I wrote recently of Zebra Technologies’ sponsorship of the 2014 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center, specifically noting the participation of Jill Stelfox, Zebra Vice President and General Manager of its Location Solutions division, in the panel discussion, Big Data: Lessons for Sports.
Stelfox was also on hand at Zebra’s SSAC14 exhibit of sports-related hardware and software solutions, which was the subject of a Boston.com column entitled Wearable technology the new big thing among sports teams.
Among the Big Data points collected by Zebra Technology wearables are those that relate to football hits and resulting trauma. Boston.com quotes Stelfox on that subject: “In college, what’s really fascinating about using wearable technologies on players is there is a lot of emphasis on health and safety. So, if you’re a linebacker, I think traditionally what we want is big guys on the front line. Well, that comes to a lot of force. So, force is mass and speed. So, the bigger you are, the more force you bring, and the more force is brought on you. When you look at health and safety in linemen, for example on injuries, we can tell you on every play what the force is on any given player.”
There has been much discussion recently in news and sports media of the phenomena of concussions among NFL players. It has become a major concern for NFL players, managers and fans alike. Boston.com quotes Stelfox as continuing: “And the interesting thing about concussions is certainly we all know one good hit can cause a concussion. But so can 10 medium hits. It’s the succession of movement that can cause the concussion. So, we won’t say you have one, but we can say, look, this is an indicator.”
Boston.com quotes Stelfox as concluding: “The one thing that we definitely know is that this movement of IoT in sports, it’s here and it’s here to stay. It’s not going to replace the gut feeling of coaches … it’s going to add to it. It’s just more information to make better decisions.”
Zebra’s MotionWorks Sports Solution leverages RTLS tags and software to capture and analyze vital player statistics to within inches, whether the game is played indoors or outside. Captured tag data is transferred by receivers and data hubs strategically located with the stadium. Algorithms aggregate player stats and display them in real time, providing immediate feedback to allow players and coaches to improve on-field performance as well as earliest warning of potential health or trauma conditions, enhancing the safety of players and the game experiences of fans.