Ireland rugby captain Jamie Heaslip says his team has
been harnessing data to protect players from injury, and of course
to help them train to win. The idea is, if we can have a picture of
a player’s health and what’s normal for them, we can measure when
they are most rundown, or vulnerable to injury, and adjust training
or games tactics to prevent this from happening.
“We’ve been wearing GPS packs when we play since
2009, and they track endless amounts of data,” the Lions players
said. “Like any sport the game takes its toll on players, so we
take all this data and put it into an algorithm and are able to
essentially predict when a player is likely to get injured,
depending on that GPS data.”
The GPS
data tells us how fast and far a player has been running,
measuring the pressure being placed on the body itself. All types
of other data can be fed in to build up a full picture of health.
“First thing in the morning we undergo a range of motion tests and
everything is logged in the computer. You ask basic things like how
did you sleep last night, how are you feeling. It creates a profile
for the person and the more you do it, the more it learns. Then it
can signal to you the players’ health — green for good, amber
means keep an eye on them and red, there’s a chance of
injury.”Â
“You can set the threshold for how sensitive it can
be — so you might get some false positives depending on where you
set the thresholds.”
In this space, there are obviously plenty of other
applications, but for now it’s at the high end of markets that can
afford it. “People are already wearing all these different
trackers, the trick is how to use them. One day they could flag up
if you might get a cold, and then flag that up to your GP. We’re at
the tip of the iceberg, and have no idea where it will
go.”Â
For Heaslip though, it’s not only changing how
players are treated, but how they play. By mapping the field using
GPS data, they can create different speed zones that dictate where
the game sped up and slowed down, so they can prepare when playing
the same team again.
“When you go from playing club games, to national and
international, instead of coming away thinking that was very fast
and felt like a tough game, you have something measurable now. You
can work out the pace per metre, and know that’s how fast the game
will be. You can train to get used to that pace of the game so you
don’t get caught out.” Heaslip says it has totally transformed how
the team trains, and as such totally changed the players’ bodies as
things like body fat continue to be measured.Â
Beyond the field though, Heaslip sees the marketing
potential in this burgeoning area in utilising social interactions
to help the viewer feel more connected to the game.
“Imagine if you have a big kick at the end of the
game, and while you’re at home you can see his heart rate — how it
drops down right before he kicks or peaks. In American football you
could measure force in the tackles — a big rugby tackle is like a
small car crash, imagine if you see massive hit and get that
G-force. It gives people a bit more realism and gets them closer to
the game. I think that will be an interesting aspect over the next
few years.”
Jamie Heaslip: we"re predicting when rugby players will get injured
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