The Sports Technology Awards – Rugby Leads Charge in Tech Revolution

Peter Moore, health CEO of EA Sports, diagnosis recently announced that ‘Sport is on the bleeding edge of the cutting edge of technology’. On first hearing, this may seem an exaggerated claim but once you start to think about it, whether as sports fans or business people, there is barely an area of sport that is untouched by technology. As a sub-sector of the industry, sports technology is one that has gone from infancy to, if not maturity, then a pretty advanced adolescence, at a supersonic rate.

Technology in sport is a very broad church. As fans we are very aware of the countless apps, second screens and broadcasting that delight us on a weekly basis but where sports technology is making its biggest hits, in terms of how it is revolutionizing sport, is with players and athletes and how their training and competition is managed. The Autumn Internationals are about to culminate and in rugby, for example, technology has arguably become the fifth official regulating the game.

It all starts in training, even the most amateur of athletes wouldn’t think of training without a heart monitor, clothing that wicks away sweat and injury prevention or rehab kit that aids a better performance. If you are a pro, the chances are that these days part of your pre-training includes being fitted with a GPS tracking device so the powers that be can monitor your workload and shape the intensity of your future training. Further still, this is not a luxury afforded solely to the players. International Rugby Union referee and judge on The Sports Technology Awards Nigel Owens explains he and his colleagues now receive similar technological aids, ‘Our access to this technology has started to come in over the last five years. Referees are able to use the same GPS tracking systems that the players do which gives us all the feedback that they receive so that we can tailor our fitness training accordingly.’

But you still aren’t really ready to start training; you may want to don compression socks which help recovery, footwear that maximizes balance and shock absorption and layers of warm up and cool down training gear that is increasingly hi-tech in its ability to make you warmer, cooler, supported, slippery or slimmer.

The post-training regime has gone cryogenic, with players sitting in a room of -120 C to cool muscles, therefore aiding post-training recovery and improving rehabilitation.

Anyone who has watched a rugby match over the past decade cannot fail to be impressed (and at times frustrated) by the way the sport has led the charge with using technology to give officials the best chance of making the right judgement. ‘Technology came into rugby because we needed it’, explains Owens. ‘When a try is scored you could have 15 players on top of the ball which makes it difficult for the referee to see so it was obvious at an early stage that technology would work well in rugby.’

Owens sees the benefits of these advancements and feels that for now at least, rugby has all the technology it needs, but states that from an officiating standpoint, a balance must also be found, ‘Technology is an important part of the game however we have got to be careful that it is used properly and not relied upon. It is important to make the decisions yourself as a referee and in rugby protocol the TMO should be used as a tool to help the ref and not referee for him. The next challenge with be to get that balance right so that the TMO is neither underused nor overused.’

Technology has become synonymous with sport. The evolution of one brings advancement in the other and rugby, which stated its intentions at the infancy of this symbiotic relationship, has positioned itself at the forefront of the modern day revolution. Its accomplishments and those within countless other sports, will finally be recognized at the inaugural Sports Technology Awards in London next April.

Amateur to elite; training to performance; digital to material; The Sports Technology Awards will celebrate those that support the best and who allow the amateurs to push themselves to their limits. Technology is an integral part of all our lives and for its role in something as monumental as sport to go largely under appreciated justifies the inclusion of this new addition to the awards calendar.

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