AI is Coming for Coaching
The latest sports tech at CES wants to put an AI coach in everyone's pocket
Happy new year everyone,
The annual Consumer Electronics Show recently concluded in Las Vegas, and, in addition to walking robot vacuums, electric salt spoons, and stretchable TVs, there were several eye-catching sports-tech innovations as well.
I wanted to highlight a few of them here, and also point out a pattern I noticed in reviewing the event.
It’s one that would make me a bit nervous if I was a coach or trainer.
There’s no question that AI has made an impact in data-gathering and assessment for sports teams. What we’re seeing now is its integration into wearables and sports-training apps.
In the near future (if not here already), wearable technology will collect biometric data through sensors and cameras (some of it previously undetectable) —> their connected apps digest it all —> and artificial intelligence can then analyze it and offer personalized suggestions or corrections to maximize each and every swing or stride.
It begs the question: With such tools, who needs coaches?
Here are a few examples:
The G-Grip
Swing coaches, head’s up. Claiming to be “the world’s first intelligence golf club,” the G-Grip from Korea’s SGLab Inc. has loaded its irons with so many sensors that it can record preferred metrics like tempo, angle, swing path, etc., as well as some valuable newer things, like grip pressure. Artificial intelligence instantly analyzes all the data and gives you a readout via app on what you did wrong or right on every swing. The AI also gives the club information to provide haptic feedback to correct your motions. That’s impressive. It’s designed by a PGA professional, and you won’t need a backpack full of other cameras and equipment to get the training advice you’re looking for.
PuttingView
A screw-on cap for your putter plays the role of a caddy, giving you an approximate distance to the hole and the optimal angle that the putter head should be at impact to sink every putt. It uses AI to quickly analyze green elements and your swing motion, and the precise coaching information pops up right on the cap, so you don’t need to dig through your pockets for an app.
Smart Shoes
How would you like a running coach who knows the condition of all your muscles and joints, is available 24/7, is highly professional, and talks to you like an old friend? That’s the promise of WearM.AI, a one-year-old Dutch company, which introduced a wearable sensor that can be clipped onto your shoelaces to register muscle loads on each step. The sensors are equipped with a small camera facing upward to capture images of your full body posture as you move. Among the insights it can deliver are knee contact forces that were previously accessible only in research labs. The app summarizes the data and provides coach-like feedback on how to train better and smarter — and avoid joint injuries. “Our mission is to create a digital sports coach that everyone can have,” CEO Huawei Wang said in an interview with Startup Magazine. “It’s affordable, always available, and provides very professional suggestions.”
Haptic Suit
Infinity Football XR last week introduced a full-body suit—plus shin guards, cleats, and gloves—that provide tactile sensations to wearers while they are playing a virtual game against real opponents elsewhere. The tactile feedback lets players touch the ball, hit opponents, and even get goosebumps from scoring a goal. The suits are equipped with biometric sensors monitoring various fitness parameters. Get many of the real benefits of soccer practice without having to leave your living room.
AI home gym
The Amp Fitness machine looks like a fence post. Its minimalist design has just one adjustable arm pulley. But its digital app acts as your '“personal trainer” that can coordinate hundreds of different resistance levels. The machine uses AI to track your performance, calibrating weights automatically to challenge you constantly and ensure you’re making progress. The system captures every rep and personal record so you don’t have to, and it uses the data to design personalized workout plans.
Smart Lacrosse Ball
It’s a lacrosse ball loaded with sensors — accelerometers and gyroscopes that can track shots at a rate of 1,000 data points per second — but that’s not all. The R1 ball from Syracuse’s Get Reps also uses machine learning to analyze all that data to understand that player’s throwing motions and offer personalized feedback. The ball and app “work together like your own private coach,” the company says, “showing you exactly what to improve after every throw, every shot, and every drill.”
Smart Yoga Mat
The YoctoMat is a yoga mat embedded with sensors that share insights into your balance and posture. It can translate your weight distribution into a visual map to help you improve your alignment in certain poses and see how your progress changes over time. The app can also connect with your smartphone camera and use AI to offer real-time feedback on your alignment as you stretch, “digitizing the work of yoga instructors.”
Indoor surfboard
An AI-powered smart surf/snow/skate board that pairs with a video game to help you train indoors. An app uses AI that crafts a personalized training program, suggesting tricks you can practice depending on your performance, and how much time you will need to practice to pull it off.
That’s just a few of the many sports- or fitness-related tech inventions on display in Las Vegas last week, which also featured panels on the future of sports-fan engagement and sports media that are worth a listen.
The AI threat to coaching
So, what can these products suggest about the future of sports?
Firstly, I think it’s important to take these things with a grain of salt. CES is a showcase to let brands test out concepts, but many of these concepts are a long way from full-scale production. Same goes for the sports tech examples I’ve listed here. Some products can already be purchased, while others are still raising money via Kickstarter. It’s best not to get overly excited about too many of these devices (even the salt electric spoon).
That said, in general, it does appear as though companies are starting to understand how and where to employ artificial intelligence for a consumer purpose. Sports and fitness training, in particular, presents itself as ripe for disruption.
It is already a very data-heavy industry, and improved sensors and cameras supplying newer biometric data will only add to the avalanche of numbers coming in on each and every athlete at each and every moment. A system that can handle those numbers and analyze them is a huge plus. And then, where AI is getting interesting, is its potential ability to translate that information into readable advice and, as the smart shoes company says, talk to you “like an old friend.”
Of course, I would have questions about accuracy. These companies tend to think of all data as being black and white, but we all know there is a lot of nuance in the numbers, particularly in how they translate into on-field results.
An app can claim to offer “personalized” results, but how well can a computer know a person? What does it understand about her motivations? How can it know when to push you in her training or when to pull back? I’m not sure.
Still, you can understand why some aspects of this might appeal to an athlete. If a clip-on sensor can measure joint loads in real time, warding off injury based on recorded, objective, and personalized data, who would you rather trust? The computer or a coach’s eyes?
Maybe this should be a wakeup call to coaches and trainers leaning heavily on data analysis that the differentiators between them and machines are shrinking.
The mental/psychological game is where human coaches can still offer the most “personalized” coaching — by accessing an area that the computers can’t yet reach: inside the head.
Links
Pickleball adds years to your life expectancy … Static stretching has “trivial effects” on performance … The ‘red advantage’ is no longer true for Olympic combat sports … Study: Position-specific traits in football players … The art of scanning in football … Should doctors warm up? … A Minnesota limo driver invented the tech that’s changing college football … NASCAR evaluating how AI can help on-track product … The science of rotation … Can nasal breathing improve performance? … How could bio-banding change the academy experience for players? … Mental health in elite coaches
Until next time…
I'm starting to re-think my belief in Progress.
Zach, there might be an issue with the last link for mental health in coaches. No article or paper shows up. Do you have a working link for the article?