that, but it helps us make an informed decision that we need today to be a really light practice."

Cheek will know exactly how many times a player jumped during a game, thanks to the GPS chip. He will know how many times a player went to the left, the right, moved forward and moved backward.

"This can help us prevent injuries," Cheek said. "We'll see some trends. Maybe this particular player is always going left and that's why her right knee is hurting, because she's pushing off that leg so much. I can develop training plans specific to that individual and do more left-side work instead of right.

[Ex-Ref]

They talked about this during the MSU game.

Nice technology.

[myrtle]

interesting and somehow a bit scary. I understand the potential benefits but at the same time, we ain't robots ya know.

_________________
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
- Amanda Gorman

[Ex-Ref]

It will be interesting to see what the NCAA might do about this technology.

I can't imagine that the NCAA would tell a school that they can't use it. That would be totally bad PR, especially when it comes to maybe preventing over-use injuries or possibly reducing the number of or severity of other types of injuries.

I assume that it's pretty expensive for all of the hardware, software and training.

How will some of the lower tier schools afford it? Will it make the gap between the "haves and have nots" even larger?

[purduefanatic]