Jul 30, 2015USA Field Hockey Goes High-Tech
In the past year, USA Field Hockey has been ramping up their use of technology in training to what seems like a positive effect—especially after they won a gold medal at the Pan Am Games in Toronto. The team uses various applications and compression socks to monitor athletes’ progress and to prevent injury.
The Director for Performance Science for USA Field Hockey, Dave Hamilton, told SportTechie.com that they use applications like RestWise and ILG to track athletes’ responses to workouts. These technologies allow the team to train rigorously–twice daily, five days per week, 47 weeks per year–because coaches can anticipate fatigue and injury before they happen.
The athletes also wear specially-fitted compression socks that can provide valuable information to prevent costly ankle and leg injuries.
“These compression socks are individually knitted using the measurements obtained from a 3 dimensional scan of both legs,” Hamilton said. “[They] are complemented with an electrical stimulation device (firefly) that sits behind the knee and stimulates the body’s natural calf pump.”
In addition, training sessions are tech-friendly, with phones and tablets for athletes and coaches to enter and adjust workouts and training loads. Athletes are even allowed to use social media, as long as they don’t give any strategic secrets away. Hamilton’s aim is to pursue the best cutting-edge technology, and he’s interested in wearable bio skin censors as a possible next step.
“Is it something that can improve training and give us an edge?” asks Hamilton. “If the answer is yes—it’s in.”
