Microchip Technology Incorporated to Improve Athlete Bioanalytics

by
September 24, 2014

Here’s something that could potentially be a big thing in sports: the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Cowboys are using microchip technology to collect data for bioanalytics.

The device emits and receives GPS and accelerometer signals, weighs about 1 ounce and is worn under practice jerseys, tucked into a pouch positioned near the top of the spine. The device emits real-time data on accelerations, decelerations, changes of direction and jumping (height and frequency).

Using the data, which Catapult calls “the world’s first bio-analytics platform,” sports teams monitor daily and weekly leg loads and adjust workouts accordingly. The data also helps quantify the progress of players who are rehabbing from injuries.

There’s so much potential for this in sports, especially in monitoring athletes’ health and rehab. It can also improve the data that’s already out there, such as in baseball with Trackman data. Scouting players and analyzing their play could be made easier with an increase in bioanalytic microchip technology within the next 10 years or so. There’d be much more accurate data — with a smaller margin of error — than there is right now, and that is a huge, huge thing for the future.

Of course, because it’s so recent, it may take a while for more teams to adapt this practice. Also, teams don’t necessarily have the same backing of a Mark Cuban-type like the Mavericks and the Cowboys have. Financial backing could, and would, be a problem for a lot of the small-market teams to incorporate. But, this is a start. There are still a lot of teams out there that don’t have the most advanced analytical technology yet, but it’s slowly being incorporated one way or another. Microchip technology could be the next thing.

(Header image via Raymangold22)





 

Jen is a freelance writer. Read all of their writing on their website, and follow them on Twitter @jenmacramos.

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Joe
9 years ago

For baseball, this kind of thing is what many of us have long imagined as the basis of what we might call “Fieldf/x” (to go along with the existing public Pitchf/x and existing but proprietary-to-teams Hitf/x). Fielders wearing such a device would give us all sorts of valuable information: from initial positioning to first-step latency to acceleration, top speed, and route efficiency. Such data (appropriately parsed and correlated against the inducing pitch and hit information for that ball-in-play) would be far more accurate and useful than the defensive stats currently in use (such as UZR and DRS) which rely on humans reviewing game tape and putting defensive plays into subjective buckets.

Interestingly, the website of the technology provider (catapultsports.com) only mentions baseball in a list of “other sports” (lumped in with everything from snowboarding to netball) though as an Australian company they clearly focused first on the sports most popular down under. Applying it to basketball (or any other indoor sport) is interesting because GPS signals generally are blocked by buildings; the company appears to have that covered by supplying their own ground stations which presumably could also be used to enhance coverage in outdoor settings though differential GPS. One imagines a future upgrade to every baseball stadium’s Pitchf/x system incorporating dGPS transmitters in the cameras to maximize accuracy.

That said, the current receivers seem a little large for this purpose, and I can imagine players resisting wearing them in game situations. Though the concerns would obviously be far greater for football players involved in collisions or soccer players running for 45 minutes straight, weight and bulk is not something any athlete wants to add to their kit. That seems to be a solvable problem, however, given the small size of the actual hardware involved.

Interesting stuff. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

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