Football coaches from every level of the game are gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina. This week is the annual American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) convention. The meetings range from high school coaches, and NAIA assistant coaches forums to FBS coaches meetings. There are rules committee meetings and some topic-specific voting meetings. But not to be overlooked is the exhibitor area where the movement toward more technology in the game is the focal point.
Now before anyone gets too excited, there were no products/services vendors that had the digital equipment that would allow football to move beyond down markers with metal chains connecting them. Apparently, the digital age has its limitations.
AFCA Convention: Coaches Gather and New Technology Displayed
Showing Off the Goods
However, while meetings of groups, subgroups, and sub-subgroups go on, there is heightened activity on the convention floor. The elements of the game that seem ancillary to most of us get a lot of attention in a gathering of thousands of coaches from across the country. Want new locker designs for your football team’s locker room? They have multiple companies here pitching that. Are you looking to place an order for more practice sleds? They have you covered. A junior college coach is demonstrating special teams drills on a temporary field in the exhibit hall. Need an upgrade in communication headsets for your staff? There is a plethora of those companies here.
Then there is one of the bigger technology displays here from a company that most fans would not consider a technology company, Riddell. Yes, the company most known for helmets has a wide swath of the convention floor. They are pitching the latest in helmet technology and even shoulder pad innovations.
Safety in Technology
Meanwhile, helmets are no longer just helmets. They are information-gathering hubs. According to a spokesperson from Riddell, the shoulder pads are soon to follow.
While we have seen the change in style and functionality in helmets over the years, designed to protect players’ heads, that is the old news.
The news is the 3D formatted sensor capability within the helmets that allows coaches, trainers, and even the medical staff for a program to have regular information on any of their players, the contact they are taking and giving, and the potential impact.
Drew Bley is a senior product manager for Riddell. He told us that new technology in helmets is part of what is called Riddell InSite Analytics. In simple terms, it is the football uniform equivalent of smart technology.
A school buys the helmets. Then there is a subscription service, ranging from about $1,000 per year for a high school to $10,000 per year for a more integrated reporting system that a major college program would pay for.
The Way It Works
The sensors are throughout the helmet. The data derived from the sensors can tell coaches and trainers almost everything. Firstly, which part of the helmet is taking the most contact, as well as how much contact. Secondly, the analytics can show the staff if a player is using the crown of the helmet too much in practice. Thirdly, it tracks which days of the week their helmet is taking the most impact, and what is the level of the impact. Finally, charts are created for every player that is intended to allow a training staff, medical staff, or coaches to monitor the players both for contact with the head, all the way down to poor tackling form.
That technology is now moving on to shoulder pads. Bley showed us some models on display at the Riddell gathering spot at the convention center.
Shoulder pads are shoulder pads, right? Not anymore. Blew said time spent with coaches, medical staff, trainers, and players went into the new technological advances in the product. “Coming out of that, we learned that improving mobility, improving range of motion were the needs and desires of the athletes,” Bley said. “From an organizational standpoint, improving protection was a must. Having those two dance together is very important and something that hasn’t been done before.”
Helmet Technology Moving to Pads
The pads are no longer given to players based on the athlete’s size. They are no longer the generic large, extra large, etc. sizes of the players. Every player with a school using this gear gets a 3D scan. The pads are then designed specifically for the player’s size and body shape. Your left guard may look like a 2XL shape while you are watching from your seats. But to the companies making the products, the left guard has a unique shoulder width or chest size. The pads are made according to the specifics of the 3D scan.
The intent is more than just dealing with range of motion or upper body mobility. The hope is that upper-body injuries can be reduced by making them more specific to each player.
When you factor in practice helmets and various game helmets, a school’s investment is not small.
The movement toward more data-driven equipment is a natural evolution in football, said Erin Griffin, a senior vice president for marketing and communications with Riddell. “When you see schools and programs measuring nutrition, sleep, and biometrics data, this is a natural next step for them,” she said. “We feel like if you are going to track someone’s sleep or nutrition, you should be tracking their head and neck exposure too.”
Griffin said that the technology was years in the research phases, to the here and now, where there are products available to purchase for any program. That means the next research phase is well underway. It is geared toward enhancing the data available for improved performance by the players on the field.
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