Till a few years back, step-counters were all we had. A daily quota of 10,000 steps was regarded as a sure-shot method to get in shape.
How quaint that period appears now. Everyone from sportspersons to the public can receive realistic human performance reports via gadgets placed on the finger, wrist, or anywhere else.
In a rapidly evolving, expanding business where yearly user spending surpasses $50 billion, a flood of individualized data linked to an individual’s body has been propelled into the forefront.
Wearable technology is ushering in a new era of sports. It is altering the concept of sports and the degree and effectiveness of the action. With the help of Wearable technology, players may now enjoy high-intensity sports while maintaining their athletic ability and sustaining fewer to no accidents.
Wearables in Sports: What Role Do They Play?
The wearable technology market has grown significantly over the last decade, encompassing many applications, like in the sporting world. It is only the start; as per Forbes, the wearables industry will hit $27 billion in 2022.
Additionally, Statista data confirmed that the adoption of smart wearable gadgets and their diversity is rapidly expanding every year throughout the world.
Provides Fitness Insights
In the world of sports, careful analysis of enormous volumes of data is critical. Numerous wearables are available such as fitness wristbands, sensors embedded into sports players’ equipment or apparel, or sensors placed throughout the gym or playing field.
These devices assist in collecting a massive volume of information on various categories, storing it on the server, and analyzing it for use by coaches.
Tracks Health
Wearable electronics help in real-time surveillance of players’ health. Moreover, they prompt notice of probable accidents to provide timely care. Wearables designed for the professionals are linked to various parts of their bodies and provide real-time health indicators.
Increases the Performance of Athletes
Athletes may enhance their abilities and performance by incorporating wearable technology into their everyday sports activities. They can, for example, use fitness wristbands or sensors linked to tools to measure their progress report and determine when practice is more effective and impactful.
Wearables have become a vital and attractive tool for assessing and enhancing sports performance worldwide. These devices are already transforming the sector’s development, forming a tight-knit ecosystem of smart tools. They communicate with one another to provide sportspeople and other decision-makers with some of the most up-to-date data about their advancement and overall health.
What Are Athletes’ Favorite Wearable Technologies?
Today’s market is flooded with valuable tools that have the power to revolutionize the sporting industry. Let’s have a look at some of the widely used equipment:
Inertial Sensors
An inertial sensor is composed of accelerometers that detect force and pressure, a gyroscope that indicates rotation, and a magnetometer that measures the body. These systems collect data along three dimensions and record every aspect of an athlete’s activity.
Inertial sensors are frequently integrated with algorithms to make the data understandable, usable, and particular to athletic movements. Such algorithms are enhanced using ML so that the device can ‘remember’ actions and distinguish between them. Other applications include cricket bowling, basketball leaping, and rugby tackling.
Heart Rate Monitors
Monitoring heart rate is a method of assessing a player’s internal load and aiding in detecting the body’s response to foreign stressors. Pulse rate is frequently the first wearable device that teams engage in due to its efficiency and capacity to give insight when combined with other innovations.
Many quality teams are exploring new ways to capture heart rate information during practice due to the intrusive aspect of the typical heart rate wristband. It has resulted in a recent rise in the implementation of intelligent clothing, which incorporates heart rate monitors straight into the fibers of the dress.
Sleep Trackers
Among the most popular types of wearable electronics in the marketplace is sleep trackers. Companies like Apple and Fitbit have rendered this type of data readily accessible, but acquiring accurate and trustworthy data from several consumer products is nearly complicated. Practitioners must follow a research-driven approach to guarantee that the gadgets they give to players provide valuable data pertaining to wearables.
local positioning systems (LPS)
As GPS solutions have inherent flaws, particularly when attempting to quantify an individual indoors, businesses have built their respective local positioning systems. By placing receivers that connect with the modules instead of satellite networks, LPS eliminates the need for satellites. High scanning rates, more precision, and smaller numbers are all possible with this locally implemented infrastructure.
Velocity Based Training (VBT)
Wearable technology is becoming more widely available as athletes move more into weightlifting. Body tracking, often known as Velocity Based Training, has seen a significant increase in the previous ten years. VBT is an essential training approach that uses innovation to measure bar or body movement to improve performance.
The Bottom Line
Sporting games are won or lost in a couple of seconds. Nowadays, technology can assist teams in determining how to compensate for those moments and score consistently. Wearables are increasingly being used to track players in professional teams. These biometrics-monitoring gadgets can assist athletic managers in keeping athletes’ injury-free, and instructors determine when to intervene with their sportspeople.
Innovative wearable solutions enable pro and amateur sportspeople to monitor their daily performance and sporting accomplishments. Furthermore, it allows them to assess their health and prevent injuries while practicing and gaming. It helps to understand why this technology is so widely used in the business.
