Injuries when playing sports are something almost every one of us has been through. Injuries can cause long-term health issues and also mental health issues. The latest sports technologies have been focused on preventing injuries. Different technologies have been implemented into sports gear as well as programs are being developed to track the possibility of an injury.
One of the technologies is created by the company FITGuard. FITGuard has created a high-tech mouthguard. This mouthguard uses sensors to let athletes know when they should take a break. The sensors can also alert players when serious but invisible injuries are (almost) occurring during a game, especially concussions since these often happen without the player noticing. If the athlete has a high-impact blow, a LED light will turn red, while with a medium-degree impact, the LED light will turn blue. After the impact, the data will be analyzed and documented on an app to be used as a reference for future injuries. (Alliance Technology Partners, 2015).
Another technology that is already used by many athletes, is the use of compression boots to aid recovery and prevent future injuries. These boots are used to increase blood flow and circulation. Pneumatic units pump air into the boots, the boots will then inflate while giving the sensation of a massage. The Compression has been proven to increase limb blood flow. (Asar, 2022).
Next to this, another emerging technology is the use of computer-based sports injury-preventing programs. Kitman Labs is an Irish firm that is working together with baseball teams to develop a special program. The program gathers data to help athletes to get better insights into possible injuries. It uses biometrics to single out players that have a higher risk of getting injured. A high-definition camera is used to capture movements and the camera then connects with a computer to generate real-time results. Next, the data is analyzed and presented to coaches and players. (Asar, 2022).
The future of injury prevention seems bright and can hopefully reduce the number of injuries incurred during sports significantly.
Bibliography
Alliance Technology Partners. (2015). Alliance Technology Partners. [online] Available at: https://www.alliancetechpartners.com/the-latest-sports-technology-available-to-prevent-sports-injuries/.
Asar, A. (2022). Council Post: Five Technologies Athletes Use To Manage Injury And Optimize Performance. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/05/02/five-technologies-athletes-use-to-manage-injury-and-optimize-performance/?sh=29cd1a82bdc1 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2022].
Very interesting to see how these innovations made for injury preventions are potentially revolutionising the high-performance sport. Though, the innovations seem to be in the early phases of development or is this already widely adopted among high-performance sporters, and really preventing injuries? These sporters are in most cases also meant to push boundaries in order to grow as a top athlete with the risks of catching injuries. This makes me very curious on whether these innovations aren’t pulling back top athletes.
It’s really an interesting topic to share about technology in sports injury. I particularly like the part you mentioned that “The program gathers data to help athletes to get better insights into possible injuries.” I believe the application of technology is not only about solving the problems in sporting, but more importantly, gathering massive data to prevent and injuries. And there is still much more space waiting for intelligence to explore.
I find this short blog very interesting as well. I do believe that prevention in general is becoming increasingly famous. While injury prevention for human health is very important for individuals, especially high performance athletes, we can see the use of technology and sensors also in businesses.
Quite interestingly, the prevention of (injuries or) product failures also leads to entirely new business models, namely servicefication. For example, consumers might not buy products anymore, but lease them. Due to sensors and analytics, firms can predict when products will fail and contact their customer beforehand. This allows firms to rent out products that “always” will work and only rarely will need to be fixed, compared to just selling products which can fail to work faster.