Over the years, technology has found new ways of getting more involved in the daily lives of human beings, even to the point where its usage has become essential. Technology in sports is a field where there is still unlimited room to develop new gadgets and tools that will help athletes and non-athletes meet their goals regarding exercising and continuous improvement. Nearly everybody has owned a device or has had an approach with a product that provides performance-related stats (also known as “wearables”) in some way or another.
Professional athletes and sporting institutions use this software and hardware in their everyday operations, becoming a relevant part of their processes and results in coaching and injury-prevention scenarios. Even though this technology might seem inaccessible for people outside the expanding world of sports, it is more approachable than people might actually think. Product usage and knowledge required has never been so customer-friendly, and its expansion is in its glory days.
When thinking about college athletics, there are a lot of thoughts that could come to one’s head. College football and basketball, and the names of the most prominent Division I schools in the country may come up, but it is way more than that. Big state and private schools with larger budgets and more resources, where athletic professionalization has always been a thing, have probably introduced this technology in their programs simultaneously, or maybe earlier, than professional franchises like the Chicago Bulls. However, the other large majority of schools have experienced how that budgetary breach has affected the ability to incorporate those tools into their programs potentially. Once again, huge differences are being exposed among schools regarding what they can provide to students.
Thankfully, technology is getting cheaper and more affordable every year, a fact that proves Moore´s Law right about the gradual and exponential development of technology. Now that it is more accessible, Greenville University Women´s Soccer has decided to step up and innovate, for the first time in program history, in this field of athletic performance with the purchase of TITAN Sports GPS Sensors. The product in question provides live data on soccer player activity, tracking and storing information from specific metrics such as top speed or total distance.
Even though the total number of units does not match the number of people that are part of the roster, the outcome of its implementation has already shown that precious business term of “return” or ROI. According to Graduate Assistant Coach Dani Pearce, “It increases the awareness about what athletes are putting their bodies through and how to protect athletes from injury,” which, form the coaches’ standpoint, is valuable knowledge in matters of recovery, practice intensity, and game planning. Now that it is being used regularly, Coach Pearce points out how intensity and effort have increased.
Other athletic programs at Greenville University are also looking for ways of slowly introducing gadgets like these to their sports. This is, without any doubt, what the future holds for college athletics and the way they work and carry out their processes. The question is: Which program will be the next making such a move?
Media by José Soutullo Fernández.
