Yesterday I had a fascinating conversation with one of the leading investors in sports technology.

During our discussion, they shared a statistic that immediately caught my attention:

“Around 70% of the sports tech startups we’re currently evaluating are AI startups.”

That number says a lot about the current state of our industry.

Artificial Intelligence has become the dominant narrative in sports technology. Whether it’s coaching, scouting, athlete performance, fan engagement, ticketing, sponsorship analytics, or media production, nearly every new company entering the market positions itself as an AI company.

This is exciting. AI has the potential to fundamentally transform the sports industry.

But it also creates a new challenge for everyone involved in the ecosystem.

How do we distinguish between companies creating genuine technological innovation and companies simply riding the latest technology wave?

AI is becoming the entry ticket—not the competitive advantage

One reality is becoming increasingly clear.

Many sports AI startups today are not developing proprietary AI technologies. Instead, they are building applications on top of foundation models such as OpenAI, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama, or Perplexity. They package these powerful models into sports-specific workflows and user experiences.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

In fact, some outstanding companies will be built this way.

The problem arises when founders confuse using AI with creating defensible AI.

Connecting to an LLM API is relatively straightforward. Hundreds of companies can access the same underlying models. As these foundation models continue improving, many of today’s technical advantages will inevitably become commodities.

If your only differentiation is the prompt you send to an existing model, competitors can often replicate much of your product in a surprisingly short period of time.

The difficult part is not adding AI.

The difficult part is creating something that competitors cannot easily reproduce.

We’ve been here before

The sports technology industry has always followed cycles of technological enthusiasm.

Ten years ago, almost every startup was building wearables.

Then the conversation shifted toward virtual reality and augmented reality.

A few years later, blockchain and NFTs became the hottest investment themes.

Today, AI occupies that position.

Every major technological wave follows a remarkably similar pattern. New technology creates enormous excitement. Investors search aggressively for opportunities. Entrepreneurs naturally reposition themselves around the emerging trend. Capital flows rapidly into the sector. New companies appear almost overnight.

Many of these companies disappear just as quickly.

The technology itself is rarely the problem.

The problem is that hype lowers the barrier for storytelling while increasing the difficulty of identifying genuine differentiation.

History suggests that the companies which ultimately define an industry are rarely the ones that simply adopt the newest technology first. They are the companies that solve meaningful customer problems, execute consistently, and build advantages that become stronger over time.

AI is rapidly becoming infrastructure

I believe we’re reaching a point where AI itself is no longer the story.

Just as cloud computing became expected rather than exceptional, AI is gradually becoming part of the standard technology stack.

Five years from now, customers probably won’t ask whether a platform uses AI.

They will simply assume it does.

The real questions will become far more interesting.

Who owns the proprietary sports data?

Who has developed the deepest understanding of coaches, athletes, executives, and fans?

Who has built workflows that customers rely on every day?

Who has earned enough trust to become embedded within sports organizations?

Those are significantly harder advantages to build—and far harder for competitors to copy.

Recommendations for investors

For venture capital firms, evaluating AI startups will increasingly require moving beyond product demonstrations.

An impressive demo is no longer sufficient evidence of a durable business.

Instead, investors should spend more time understanding what remains valuable if the underlying foundation models become dramatically better or dramatically cheaper over the next two years.

Does the company possess proprietary datasets that competitors cannot access? Has it created unique intellectual property? Does every new customer make the platform smarter? Are customers deeply integrated into the workflow, making switching costly? Most importantly, is the company solving a painful problem that customers are willing to pay for repeatedly?

Business fundamentals matter just as much as technology. Strong customer retention, recurring revenue, healthy unit economics, and a scalable go-to-market strategy often tell a more compelling story than AI architecture diagrams.

The best AI investments will likely be companies whose competitive advantage extends well beyond AI itself.

Recommendations for sports teams, leagues, and federations

Sports organizations face a different challenge.

Every week they receive demonstrations from vendors claiming to have revolutionary AI platforms. Every product promises better performance, more efficient operations, improved fan engagement, or smarter commercial decisions.

The pressure to adopt AI is real.

However, organizations should be careful not to mistake impressive demonstrations for sustainable value.

Instead of asking, “Does this company use AI?”, decision-makers should ask, “Does this solution measurably improve our organization?”

Can the company demonstrate real results with comparable customers? Is its technology built on proprietary sports knowledge or simply general-purpose AI? Will the platform integrate seamlessly into existing workflows? Can the vendor clearly quantify return on investment? Does the company have the financial stability and long-term vision to become a strategic partner rather than a short-term supplier?

Sports organizations should evaluate AI startups with the same discipline they apply to signing athletes: potential matters, but consistent performance matters even more.

Recommendations for founders

For entrepreneurs, the opportunity has never been greater.

But the bar is also rising faster than ever.

Founders should spend less time asking, “How can we add AI to our product?” and more time asking, “What can we build that nobody else can?”

That differentiation may come from proprietary data collected over years, unique computer vision models trained specifically for sports, exclusive partnerships, deep workflow integration, or domain expertise that cannot be replicated by simply calling an API.

Ultimately, AI should amplify a company’s unique strengths—not become its only strength.

The startups that will define the next decade of sports technology won’t simply have the best prompts or the latest models.

They will combine AI with unique data, deep industry expertise, exceptional execution, and business models that create lasting value for customers.

The sports technology industry is entering one of its most exciting periods.

But excitement alone doesn’t build enduring companies.

Differentiation does.

And in the long run, that is what both investors and customers will reward.

If you are a startups looking to get traction with pro teams, raise money, or get guidance on your product, feel free to contact me at julien@upsideglobal.co

Best,

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This week we have the honor to interview again a group of sports performance executives to talk about the latest trends in the world of sports performance and rehabilitation.

• Darcy Norman, the director of performance, Chicago Fire FC (MLS).

• Michael Messer, the head of rehabilitation, Nashville SC (MLS).

• Felix Proessl, Sr. Director of Sport and Data Science at the Colorado Rapids (MLS)

• Karam Al Hamdani , the director of sports medicine and head athletic therapist at CF Montreal (MLS).

You can watch the video interview below or you can listen to the audio interview above:

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on:

• Heat Adaptation & Cooling Strategies: As matches are increasingly played in hot and humid conditions, what are the most effective heat adaptation and cooling strategies you’ve seen or implemented? Which interventions have the strongest scientific evidence behind them, and which are more hype than reality?

• Hydration Breaks in MLS: MLS includes hydration breaks during matches. From a sports science perspective, how much do these breaks actually help with player performance, recovery, and safety? Beyond hydration, do they provide meaningful opportunities for coaches to reset tactics or influence the flow of the game?

• Cardiovascular Health in Soccer: Player cardiac health has become an increasingly important topic. How should clubs approach cardiovascular screening and heart rate monitoring throughout the season? With initiatives like MLS’s partnership with Athletic Heart, where do you see the biggest opportunities to improve player safety and performance?

• Wearable Technology & GPS Limitations: GPS systems have become standard across professional soccer, but what are their biggest limitations? Where do they fall short when it comes to understanding player workload, fatigue, or readiness?

• The Next Generation of Performance Metrics: New technologies—including solutions from companies like ADI—are aiming to provide more objective measures of performance and physiological stress. What gaps do these technologies address, and how do you see them complementing or replacing traditional GPS-based metrics over the next few years?

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Darcy, Karam, Felix and Michael:

Q1. Heat Adaptation & Cooling Strategies

Darcy Norman

“It’s really about building up your core temperature and your skin temperature so the body adapts to performing in those conditions. In team sports it’s much more challenging than in individual sports because of all the variables you have to manage. Teams that train in hot, humid environments naturally adapt, while clubs in cooler climates have to be much more intentional about creating those adaptation opportunities.”

“The preparation to play in the heat is all about cooling strategies. You’re trying to get your core temperature as low as possible before kickoff so you delay that heating effect. That could be cooling vests, cold plunges, slushies, cold towels on the neck, or cooling again at halftime. There isn’t one magic solution—it’s about combining several strategies.”

Mike Messer

“Ultimately, what’s most successful is what the player will actually do. We’re seeing much more individualization within the team environment. It’s about finding what a player actually likes—whether it’s a particular electrolyte drink, cooling strategy or recovery method—because the best intervention is the one they’ll consistently adopt.”

Felix Proessl

“There’s a tremendous amount of variability in how much athletes sweat—not just the volume, but the sodium concentration as well. Understanding each athlete’s sweat profile allows you to individualize hydration and electrolyte replacement rather than treating every player the same.”

Karam Al Hamdani

“We’re not reinventing the wheel. We take a strategic approach. Once the temperature reaches a certain threshold, our pre-cooling protocol automatically starts. The nutritionist prepares the slushies, the players know exactly what they’re expected to do, and because we practice it consistently in training, it becomes very easy to implement on match day.”

Karam Al Hamdani (On the use of Pickle Juice)

“There’s really no point taking pickle juice at halftime. You want to take it when you actually feel a cramp coming on. The science suggests it’s the vinegar that creates the sensory response, so timing is important if you’re hoping to get the benefit.”

Q2. Hydration Breaks in MLS

Darcy Norman

“Any time you can take a break from being physically active, it helps recharge your systems. It gives players an opportunity to rehydrate, refuel, recover, and reset mentally and tactically. The flip side is that if your team has momentum, it can interrupt that flow, so it’s something every team has to prepare for.”

Felix Proessl

“We’ve seen momentum shifts after hydration breaks, particularly at the World Cup, where teams have clearly used those moments to make tactical adjustments. From a sports science perspective, we also know that even as little as two percent dehydration reduces performance, so from an athlete’s perspective those breaks are only beneficial.”

Karam Al Hamdani

“Anything above about two percent dehydration starts reducing power output. For a striker who relies on explosive sprinting, that can literally be the difference between getting to the ball first or missing the opportunity entirely. That’s why hydration breaks are so important.”

Mike Messer

“Our coaches definitely appreciate the opportunity to make quick interventions. Maybe it’s not the entire team listening, but if there are two or three players who need a small tactical adjustment, it’s much easier than trying to shout instructions across the field.”

Q3. Cardiovascular Health in Soccer

Karam Al Hamdani

“The MLS has done a phenomenal job with its partnership with Athletic Heart. The league has created a very stringent decision tree that clubs have to follow before a player can be cleared. It starts with an ECG, progresses to echocardiograms if necessary, and if anything remains abnormal, additional testing is required before participation.”

“Early recognition, being prepared and practicing emergency scenarios are just as important as screening. We practice these situations regularly because the more you rehearse them, the easier it becomes if you’re ever faced with a real-life cardiac emergency.”

Darcy Norman

“Everybody would love better monitoring technology because we all want more consistent ways to measure internal load and heart rate during training. If there were better technology that worked reliably in the soccer environment, it could really help us monitor players and potentially identify issues earlier.”

Felix Proessl

“Screening is by far the most helpful way of approaching this right now. Ideally we’d have better in-training monitoring methods, but until that technology exists, continuing to improve screening protocols is the best way to evolve player safety.”

Q4. Wearable Technology & GPS Limitations

Felix Proessl

“GPS has become so common in our sport that we’re starting to mistake quantitative information for qualitative conclusions. A player might accumulate 800 meters of high-speed running, but that could come from pressing actions, recovery runs or even goal celebrations. Without context, those numbers can mean completely different things.”

Darcy Norman

“GPS is really just a proxy for work. It’s not the full picture because there are a lot of things happening that aren’t being measured. Sometimes we start treating the numbers as gospel and making hard decisions based solely on those metrics, when in reality we need to remember they’re only one piece of the puzzle.”

“Linking the mechanical workload from GPS directly to video gives you a much more holistic picture. You can actually see why a player produced a certain workload instead of just looking at a number, and that context makes much better decisions possible.”

Mike Messer

“From a rehabilitation standpoint, GPS is excellent because it gives us targets to work toward. But it’s not just about hitting a number—it’s about how the player reaches that number. We also need to better connect external load with internal load if we’re going to fully understand readiness and recovery.”

Q5. The Next Generation of Performance Metrics

Darcy Norman

“ADI is basically a better calculator of work. It takes the positional data from GPS or video and recalculates it to better account for changes of direction as well as changes in speed, giving us a more accurate picture of the mechanical work players are actually performing.”

“For me, it’s all about connecting power from the gym to the pitch. We now have measures of power in the weight room, sprint testing, force plates and on-field movement. The challenge is connecting all those pieces so we understand performance as one complete system rather than isolated metrics.”

“What question are we actually trying to answer? Go find the technology that measures that. Collecting data simply for the sake of collecting data—I’m out. There’s already more than enough information, so it’s about choosing the right technology for the right problem.”

Felix Proessl

“The technology that excites me most isn’t necessarily technology that generates more data—it’s technology that provides context. Understanding what type of runs players make, where they occur and why they occur is much more informative than simply knowing how many meters they covered.”

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The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be remembered as one of the most significant tournaments in the history of the sport. Hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico, it was the first World Cup to feature 48 teams, the first to be played across three host nations, and the largest sporting event ever organized by FIFA. With 104 matches, record-breaking commercial success, and the introduction of new technologies both on and off the pitch, the tournament represented a turning point for international football.

On the field, Spain captured its second FIFA World Cup title with a disciplined 1–0 victory over Argentina in the final, completing a tournament in which tactical intelligence, technical quality and squad depth proved more valuable than individual brilliance alone. Off the field, FIFA reported unprecedented revenues, broadcasters attracted global audiences numbering in the billions, and innovations in sports science and officiating demonstrated how rapidly football is embracing technology.

The 2026 World Cup was therefore more than simply another international tournament—it was a preview of football’s future.

The Largest World Cup Ever

The expansion from 32 to 48 teams had been one of FIFA’s most debated decisions. Critics feared that the tournament would become too long, include too many one-sided matches, and reduce the quality of play. Instead, the competition largely proved the opposite.

The new format created opportunities for countries making their World Cup debuts while allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and CONCACAF to compete on football’s biggest stage. Several emerging nations exceeded expectations, demonstrating that the gap between traditional football powers and developing football nations continues to narrow.

The tournament also featured a new knockout structure beginning with a Round of 32, increasing the total number of matches from 64 in Qatar 2022 to 104 in 2026. Although this created a longer tournament, it also generated more high-profile fixtures, more television content and significantly greater commercial opportunities.

Perhaps most importantly, fans quickly embraced the expanded format. Stadiums across North America consistently sold out, and supporters travelled between the three host nations in remarkable numbers, creating one of the most cosmopolitan atmospheres ever seen at a World Cup.

Tournament by the Numbers

Commercially, the 2026 FIFA World Cup surpassed every previous edition.

Some of the tournament’s headline statistics include:

Source: Upside Global, July 2026

The tournament generated record revenues through multiple channels, including television rights, sponsorship agreements, hospitality packages, merchandise sales and ticketing. FIFA’s commercial partnerships reached unprecedented levels, with global brands investing heavily to capitalize on the expanded audience.

Ticket sales also exceeded expectations. While standard tickets remained available for many matches, premium hospitality experiences and VIP packages sold exceptionally well, particularly in the United States. Dynamic pricing models enabled FIFA to maximize revenue for high-demand fixtures, although they also generated criticism from supporters who argued that attending matches had become increasingly expensive.

Broadcasting figures reflected football’s continuing worldwide appeal. Billions of viewers watched matches through traditional television broadcasts and digital streaming platforms, while social media engagement reached record levels through highlights, player interviews and behind-the-scenes content.

Technology Shapes a New Era of Football

One of the defining features of the 2026 World Cup was the widespread use of technology. Innovations that would have seemed experimental only a decade ago became standard practice throughout the tournament.

Hytro Recovery Wear

Recovery technology has become an increasingly important part of elite football, particularly as fixture schedules become more demanding.

Several national teams used Hytro recovery garments before and after matches. Unlike traditional compression clothing, Hytro garments incorporate raised micro-massaging elements that gently stimulate circulation during movement. The aim is to improve blood flow, reduce muscle soreness and accelerate recovery between matches.

Picture: Jude Bellingham wearing the hydro short.

For teams facing only a few days between knockout fixtures, marginal gains in recovery could provide a meaningful competitive advantage.

Referee Body Cameras

One of the tournament’s most talked-about innovations was the introduction of referee body cameras during selected matches.

These cameras gave broadcasters unique first-person perspectives of key incidents, allowing supporters to experience the speed and intensity of elite officiating. They also offered valuable educational material for referee development and increased transparency surrounding controversial decisions.

Although the cameras were primarily introduced for broadcasting purposes, FIFA may eventually expand their role in referee training and match analysis.

Semi-Automated Offside Technology

The 2026 tournament featured an improved version of FIFA’s Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT).

Using multiple stadium cameras, artificial intelligence and real-time player tracking, the system detected offside positions within seconds. Combined with the connected match ball, officials received highly accurate information almost instantly, significantly reducing delays compared with earlier implementations of VAR.

The faster decision-making process improved the overall viewing experience while maintaining the accuracy expected at the highest level.

Connected Match Ball

The official Adidas match ball contained an embedded motion sensor capable of transmitting positional information hundreds of times each second.

This data was integrated with optical tracking systems throughout the stadium, helping officials determine precise ball contact, improve offside calculations and support goal-line technology.

Beyond officiating, the data also gave analysts, coaches and broadcasters deeper insights into passing speed, shot velocity and tactical movement.

It is also worth pointing out that research aboard the International Space Station and testing in NASA wind tunnels directly contributed to the science used to evaluate World Cup soccer balls, helping manufacturers avoid the problems that plagued one of the most controversial balls in tournament history.

AI and Performance Analytics

Artificial intelligence played a larger role than ever before.

Coaching staffs relied on advanced data models to analyse opposition tactics, identify pressing patterns and optimise substitutions. Wearable GPS devices tracked player movement, workload and fatigue throughout the tournament, allowing sports scientists to tailor recovery programmes for individual athletes.

As football becomes increasingly data-driven, performance analysis is now as essential as tactical coaching.

Defining Moments of the Tournament

Every World Cup produces unforgettable moments, and the 2026 edition delivered no shortage of memorable stories.

Spain’s victory over Argentina in the final represented the culmination of years of investment in youth development. Their possession-based football was complemented by greater defensive discipline and tactical flexibility than previous Spanish teams.

Argentina once again demonstrated extraordinary consistency on the international stage by reaching another World Cup final. Despite falling just short of retaining the title, their campaign reinforced the country’s reputation as one of football’s most resilient tournament teams.

England’s run to the semi-finals reignited optimism among supporters, while Morocco once again demonstrated that its remarkable performances in recent World Cups were no accident. Norway emerged as one of the tournament’s surprise packages with disciplined defensive performances and efficient attacking football.

The expanded tournament also produced memorable underdog stories. Smaller football nations competed fearlessly against traditional powers, providing further evidence that global investment in coaching and player development is reducing historical competitive gaps.

Several knockout matches required extra time or penalty shootouts, producing dramatic finishes that captivated audiences around the world.

Commercial Success and Lasting Impact

From a business perspective, the 2026 World Cup established a new benchmark for global sporting events.

Corporate sponsorship reached record levels, with technology companies, financial institutions and consumer brands all competing for visibility during the tournament. Hospitality programmes expanded significantly compared with previous editions, reflecting growing demand from corporate clients.

Digital content also transformed the fan experience. Broadcasters increasingly delivered personalised match highlights, multiple camera angles and interactive statistics through streaming platforms. Younger audiences engaged with the tournament primarily through social media clips and mobile-first content, illustrating changing patterns in sports consumption.

The tournament also demonstrated the logistical complexity of hosting a World Cup across three nations. Extensive investment in transportation, stadium infrastructure and border coordination allowed millions of supporters to travel between venues efficiently, although travel distances remained one of the competition’s greatest challenges.

The Ballon d’Or Race

As always, performances at the World Cup are expected to play a significant role in determining the Ballon d’Or winner.

Spain’s triumph has naturally strengthened the case for several of its players.

The leading candidates include:

• Lamine Yamal, whose creativity and attacking influence throughout both the club season and World Cup make him one of the strongest contenders.

• Rodri, whose control of midfield and tactical intelligence continue to redefine the defensive midfield position.

• Pedri, whose technical quality and consistency have earned widespread praise.

• Lionel Messi, who, despite being in the latter stages of his legendary career, remains a player whose influence extends beyond statistics. If he played a meaningful role in Argentina's run to the World Cup final and maintained a high level of performance at club level, his legacy and continued excellence could keep him in the Ballon d'Or conversation.

• Kylian Mbappé, who remains among world football’s elite despite France falling short of the title. He also retained the World Cup Golden Boot after Lionel Messi failed to score in Sunday's final against Spain. The France forward netted 10 goals in eight games to edge out Lionel Messi in a high-quality race. Mbappe is also now the men's World Cup all-time top scorer with 22 goals - one ahead of Messi.

• Julián Álvarez, whose performances helped Argentina reach another World Cup final.

Although club football after the tournament will influence the final voting, Spain’s World Cup victory gives its leading players a significant advantage heading into the Ballon d’Or ceremony.

Looking Ahead to the 2030 FIFA World Cup

With the conclusion of the 2026 tournament, attention now turns towards an even more symbolic event.

The 2030 FIFA World Cup will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the competition. The tournament will be hosted primarily by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, while Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will each stage one opening match to commemorate the inaugural World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930.

The centenary tournament is expected to continue using the successful 48-team format introduced in 2026 while placing even greater emphasis on sustainability, digital fan engagement and technological innovation.

Artificial intelligence is likely to play an expanded role in officiating, tactical preparation and broadcasting. Fans may also experience enhanced augmented reality features, personalised streaming options and increasingly immersive viewing experiences both inside stadiums and at home.

For FIFA, the challenge will be to preserve football’s traditions while embracing innovations that improve fairness, entertainment and accessibility.

Conclusion

The 2026 FIFA World Cup demonstrated that football continues to evolve both on and off the pitch. The expanded tournament format proved more competitive than many critics expected, while technological innovations improved officiating, player performance and the overall fan experience.

Commercially, the tournament established new financial records, confirming football’s position as the world’s most valuable sporting property. At the same time, debates surrounding ticket affordability, fixture congestion and commercialisation reminded governing bodies that growth must be balanced with accessibility for supporters.

Most importantly, the competition delivered memorable football. Spain’s triumph, Argentina’s resilience, the emergence of new footballing nations and the successful integration of technology ensured that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be remembered as a landmark event in the history of the game.

As preparations begin for the centenary World Cup in 2030, FIFA now has a blueprint for the future—one that combines tradition, innovation and global participation on a scale never seen before.

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How a Premier League physiotherapist used OnTraq by Qualisys to guide exercise selection, loading, and return-to-play decisions

This weekend’s World Cup final will test which medical teams made the right call on their player performance and readiness. With two or three days of recovery between matches, performance and medical staff keep answering one question: is this player ready to go again, or is he hiding an unseen movement deficit?

That same question runs through every football club throughout the season. A case shared by a Lead Performance Physiotherapist at a Premier League football club showed how objective movement data answered exactly that.

The injury was a syndesmosis sprain, a high ankle sprain, in a first-team player. Before clearing the player, the medical team used OnTraq by Qualisys to measure how he moved through a countermovement jump, comparing his injured side against his healthy one at several points across the recovery.

What the data caught

Three weeks after the injury, OnTraq reports flagged a clear difference between the injured and uninjured sides: a deficit in dorsiflexion on the injured ankle during the eccentric phase of the jump, the moment the player absorbs load on the way down.

With limited movement at the ankle, the player compensated by dropping into more knee adduction and hip internal rotation. Those are the positions a performance team wants to catch before progressing someone, because they carry their own risk. Reading the compensation in the full body data, and not only the ankle number, changed how the team judged the player’s readiness.

By the six-week retest the numbers had shifted. Dorsiflexion on the injured side improved from 12 degrees to 30, and the asymmetry between the two legs had resolved. The team had an objective marker for progress in place of a subjective one.

How it shaped the rehab

The OnTraq system provided more than movement data, it helped the team pick the athlete’s exercises. The team tested a lateral step-down against an anterior step-down to see which one demanded ankle bend. The lateral version exposed the deficit; the anterior one hid it. So, the lateral step-down became both the fix and the weekly measure of how the ankle was coming along.

They used the same thinking on load. With a bar held across the shoulders, the player drove more through the ankle. With a medicine ball held out in front as a counterweight, he shifted the load onto his knee and hip and spared the ankle. Early on, when the aim was to protect the ankle, they used the medicine ball. As he got stronger, they moved to the bar to load the ankle on purpose. Every call had a reason the staff could point to on screen.

The difference that gets athletes on track

Most tools tell you where an athlete is; fewer tell you why or let you test a decision before you commit to it. This case is a small example of a broader shift enabled by OnTraq. Teams get movement data precise enough to show the full picture and fast enough to fit into a routine rehab session, driving objective decisions on exercise selection, loading, and readiness.

The full case was presented by a Lead Performance Physiotherapist at a Premier League football club. Watch it here: ontraqbyqualisys.com/what-is-ontraq

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You can watch the video interview below or you can listen to the audio interview above:

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on:

1. MLB All Star game,

2. MLB: second half of season, who win, why a lock out. Looming strike.

3. NFL training camps open.

4. College football: who is favorite, what is 5 in 5 years rule.

5. NBA draft and trades, NBA Summer League.

6. 2026 Soccer World Cup: FIFA to make $13B from the 2026 World Cup. Controversies

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Ron located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Ron:

Q1. MLB All-Star Game

“Philadelphia did a great job handling the draft and also handling the All-Star Game, the Home Run Contest, the Future Game—everything they did.

Philadelphia really showcased itself well.” He also highlighted one of the biggest stories from the festivities: “Jordan Walker won the Home Run Contest and the $1 million prize. His salary this year is just under $800,000, so he actually made more money winning the Home Run Contest than he’ll make playing potentially 162 games this season.”

Q2. MLB: Second Half of the Season, Playoff Race & Looming Lockout

“As we turn the page to the second half, it’s really hard to make the playoffs in the National League. We have eight teams at .500 or better, with the Dodgers, Brewers and Atlanta leading, while the Cubs, Phillies, Miami, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Arizona, San Diego and Washington are all fighting for those final playoff spots.”

Looking beyond this season, Dr. Dick warned of major labor issues: “We have a lockout looming. The players do not want a salary cap—they will not sign anything that has one. The owners will not sign anything that doesn’t have one. I don’t know that we’re going to have a season come spring training.”

He added, “The owners also want to reduce the draft from 20 rounds to 12 and eliminate drafting high school players. The players want a salary floor but they do not want a salary ceiling. Player service-time manipulation continues to frustrate players, so we’ve definitely got a major problem looming.”

Q3. NFL Training Camps Open

“Training camps begin July 28 for most NFL teams.”

Dr. Dick also pointed to the NFL’s growing global footprint: “We now have 10 countries hosting NFL regular-season games. Germany gets its first regular-season game, Australia gets its first, and for the first time the Steelers and Saints will play a regular-season game in Paris. The Eagles will also play Jacksonville in London. The NFL continues expanding internationally in a very significant way.”

He also noted the league’s soaring franchise values: “The Seattle Seahawks just sold for nearly $9.7 billion. It’s safe to say virtually every NFL franchise is worth $10 billion or will be shortly.”

Q4. College Football: Favorites & the New “5-in-5” Rule

“Ohio State is my preseason No. 1, followed by Texas, Notre Dame, Oregon and Georgia.”

Beyond the rankings, Dr. Dick believes the sport’s biggest development is the new eligibility rule: “The ‘five-and-five’ rule is a wonderful new rule. From graduation—or your 19th birthday—you have five years to play. There’s no more redshirting. If you get injured, you lose that year. I think it’s a wonderful idea. No more 27- or 28-year-old quarterbacks playing against 18-year-olds. It just doesn’t make sense.” He also observed the continued financial arms race in college athletics: “The money just keeps growing.”

Q5. NBA Draft, Trades & Summer League

“For LeBron, I’d narrow it down to four destinations: Golden State, Cleveland, Miami and Philadelphia. He wants to get on a dream team, and I think the Sixers might be the way to go.”

On Victor Wembanyama, Dr. Dick praised his decision to prioritize winning: “Wemby didn’t sign the Supermax. He saved the Spurs about $50 million by taking the max instead. It reminds me of Tom Brady taking less so the Patriots could build a better roster around him.”

He also contrasted the NBA’s labor relations with MLB’s: “The NBA has Basketball Related Income (BRI), where 51% of league revenues go to player salaries. Grow the revenues and the players get paid. MLB could learn a lot from the NBA because they seem to have much better harmony with their players.”

Regarding the surprising Jaylen Brown trade, he added: “It hasn’t bled out yet, but there has to be something personal between the coach, GM or owner. Hall of Fame-caliber players don’t usually get moved unless something significant is happening behind the scenes.”

Q6. 2026 FIFA World Cup: Record Revenue & Controversies

“FIFA has been a huge success. Stadiums have been running at about 98% capacity. Everyone talked beforehand about expensive ticket prices, but the market found its level, prices adjusted and fans showed up.”

He added that the commercial performance has been unprecedented: “The television ratings were through the roof, especially in Spain, and they shattered U.S. television records as well. The tournament generated more television and ticket revenue than ever before, surpassing even the 1994 World Cup.”

On controversies, Dr. Dick noted FIFA’s strict commercial policies: “If you don’t pay FIFA, they don’t acknowledge you. They wouldn’t call it AT&T Stadium—they simply called it Dallas Stadium.”

Addressing the political controversy involving the U.S. team, he said, “Any time politics collide with sports, we have a problem.” Referring to the overturned red card against the United States, he added, “I thought the red card was a little harsh, but once it was reversed, it got everybody fired up. In the end, Belgium won fair and square, 4-1.”

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An industry conversation with the team behind OnTraq by Qualisys

Movement analysis has lived in the lab for decades. The accuracy was there, but the setup time, the markers, and the specialist know-how kept it out of the daily routine of most performance teams. OnTraq, built on the biomechanics work of Qualisys, is one of the tools trying to close that gap. We asked the OnTraq team how research-grade data fits into a training week that has no spare hours.

Picture: OnTraq software

Qualisys has a long history in motion capture. What changed when you moved toward the sports performance market?

Our starting point has always been high accuracy and high quality. That standard doesn’t change when the setting changes. What changes is the constraint. A sport team runs on a hectic schedule, so the priority became the time between an athlete stepping into the recording volume and staff getting usable data back. If that gap is long, the data never becomes part of the routine. Shortening it was the whole point.

Most teams already collect a lot of numbers. What’s different about the data you’re describing?

The number on its own is the least interesting part. What staff actually work with is the history: the pattern of how an athlete moves and performs over time. A single test tells you where someone is today. A run of consistent tests tells you which way they’re heading, and whether something has shifted since last month.

Picture: OnTraq dashboard

Consistency comes up a lot with practitioners. Why is it so hard to get?

Because most testing depends on who ran it and how. Marker placement, setup, operator judgment, all of it introduces small differences from session to session. When the method drifts, you can’t tell whether a change in the data is real or just noise from the process. Teams tell us their biggest frustration isn’t a lack of tools, it’s that their measurements aren’t repeatable enough to trust over a season.

How does OnTraq handle that?

We went with markerless, video-based motion capture because it’s the most practical way to collect 3D movement data on athletes, nothing to attach and no setup delays.

OnTraq comes from the biomechanical expertise Qualisys built over 35 years. We designed it to bridge science and practical application. The goal is a test that works the same way whether it’s the performance director or a junior staff member running it, with data that stays consistent across sessions.

Research-grade accuracy matters, but it’s not the only thing these teams need. What actually makes this work in a training week is speed and repeatability.

Where does this fit in a team’s schedule?

The realistic answer is warm-up, cool-down, or a testing block that doesn’t need its own afternoon. If a full-roster assessment takes half an hour instead of most of a day, staff can test more often, and more frequent data is what makes the tracking meaningful. Testing that disrupts practice gets skipped, and skipped testing tells you nothing.

You come from a research background. How technical does a team need to be to use this?

Not very, and that’s deliberate. The science sits underneath, but the person running the assessment shouldn’t need a biomechanics degree. We stay close to the teams we work with, learn how they already operate, and fit around that rather than asking them to rebuild their workflow. When a question comes up, they get a fast answer from people who know the system. That practitioner-first support matters as much as the software.

What keeps the team motivated on this?

A lot of us have watched strong athletes lose seasons to injuries and fight their way back over and over. Better movement data won’t remove that, but it can give staff earlier, clearer signals and a cleaner picture of where an athlete is in their recovery. If that helps even a few of them get back to full training sooner, that’s the work worth doing.

Last one. What would you say to a performance director who’s skeptical of another new system?

Fair skepticism. The honest pitch isn’t that OnTraq replaces anyone’s judgment. It’s that it gives your staff consistent, trustworthy movement data without costing you training time, built on a company that has spent decades getting the measurement right. Ask to see a full assessment run start to finish, then decide for yourself.

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The likes of Williams and Gauff are using innovations such as in-match iPad analysis and the reading of daily blood samples to gain an extra edge

Tom Kershaw, Tennis Correspondent

Thursday June 25 2026, 8.00pm BST, The Times

Then Serena Williams decided to make her comeback this year, the first call her head coach, Jarmere Jenkins, made was to Mike James, a performance analyst from Leicester.

“He wanted a ‘Serena playbook’,” James says. “He wanted all of her key winning patterns when she was at her best, what she was doing well on the deuce side and ad side on serve and return, during the point, which type of serve, which type of spin, should she hit more forehands, and we dived into all the historical data to give him something for her training programme in Florida.”

The obsession with fine margins has never been greater at the vanguard of tennis’s data revolution. Aryna Sabalenka, the world No1, wins about 55 per cent of the points she plays, whereas the world No50 will win about 49 per cent. That 6 per cent gap is the difference between winning multiple grand-slams and going an entire career without winning a WTA title.

In days of old, players typically travelled with only a coach. Now their boxes look like a Premier League bench. A data analyst with an iPad tracks every single movement and feeds live information to the coach during matches, who can then decide whether to alter the strategy.

When Williams decided to make a comeback, Jenkins, left, looked at data showing her key winning patterns from her peak years. (CREDIT: OWEN HAMMOND/NURPHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK)

In the 2023 Australian Open final, Sabalenka’s analyst, Shane Liyanage, advised that she hit harder and deeper into a particular area of the court after losing the first set against Elena Rybakina. Liyanage doesn’t want to give away the specifics, given the pair head into Wimbledon as the first and second seeds, but it was pivotal to the result. “It was only a fraction, a couple of points probably went our way with that change, but it just swung the momentum,” he says.

James and Liyanage both work for Orreco, which has taken the use of artificial intelligence in tennis to new extremes. Along with Williams and Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Marta Kostyuk and the two breakout Spanish stars of this season, Rafael Jodar and Martín Landaluce, are among a dozen or so top-level professionals that work with individual analysts.

“I don’t want to sound like Donald Trump, but this has never been done before in tennis,” James, who is more entertaining than a stereotypical data whizz, says before doubling over in laughter. “What we’re doing is an MRI scan of a player’s game and covering them from a 360-degree health management point of view, using biomarkers through to biomechanics and in the middle is match analytics.”

The analytics go into incredibly fine detail, harvesting databases to track the ball speeds, spin rates, shot selection tendencies and patterns of movement of every player on tour in virtually every scenario during a point. That allows the AI to then build sophisticated simulations of a match between a client and any opponent so they can adjust their strategy accordingly to suit their strengths, expose the opponent’s weaknesses and subtly shift the odds.

Sabalenka came from a set down to win the 2023 Australian Open final after her analyst advised a change of tactics (CREDIT: ROBERT PRANGE/GETTY IMAGES)

The best players tend to be able to make those adaptations more seamlessly. “A player ranked No150 in the world might not have a B, C and D game. But the top players have a Swiss army knife of abilities to change things, which I think then allows them to be more receptive to us,” James says.

What’s most fascinating though are the advancements being made off the court, largely to prevent injuries. All manner of factors — players’ increased athleticism, slower court speeds, heavier balls, longer rallies, more night sessions, extended mandatory events — have resulted in more top players spending lengthy spells on the sidelines than ever before. To combat that, James and Liyanage ask players to give a daily blood sample so their biomarkers can be tracked and used to measure stress and inflammation.

A combination of GPS and sleep data from wearable technology is also fed back, so the analysts can detect unusual changes and manage the load on the body. The skeletal tracking can also detect how much strain a player has put on a particular joint during a match, such as if they slid more on a particular side on grass and how often a serve or groundstroke strayed outside the player’s typical range of motion.

The information builds up to a point where any part of the body can be flagged if it enters the red zone. “Ninety-five per cent of people in tennis will say they want to improve their forehand. They want to make it faster. What we’re looking at is how to make it faster but also robust, so you’re not going to break down and get injured because of that technical change,” Liyanage says.

Female players are now also increasingly adjusting their games depending on their menstrual cycle experiences. The topic has often been a taboo as the WTA Tour is dominated by male coaches, but accumulating data shows potential differences in performance that were being overlooked. “We’ve looked at a number of players and shot execution can be off depending on factors affected by menstrual cycle-related hormone fluctuations, such as neuromuscular control, force production, kinetic chain biomechanics, and spatial processing” Liyanage says.

“The other interesting bit is around the middle of the cycle we’re seeing athletes seemingly able to generate more speed, but they have more errors because they can’t control the ball as much. Maybe this is partly a speed-accuracy phenomenon, we’re only scratching the surface here.”

Data has shown clear differences in performance metrics depending on how a female player experiences her menstrual cycle and related symptoms (CREDIT: CLIVE BRUNSKILL / GETTY IMAGES)

James and Liyanage envisage a world where eventually the players could even analyse their own data during matches.
“At the United Cup, they actually have a set-up where players can go to the bench and the coach is there with his iPad,” Liyanage says. “One of the players we were working with disagreed with their coach so they got the iPad and looked at it themselves.”

An example of the technology used by the players (CREDIT: ORRECO)

James adds: “The generation of players coming through challenges their coaches a lot more. It’s not like the 1990s or 2000s when you’d stick with the same coach for four or five years. There’s more chopping and changing, so you have to go in and say, ‘Here is the evidence that the changes we’ve made are backed up by data and trending in the right direction.’

“We’re still behind football, NBA, big team sports, but tennis has gone from a player-dominated sport where it’s ex-players coaching and sort of, ‘We did it this way 30 years ago,’ to becoming a lot more innovative.”

It is worth pointing out that three of the four Wimbledon women’s semifinalists use Orreco Tennis platform including Player Dex and Trax.

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Bryce Murphy is the Director of Performance Science and Innovation at IMG Academy in Florida, where he leads a team of five performance scientists, two performance analysts, and one PhD student supporting roughly 1,700 student-athletes across 12 sports. His path into sports science was nonlinear: he began college on an academic scholarship studying athletic training, pivoted to pre-med/pre-physical therapy, and ultimately found his calling in strength and conditioning, earning his CSCS and working as a personal trainer. A move to Minnesota led him into coaching, including a stint with Minnesota United in the NPSL and being named Minnesota’s competitive boys’ soccer coach of the year in 2018, while he served as a teaching assistant and pursued sports science research at the University of Minnesota under mentors including Tyler Bosch and Cal Dietz.

Pictures: Bryce Murphy with soccer legend Thierry Henry (Left) and Mo Wagner (Orlando Magic/NBA, right).

He then completed a fellowship with US Ski and Snowboard in Park City, Utah, working alongside biomechanist Bill Sands, before joining the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s performance team to help build out the early version of what became the Athlete360 monitoring system. From there, he spent three seasons as an applied sports scientist with the Orlando Magic, taking on additional strength and rehab coaching responsibilities at various points, before moving to IMG Academy to help build out its athlete management system. He stepped into his current director-level role a little over a year ago.

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Bryce located at the top of this blog post.

Here are the quotes from the interview with Bryce:

Q1 – His Career journey:

“I’ve never been afraid to pivot, and I’ve always been really curious.”

“I took a course in strength and conditioning my senior year of undergrad, and I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do — I want to train athletes.’”

On his mentor in Minnesota: “He told me, ‘You need to learn how to code. You need to take all these biostatistics courses.’”

On building the first athlete-monitoring systems for Team USA: “It was really just the three of us typing away in that office, piecing it together with Tableau and R scripts.”

On getting the call that led to the Orlando Magic job: “Dave Tenney said to me, ‘I talked to two different people, and they both recommended you.’ We chatted for about 30 minutes, and then he asked when I could come down to Orlando for an interview.”

Q2 – His Current role at IMG Academy:
“There’s no typical day, given the scale of this place — we have 12 sports now, more than 80 teams, roughly 1,700 student-athletes, and about 150 to 200 coaches.”
“My team has five performance scientists, two performance analysts, and one PhD student. Together, that’s our Performance Science and Innovation Group.”
“You don’t necessarily learn leadership skills in grad school — you have to go seek them out.”

Q3 – His Athlete development philosophy:

“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s about asking the right question and implementing the right plan at the right time for that athlete.”

“We’ve broken it down into roughly five stages an athlete can fit into, and we build their environment around learning optimally at that stage.”

“The challenge can’t be too easy, but it can’t be too hard either, or the athlete gets discouraged. Finding that fine line is the goal.”

Q4 – Innovation and technology:

“AI is a key unlock for everyone, in any field — the ability to build rapidly at scale.”

“If you’d told me four years ago that I could describe what I wanted to an LLM and it would build it for me, I’d have said you were crazy.”

“It’s the old adage: garbage in, garbage out. We’re revamping our standard operating procedures to make sure our data is clean before it ever reaches our AI models.”

“At our scale, it’s nearly impossible for a human to track everything — but these systems unlock the ability to make better decisions.”

Q5 – Integrating training, rehab, nutrition, and mental prep:

“It starts with the human loop — every discipline is making decisions they believe are best for their group.”

“We run what we call the pod model: every week, leaders from each discipline come together, guided by shared dashboards, so everyone can see what everyone else is working on. There’s no lack of transparency.”

Q6 – Common mistakes young athletes make:

“There are two main mistakes: the first is no recovery — not leaving space for your mind and body to adapt.”

“The second is reps without purpose. Taking a thousand uncontested shots doesn’t help once you already have the technique down — there’s no challenge, no defender, nothing forcing you to adapt.”

“Skipping recovery and doing reps without purpose — it’s almost a waste of time.”

Q7 – The future of sports science:

“The age of information is coming to an end. Everything will live on the computer and be readily available.”

“The traits to cultivate are open-mindedness, curiosity, elite communication, and honesty — with yourself and with the people you’re working with.”

“Once we know everything about an athlete, the real question becomes: how do you build the habits that create consistency over time?”

“Computers will know everything about your athletes. The real differentiator will be EQ — how well you build relationships and communicate.”

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SportsEdTV is a global sports education platform that provides free, expert-led instructional content for athletes, coaches, parents, and sports enthusiasts. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Miami, the company offers video and written instruction across more than 30 sports, covering technical skills, tactics, strength and conditioning, nutrition, and mental performance. The platform features coaching from world-class athletes and coaches, many with Olympic, world championship, and professional-level experience. SportsEdTV reports more than 1 million social media followers, content consumption in every country worldwide, and partnerships with organizations such as FIBA China and SHAPE America. Its growing library includes thousands of instructional videos and articles designed to make high-quality sports education accessible to participants of all ages and skill levels.

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Victor located at the top of this blog post.

Here are the quotes from the interview with Victor:

Q1. Can you tell us a little about your background and the experiences that led you to create SportsEdTV?

From Elite Performance to Mass Participation

“My first venture was Dartfish. We started that in 1999, and as you know, Dartfish has been very active in video analysis and video solutions for teams and Olympic programs. Over seventy percent of the medals won were won by people using Dartfish. In 2017, I was approached by my partner, Robert Mazzucchelli, and eventually became CEO in 2020. The reason I saw the progression from Dartfish to SportsEdTV was that I wanted to help the masses. I went from helping teams at the very high level—college, Olympic athletes, some high schools—to helping everybody: coaches, parents, and athletes. That’s the switch I made.”

A Mission Bigger Than Winning Medals

“I was helping Olympians win medals. What I really wanted to do next was help people live healthier lives. Sports education shouldn’t only be available to elite athletes. It should be available to every coach, every parent, and every athlete who wants to improve.”

Q2. What gap in the market were you trying to solve when you launched SportsEdTV, and what is the core mission of the company today?

The Lacrosse Story That Started It All

“My son came to me when he was six years old and said, ‘Dad, I want to play lacrosse.’ I’m from Switzerland—what do I know about lacrosse? So I went online looking for videos because I wanted to work with him in the backyard. I found videos with millions of views and sent them to his coach. The coach said, ‘Don’t do that. That’s really bad instruction.’ I was shocked. There were millions of views, but no way to know whether the content was actually good. That was the moment I realized there was a real problem.”

Creating a Trusted Brand in Sports Instruction

“When we started SportsEdTV, everybody with a phone had become an expert. You had people with millions of followers and people with five followers, but nobody knew what content was actually good. What surprised us most was that there wasn’t a single trusted brand leading the sports instruction market. We looked at that and said, ‘This is amazing. We are going to become the leading brand.’”

Expert-Led Content as the Foundation

“We decided that if we were going to do this, we would do it the right way. We brought in the best coaches—people who either played or coached at the highest level. If you’re teaching a crossover in basketball, why not learn from Tim Hardaway Sr., the player who invented it? Our goal was to create one place where people know that everything they watch and read is expert-driven and expert-recommended.”

Q3. What unique value does SportsEdTV provide, and what makes it different from traditional sports learning resources?

Built Around What People Actually Need

“We don’t create content in a vacuum. We started by doing extensive research on what people were actually searching for online. We looked at what parents needed, what coaches needed, and what athletes needed. Then we created content to answer those needs. We focused on solving eighty percent of the questions people had before building out the rest of the library.”

Quality and Credibility Matter

“We have more than 800 videos and more than 1,800 blogs and articles. Every video was shot in cinema quality using NBC crews, multiple cameras, scripting, and world-class coaches. We created the content from A to Z with experts. So when someone comes to SportsEdTV, they don’t have to wonder if the content is good or bad. They know it’s been created by people who have competed and coached at the highest levels.”

A Safe Platform for Families

“SportsEdTV is a very safe platform. We don’t put gambling ads, vaping ads, smoking ads, or anything inappropriate around our content. Parents know that if they send their kids to SportsEdTV, they’re going to find educational content, not distractions.”

Q4. What are the typical user personas at SportsEdTV?

Coaches, Athletes, and Parents

“The personas are coaches, athletes, parents—really any age group. Parents who want to help their kids improve use the platform. Coaches use it to discover drills and coaching methods. Athletes use it to improve their own performance. We serve all three audiences simultaneously.”

Everyday Athletes Matter Too

“We’re not only focused on kids who want athletic scholarships. If you play tennis, golf, pickleball, or any sport recreationally, you still want to improve. You want to beat your brother-in-law or your friends. People are competitive by nature, and we help those athletes improve too.”

A Truly Global Audience

“It’s global. On social media, it’s everywhere in the world. We have sports like Taekwondo where we have more than 181,000 Instagram followers. Countries like Brazil and Iran consume our content. On the website, North America is our largest audience, but on social media we truly have a worldwide community.”

Q5. What are the big brands and organizations SportsEdTV is working with?

Building Value Through Strategic Partnerships

“Today, before we create content in a new sport, we look for partners. In tennis, for example, we work with Volkl. They sponsor the content, and their products become part of the storytelling. It’s not traditional advertising. It’s authentic integration.”

Partnerships That Expand Reach

“We have a partnership with the Racket Sports Professional Association, and together we’ve brought partners like Volkl into the ecosystem. We’ve also signed an agreement with SHAPE America, which represents 200,000 physical education teachers.”

Validation from Major Organizations

“The videos we produce have been used by FIBA, i9 Sports, and Chicago Public Schools. That’s important because it validates the quality of what we’re creating and shows that leading organizations trust our content.”

Q6. Can you walk us through the business model and how you balance accessibility with sustainability?

Free Access, Long-Term Value

“First of all, SportsEdTV is free. We are not charging anything. We invested millions of dollars creating the content, building the platform, and building the community because we believed sports education should be accessible.”

Rejecting Traditional Advertising

“We didn’t want traditional advertising interrupting the learning experience. We didn’t want someone watching a sports instruction video and suddenly seeing an ad for soap or some unrelated product. Instead, we wanted partners that naturally fit within sports and education.”

Education Creates Stronger Brand Connections

“When you help a parent help their child, there is a very strong emotional connection. That’s what we provide to our partners. Educational content is incredibly powerful because you’re creating value first. If a brand helps someone become a better athlete or parent, that relationship lasts for years.”

Playing the Long Game

“We believe that if you want to build a brand for the long game, you need to create customers at a young age and help them over time. That’s why educational content works. It creates trust and loyalty in a way that traditional advertising often cannot.”

Q7. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, what are the biggest opportunities, priorities, and milestones you’re most excited about?

The SHAPE America Opportunity

“The partnership with SHAPE America is probably what excites me most right now. SHAPE represents 200,000 physical education teachers, and this partnership has the potential to put SportsEdTV in every school—or at least most schools—in the United States.”

Helping Teachers and Students at Scale

“We can really help kids become healthier while helping teachers do a better job through the content we’ve created. We’re going to put a lot of effort into making this partnership successful because the impact could be enormous.”

Becoming the Standard for Sports Education

“We want to become the reference for sports education. Whether it’s schools, coaches, athletes, or parents, we want SportsEdTV to be the trusted source people turn to when they want to learn and improve.”

Expanding Through Partnerships

“Going forward, we want to continue adding sports, curriculum, and content, but we do that through partnerships. Whether it’s schools, governing bodies, or sponsors, we want to create content that has lasting value and reaches as many people as possible.”

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Felix Proessl is the Senior Director of Sport and Data Science for the Colorado Rapids (MLS), where he leads the club’s sports science, performance analytics, athlete monitoring, and data-driven decision-making initiatives across the first team, second team, and academy. Originally from Germany, Proessl played collegiate soccer in the United States before earning his Master’s degree at Colorado State University, where he conducted research in the Integrative Neurophysiology Lab focused on fatigue, performance, and human movement.

He later completed a PhD in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Pittsburgh, studying the neuromuscular and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying skill acquisition, fatigue, and athletic performance. During his time at Pittsburgh, he worked closely with the men’s soccer program and subsequently served as Director of Sports Science for the university’s athletic department, helping scale performance and sports science practices across multiple teams. His expertise spans sports science, performance analytics, athlete development, and the application of data and emerging technologies to optimize performance in elite sport.

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Felix located at the top of this blog post.

Here are the quotes from the interview with Felix:

Q1. Tell me about your background.

“I grew up in Germany playing soccer there. My journey really started to pick up when I decided to leave Germany and go to the U.S. to play collegiate soccer. I was fortunate to have that opportunity and really enjoyed being in the U.S. The excitement around sports and the interest in research were very attractive to me, so I decided to stay after completing my undergraduate degree.

I was always curious about the cognitive and perceptual aspects of sport just as much as the physical aspects. At Colorado State University, I joined the Integrative Neurophysiology Lab and spent two years trying to better understand the neuromuscular mechanisms of fatigue, while also working with the women’s soccer team because I never wanted to lose touch with the applied side of sport.

I then completed my PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, where our lab focused on understanding what happens both in the brain and muscle when we get better at something, and how that is impacted by factors like fatigue and sleep deprivation. Afterward, I became Director of Sports Science at the university before eventually joining the Colorado Rapids, where I’m now in my third season as Senior Director of Sport and Data Science.”

Q2. Can you tell me about your role in your club? What does your typical day look like?

“When I was first hired, my focus was creating the infrastructure—building a database, an athlete management system, dashboards, centralizing data streams, and creating processes that would allow data to become part of our decision-making process.

But it’s one thing to give people access to data and dashboards; it’s another thing to ensure that information is actually used in decision-making. Since then, my role has evolved into being more of a strategic decision-maker as part of the larger coaching and support staff.”

“A typical day starts with high-performance meetings and meetings with the coaching staff where we finalize the training session, discuss player health status, and incorporate information such as wellness reports. Then I’m out on the field collecting information through GPS, body-weight monitoring, and other performance metrics.

After training, the bulk of my work begins with processing and reporting that information, communicating it back to coaches, and helping inform how we train, how much we train, and how we design future sessions. We essentially sit between the performance and medical side of the organization and the coaching side.”

“Another important part of my role is making sure that what we do with the first team becomes the gold standard throughout the club. We apply the same profiling and testing models to the second team and academy, allowing us to project player development and better understand when young players are ready to transition into the first-team environment.”

Q3. What is your approach towards sports science, innovation, and training?

“I firmly believe that sports science is almost a high-performance philosophy more than anything else. To me, sports science is the application of the scientific method to solve problems in a professional sporting environment.

Because of that, it can’t happen in a vacuum or a silo. It touches medical, nutrition, performance, and technical areas, and it requires transdisciplinary collaboration. Everybody needs a shared understanding of the processes and workflows that ultimately lead to better decisions.”

“I think it’s important that these processes are data-informed, not data-driven. We collect information and incorporate it into the decision-making process, but we always have to weigh it in the context of uncertainty and understand what we’ve measured versus what we may not have measured.

The most important thing is context. That’s where collaboration with coaches becomes critical. Decisions shouldn’t happen in isolation.”

“Innovation, to me, is being critical of existing beliefs. It’s applying the scientific method to challenge assumptions and asking whether something is actually true in the environment where we’re applying it. That’s where innovation occurs—understanding there’s a gap, filling it with knowledge, and through collaboration nudging the field forward.”

Q4. How do you see AI impacting the work of practitioners in the coming years?

“I think AI is an extremely powerful method to enhance productivity, increase efficiency, and automate processes that occur on a day-to-day basis in our environment. AI functions best with large datasets, strong contextual information, and standardized questions that occur repeatedly over time.”

“I don’t think AI is going to replace people because many of the questions we face in sport are too variable and volatile. The human will always be needed to gauge the uncertainty of the model and apply rational thinking to it.”

“Where AI is helping practitioners right now is by adding new processing pipelines to existing technologies. Optical tracking is a great example. We’re now able to derive a whole host of new metrics from video and paint a much richer contextual picture.

We don’t just know how much players run anymore—we understand the phase of play, the location of the ball, the behavior of opponents, and other contextual factors.”

“In the end, these technologies are only a means to derive metrics. The effective incorporation and implementation of that information requires collaboration with actual decision-makers. There needs to be someone capable of digesting those outputs, understanding their uncertainty, and incorporating them into day-to-day workflows.”

Q5. If you had unlimited resources (funding, staff), which sports tech solution would you build? Why?

“Given my background and my passion for complex sports, I would want to build something that allows us to dive much deeper into the neurophysiological processes that underpin performance.

Sport is fundamentally a perception-action coupling activity. Whether you decide to move, sprint, pass, or shoot begins with recognizing an opportunity before the physical action ever takes place.”

“We have a tremendous number of tools to understand the muscular and fitness capacities of athletes, but relatively little insight into the earlier part of the process—which arguably may be even more important.

Ideally, we would develop better ways to quantify how athletes perceive information, make decisions, and recognize opportunities in an applied sporting environment.”

“If I had unlimited resources, I would pour them into understanding recognition, awareness, what the athlete actually sees, and the timing of the perceptual-motor response. I’d want to better understand that side of sport.”

Q6. Who is your favorite to win the Soccer World Cup? Why?

“Obviously, I’d like to see Germany lift the trophy. That would be the ideal scenario.”

“Realistically, though, I think France will be tough to beat. They’ve been in the final the last two times, won it in 2018, and I think they just have a really good squad right now that will be one of the challengers for sure.”

“The beauty—and the difficult part—of the World Cup is that it only takes one game where you’re off and you’re out. Ideally Germany, but realistically I think we’re more of a quarterfinal or semifinal team. From there, I think England or France.”

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You can check out the agenda of the Austin Peay State University Health and Performance Summit, get your ticket for the summit by clicking on the link below and select register now:

Visit the website and Register now

For sponsorship information, attendees can visit the event website or contact Dr. Tim Leszczak, Chair of the APSU Health and Human Performance Department, at Leszczakt@apsu.edu.

You can watch the video interview below or you can listen to the audio interview above:

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Spencer:

Q1. Background & Career Journey

“I clawed myself out of that hole through these principles of taking care of oneself in a holistic manner. I put effort into what I put into my body, into my mind, how I trained myself, how I slept — and that investment in those areas helped me claw out of that space.”

“As I read that historical document — Field Manual 7-22 — I realized that the program the US Army was trying to implement, essentially I had done in my own private practice in industry and academics for the better part of a decade.”

“The mission and vision of Garmin is they exist to help people beat yesterday. And that simple sentence aligns with my entire life’s work. Hands down.”

“When I came back in at the US Army, my sole goal was to give. Give whatever I could to the institution.”

Q2. Role at Garmin Health

“My role is part relationship building, part strategic vision and direction for the organization, and part translating science into real world application for different opportunities.”

“Across a week, I can work with military organizations, researchers, tactical professionals, strength and conditioning coaches, and also healthcare providers to help them understand what problems they’re actually trying to solve, what questions they’re trying to answer, and what interventions they can make based off those data points.”

Q3. Training, Recovery & Rehabilitation

“I see the biggest change in the space going from reactive decision-making to proactive.”

“The best organizations are finding which metrics — and I’m gonna say just a couple, not all of them — they zoom in on a couple metrics that they find have the strongest correlation or causation to their genre of people or population, and they focus on those.”

“Context matters. When organizations start to understand that all this data matters, but then having the individual of whose data you’re taking provide the context of what goes on the 23 hours outside of training — that’s where the magic happens.”

“With heart rate variability, there’s a lot of folks that haven’t dove into what that means over time, and they’re looking at it in a very acute sense. In reality, you need to look at the trend and then also the variation over time as the two most important variables.”

Q4. Innovation & Future Trends

“In the next three to five years I see a ton happening around individualized and contextualized decision support — the use of AI, or language models, to provide that contextualized specific intervention for the individual.”

“I think we already have more data than we need. It’s about creating a better interpretation or educating folks on how to interpret that data. Right now with the amount that we have, I would say it’s a lot of noise. So how do we create a strong signal versus so much noise with data?”

“I see a merger of many different tools that build a larger ecosystem. Wearables are absolutely an amazing tool, but they’re not the only tool for organizations to be able to implement change.”

“Imagine if you go to your doctor and he pulls up your data and says, ‘Actually, you’re moving 30% less than last year. You’re sleeping 15% less. I would say you’re not doing great.’ That’s being able to zoom out and look at some of those larger things — looking at health in a longitudinal way instead of just snapshots.”

Q5. Health & Performance Summit at Austin Peay State University

“My first goal anytime I speak is to give practical application for everybody that’s there. How to actually apply what they’ve heard is generally the gap.”

“The athlete narrative is what got human performance optimization off the ground within the United States military. But that narrative is not gonna be what’s gonna take us to the next level. It got us off the ground, but it’s not what war fighting is.”

“When you look at what a war fighter is asked to do — in the face of imminent death — it is nowhere close to what an athlete does on a field. Not only is it a higher stress environment, there are different skills required, a different cognitive approach.”

“I’m going to show what from the athlete preparatory approach has worked and will continue to work — and what will now fail us as we’ve gotten the momentum we need with these programs. We no longer need to build leader engagement around it; now we need to fund these programs, operationalize them, and focus actually on the war fighter.”

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Participants:

• Dr. Tim Leszczak is the Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Austin Peay State University.

• Dr Bill Burgos is an adjunct professor at Austin Peay State university. He is also an experienced NBA Strength & Conditioning coach. He has worked for many NBA teams (Orlando Magic, NY Knicks, Timberwolves..). He also worked in the MiLB with the Pittsburgh pirates. He is also the CEO of LONU a next generation AI based nutrition platform.

You can check out the agenda of the Austin Peay State University Health and Performance Summit, get your ticket for the summit by clicking on the link below and select register now:

Visit the website and Register now

For sponsorship information, attendees can visit the event website or contact Dr. Tim Leszczak, Chair of the APSU Health and Human Performance Department, at Leszczakt@apsu.edu.

You can watch the video interview below or you can listen to the audio interview above:

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Tim and Bill:

Q1. To start, can each of you briefly share your background in sports and what led you to become involved with this summit?

Dr. Bill Burgos

“My career started at Austin Peay as a student athletic trainer, which exposed me to sports medicine and eventually strength and conditioning. That path led me from professional baseball to the NBA, where I spent more than a decade as a head strength coach. While my background is heavily rooted in basketball, I see myself as a human performance coach working with athletes across all sports. One of the experiences that had the greatest impact on my career was attending a summit, where I met a strength coach who helped open the door to my next opportunity. That experience showed me the value of networking and professional development, and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to help create this summit.”

Dr. Tim Leszczak

“My path into sports performance was somewhat unconventional. I originally studied accounting, but I eventually found my passion in fitness, wellness, and campus recreation while working at the University of Arkansas. I’ve always been interested in exercise, training, and nutrition, and that passion evolved into a deeper interest in human performance. Today, I teach foundational concepts related to sport performance and movement science at Austin Peay, helping prepare the next generation of professionals in the field.”

Q2. What inspired the creation of this summit, and what are the key goals you’re hoping to achieve for attendees?

Dr. Bill Burgos

“The summit was inspired by both my own career journey and a gap I noticed between what students learn in college and what they encounter in the workforce. While Austin Peay does an excellent job preparing students academically, I realized that many students still needed opportunities to connect with employers, understand emerging trends, and see how performance concepts are applied in the real world. Through this summit, we want to expose students and professionals to current innovations, create meaningful networking opportunities, strengthen relationships with Fort Campbell and the military community, and ultimately help attendees better understand what’s possible in their careers. More than anything, we want to make a lasting impact on students’ lives and professional development.”

Dr. Tim Leszczak

“The idea for the summit began with a desire to strengthen the connection between Austin Peay State University and Fort Campbell while creating a meaningful educational experience for a broad range of professionals. Our goal is to bring together strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, military personnel, and students for a collaborative learning experience. We wanted to build a summit that covers the full spectrum of human performance—from mental performance and recovery to physical preparation and Olympic lifting—while providing practical information that attendees can immediately apply in their own environments.”

Q3. Can you walk us through the agenda and highlight some of the sessions, speakers, or topics that you’re most excited about?

Dr. Bill Burgos

“What excites me most about this year’s lineup is that every speaker brings a unique perspective while contributing to the broader theme of human performance. The summit blends expertise from professional sports, collegiate athletics, sports medicine, and the military, showing how these disciplines intersect and learn from one another. I’m especially excited about speakers like Dr Andy Barr, Ryan Metzger, Paul Robbins, and Sergeant Spencer Posey because each offers practical insights that can directly impact coaching, injury prevention, performance, and leadership. These are professionals I’ve learned from throughout my career, and bringing them to Austin Peay creates an incredible opportunity for attendees to gain knowledge that is both current and immediately applicable.”

Dr. Tim Leszczak

“We’ve put together what I believe is a very well-rounded and robust agenda. The day begins with Chris Dunaway of the Los Angeles Dodgers discussing innovation in performance and the importance of tailoring solutions to individual athletes rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. From there, attendees will learn about injury prevention, recovery science, Olympic weightlifting instruction, military performance, and mental performance strategies. Personally, I’m particularly interested in the Olympic lifting and mental performance sessions because they align closely with areas where I want to continue growing professionally. Overall, the agenda was intentionally designed to provide diverse perspectives across the entire performance spectrum.”

Q4. Who is this summit designed for, and why should coaches, practitioners, students, executives, and other professionals consider attending?

Dr. Bill Burgos

“This summit is for anyone who wants to continue learning and improving, whether they’re in their first year of practice or their twentieth. Coaches, athletic trainers, sports scientists, physicians, military professionals, and students will all find value because they’ll be exposed to experts from multiple disciplines working toward the same goal: improving human performance. Throughout my career, I’ve learned that the best practitioners are constantly seeking knowledge outside their own specialty. This summit helps attendees understand how different professionals collaborate, communicate, and contribute to athlete and tactical performance, making it valuable regardless of one’s specific role.”

Dr. Tim Leszczak

“Our target audience includes strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, students, ROTC cadets, and other professionals interested in performance and wellness. We designed the summit to be broad enough that people from different backgrounds can benefit while still being focused on practical performance topics. Whether someone is trying to expand their network, learn about new trends in the field, improve their coaching skills, or simply gain exposure to new ideas, there will be valuable takeaways throughout the day.”

Q5. There are many conferences and events in the sports industry today. What makes this summit at Austin Peay State University different, and what unique experience or value will attendees take away?

Dr. Bill Burgos

“What makes this summit unique is the combination of collegiate athletics, professional sports, and military performance all under one roof. That’s a blend you don’t often find at other events. Austin Peay’s proximity to Fort Campbell creates a natural connection between these worlds, and we’ve assembled speakers who represent some of the best expertise across those domains. The result is a highly collaborative environment where attendees can learn not only from experts in their own field, but also from professionals whose experiences may challenge their thinking and broaden their perspective on performance.”

Dr. Tim Leszczak

“Unlike many large conferences that feature hundreds of presentations spread across multiple days, our summit is intentionally smaller, more focused, and highly interactive. Everyone will be learning together in the same room, creating a shared experience and stronger opportunities for networking and discussion. Most importantly, we’ve asked our speakers to provide practical strategies that attendees can immediately take back and implement the very next day. Our goal is not simply to inspire people, but to equip them with actionable tools they can use right away in their professional practice.”

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As we announced last week, Austin Peay State University will host its inaugural Health and Performance Summit on Saturday, October 17, 2026, bringing together approximately 100 professionals from the tactical, clinical, collegiate, and private-sector performance industries for a full day focused on strength, resilience, recovery, and human performance innovation.

You can check out the agenda of the Austin Peay State University Health and Performance Summit, get your ticket for the summit by clicking on the link below and select register now:

Visit the website and Register now

Event Details

• Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026

• Location: APSU Health Professions Building, Clarksville, Tennessee

• Hosted By: APSU Department of Health and Human Performance

• Audience Size: Approximately 100 industry professionals

• Focus Areas: Strength, resilience, recovery, tactical performance, wellness, rehabilitation, and sports medicine

Featured Speakers

This week we are delighted to announced a new speaker at the 2026 Austin Peay State University Health and Performance Summit We have more speakers to be announced. This week’s new speaker is Dr Bill Burgos, an experienced NBA S&C Coach and Adjunct Professor at Austin Peay State University.

New speaker:

• Dr Bill Burgos an experienced NBA Strength & Conditioning coach. He has worked for many NBA teams (Orlando Magic, NY Knicks, Timberwolves..). He also worked in the MiLB with the Pittsburgh pirates. He is also an adjunct professor at Austin Peay State university. He is also the CEO of LONU a next generation AI based nutrition platform.

Agenda

Expected Audience

Attendees are expected to include:

• Gym owners

• Athletic trainers

• Strength and conditioning coaches

• Clinicians and rehabilitation professionals

• Collegiate performance staff

• Tactical performance professionals

• Military personnel connected to the U.S. Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) initiatives at Fort Campbell

Why Attend

The summit is designed for professionals looking to stay at the forefront of health, performance, recovery, and human optimization.

Attendees will have the opportunity to:

• Learn from nationally recognized speakers and industry experts

• Explore emerging trends in tactical and athletic performance

• Network directly with practitioners, clinicians, coaches, and military professionals

• Gain practical insights that can be applied immediately within training, rehabilitation, wellness, and performance settings

• Build relationships with decision-makers across collegiate, tactical, clinical, and private-sector organizations

• Connect with professionals shaping the future of human performance innovation

The event’s intimate format is intentionally designed to encourage meaningful conversations, collaboration, and high-quality networking opportunities rather than large-scale convention-style interactions.

Why Vendors and Sponsors Should Participate

The summit provides vendors and sponsors with direct access to a highly targeted and influential audience actively involved in purchasing decisions across the health and performance industry.

Sponsors will benefit from:

• Face-to-face engagement with professionals in fitness, rehabilitation, tactical performance, and sports medicine

• Exposure to decision-makers from collegiate programs, private facilities, and military performance initiatives

• Opportunities to showcase products, services, and technologies in a focused professional environment

• Brand visibility within the rapidly growing Clarksville market and greater Nashville region

• Access to military-connected professionals affiliated with the U.S. Army’s H2F initiatives at Fort Campbell

• The ability to build long-term relationships with practitioners and organizations shaping the future of performance and wellness

Because the summit audience is highly specialized and professionally engaged, sponsors can expect more meaningful interactions and stronger relationship-building opportunities than at broader consumer-focused events.

Why the Summit Matters

The summit is designed to create meaningful networking and business development opportunities between:

• Industry leaders

• Practitioners

• Decision-makers

• Sponsors

• Emerging health and performance innovators

With nationally recognized speakers and a highly targeted audience, sponsors will have direct access to professionals who influence purchasing decisions across:

• Fitness

• Tactical performance

• Rehabilitation

• Wellness

• Sports medicine

The event’s location also provides access to both the rapidly growing Clarksville market and the greater Nashville region.

For sponsorship information, attendees can visit the event website or contact Dr. Tim Leszczak, Chair of the APSU Health and Human Performance Department, at Leszczakt@apsu.edu.

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Participants:

• Raphaël Ravet, Chief Commercial Officer, Myocene, a leading Belgian based sports tech company.

• João Ribeiro, Head of performance, SC Braga (Primeira Liga).

As a reminder, Myocene is a Belgium based sports technology company revolutionizing how muscle fatigue is measured and managed. Recognizing the need for objective and precise monitoring in athletic performance, Myocene has developed an innovative device that combines a sensor, stimulator, and proprietary algorithm to assess the loss of force and speed linked to muscle fatigue. In just two minutes, the device generates a comprehensive muscle fatigue index, offering clear insights into an athlete’s readiness, recovery, and overall physical condition.

By providing objective, data-driven feedback, Myocene empowers teams and coaches to make smarter decisions about training and recovery. Myocene helps identify muscular imbalances, optimize performance, and reduce the risk of overtraining. Trusted by leading sports organizations Myocene is setting a new standard in performance monitoring and athletic recovery.

João Ribeiro is a leading performance and sports science professional currently serving as Head of Performance for S.C. Braga in Portugal’s Primeira Liga. With a background in exercise physiology, high-performance training, and sports science research, Ribeiro has played a key role in optimizing athlete performance within one of Portugal’s top football clubs. He holds a PhD in Sports Sciences from the University of Porto and has combined elite applied practice with academia through lecturing and research in human performance, monitoring, and rehabilitation. Recognized for integrating data, sports science, and performance innovation into professional football, Ribeiro is widely respected for his expertise in athlete development, recovery, and performance optimization.

Picture: João Ribeiro (SC Braga)

You can watch the video interview below or you can listen to the audio interview above:

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we discussed the following topics:

Q1. Current Practices

• How do you currently define and measure muscle fatigue in your environment, and how consistent is that definition across your staff?

  What are the primary tools or modalities you rely on today—and which have proven most actionable?

Q2. Decision-Making & Application

• Can you walk through how fatigue data actually influences day-to-day decisions like training load, recovery protocols, or return-to-play?

Q3. Challenges & Limitations

• Where do you see the biggest gaps or limitations in current fatigue monitoring—whether that’s accuracy, cost, athlete compliance, or interpretation?

Q4. Individualization vs. Standardization

How do you balance individualized fatigue profiles for each athlete with the need for scalable systems across an entire team?

Q5. Future Outlook

• Looking ahead 3–5 years, what do you think will fundamentally change in how we monitor and manage muscle fatigue—especially with advances in technology and data integration?

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with João and Raphaël:

Q1. Current Practices

João Ribeiro:

“We face muscle fatigue as a multidimensional approach — neuromuscular, perceptual, performance decay. We cannot oversimplify the way we measure it. So we use objective data and subjective data — for external load we use GPS systems, and for internal load we use biochemical markers like CK, as well as subjective markers from wellness questionnaires.”

“We’re not measuring muscle fatigue itself, we are inferring about muscle fatigue. Imagine a player is doing more than he’s used to — we can assume he may be facing some fatigue. But we are always inferring, not measuring it directly. That’s why we also use Myocene and maximum voluntary contraction tests to get more objective measures of muscle status.”

Raphaël Ravet:

“The proper method to assess peripheral fatigue is by measuring this loss of force. The Myocene technology uses a combination of a force sensor, a specific neurostimulator, and an algorithm to calculate an index. When an athlete is in a rested state, the muscle produces a force and the system computes an index.”

“When there is muscle fatigue, the muscle responds less to a given stimulation — in this case produced by the neurostimulator of the Myocene system — and therefore the index drops. We have here a specific marker of a key aspect of performance, which is muscle fatigue, and we also address something which other methods cannot: objectivity.”

Q2. Decision-Making & Application

João Ribeiro:

“We make adjustments based on that data. The player maybe cannot train at all — he’s completely out of training according to the data we have from fatigue. Or, the most common scenario, is to adapt partially the training session — he can be present in some exercises and be out for the most demanding ones.”

“We also use this data to adapt recovery strategies. If a player is too fatigued, we promote the continuity of recovery modalities, or we adapt the recovery training session itself. If players tell us they are too fatigued, our day off can even be anticipated or changed according to that — especially if the fatigue is most demanding in a mental term.”

Raphaël Ravet:

“It’s not just about completing GPS metrics or data output. Athletes need to be able to recover, resist fatigue, and sustain repeated training in order to make sure they’re truly ready to reincorporate the team. A tool like Myocene can bring that — is the athlete able to sustain and repeat that load? That’s what really matters for return to play.”

Q3. Challenges & Limitations

João Ribeiro:

“There is no gold standard — fatigue is complex, and I think that is the biggest gap. We need to use a variety of tools, which is very, very difficult. Another issue is the data noise we obtain from these measurements”.

“The overload of data is sometimes contradictory — but it’s part of the process. If fatigue is complex, we need to analyze all the data. But this interpretation, I think, is the hardest part. And in some tests, we need athlete compliance, and that really impacts the measurements.”

Raphaël Ravet:

“Thanks to the Myocene system, the player is not involved in the measurement — which gives very actionable data, because you can take a decision right away based on that. On one side we use a specific and validated method to assess fatigue, well-described in the scientific literature. And on the other side, the player is not involved, which removes the compliance issue entirely.”

“We address a key limitation of other methods: objectivity. We don’t need the player to be compliant, and we have a baseline to compare against — which is very, very valuable. That’s something João himself has confirmed he values from the Myocene system.”

Q4. Individualization vs. Standardization

João Ribeiro:

“What we do is use the same system for everyone — the protocol is standardized. But the interpretation is individualized — it’s completely different depending on each player, his profile, his responsibility in the team. Some players can cope with high levels of fatigue, even while playing, and that’s why we need to know very well the profile of the player and the way he copes with these kinds of demands.”

“There are different responses to the same load. For instance, if a player is a midfielder and he’s 80% recovered, maybe he can cope a little with the next game. But if he’s a winger and he’s only 80% recovered, maybe we don’t want to risk it — because he will be doing a lot of high intensity running in the game. So the position and profile really matter in the interpretation.”

Raphaël Ravet:

“The common point for all players is that they need to be ready on game day. They may have different capacities to resist fatigue — some fatigue more because they play more, play less, or occupy more demanding positions. But what you want to know is: is my athlete ready to either train hard, resume a new micro cycle, or play on game day?”

“You can really put a figure on fatigue — you know if they are 100% ready, 90% ready, or 65% ready, and you know the gap. This is the real interest of a method like Myocene: you can quantify fatigue and know exactly what the athlete still needs to recover in order to be ready on game day.”

Q5. Future Outlook

João Ribeiro:

“We need more tools like this. We need to assess this internal load in the muscles and joints — we don’t have many tools for that right now. We have Myocene measuring muscle fatigue, but we need more technology that can be integrated directly into training sessions to really measure this internal load in real time. We have no device for that right now, only Myocene, but used before or after training sessions.”

“Another thing is the integration of data. AI is here, so it will help us for sure. Machine learning models and the integration of different sources of measurements will for sure help us in the near future. I believe in that strongly.”

Raphaël Ravet:

“We’ve moved a very well-known technology method used in labs for more than four decades to assess peripheral fatigue — or specific low frequency fatigue related to calcium release impairment — and we’ve moved this technology to real life. We’ve learned a lot in the last five years, and we’re going to continue to learn even more as we have more users, more feedback, more publications, and more protocols from each team using it.”

“There is a blind spot in athlete monitoring. The industry has been very focused on measuring external load — GPS, force plates — the body is very well monitored. But the new era, the room for improvement, is on the internal load side. For a given load, the physiological impact is different for every player. We’re just at the beginning of potentially a new era where internal load and objective markers are going to shape the future of sport performance.”

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As we announced last week, Austin Peay State University will host its inaugural Health and Performance Summit on Saturday, October 17, 2026, bringing together approximately 100 professionals from the tactical, clinical, collegiate, and private-sector performance industries for a full day focused on strength, resilience, recovery, and human performance innovation.

You can check out the agenda of the Austin Peay State University Health and Performance Summit, get your ticket for the summit by clicking on the link below and select register now:

Visit the website and Register now

Event Details

• Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026

• Location: APSU Health Professions Building, Clarksville, Tennessee

• Hosted By: APSU Department of Health and Human Performance

• Audience Size: Approximately 100 industry professionals

• Focus Areas: Strength, resilience, recovery, tactical performance, wellness, rehabilitation, and sports medicine

Featured Speakers

This week we are delighted to announced a new speaker at the 2026 Austin Peay State University Health and Performance Summit We have more speakers to be announced. This week’s new speaker is Sgt Spencer Posey, the Military & Human Performance Lead for Garmin Health. Spencer will be speaking on the session about synergies between athletic excellence and military preparedness.

New speaker:

• Sgt Spencer Posey is a published and certified health and human performance leader with more than 15 years of experience across military, healthcare, academic, and private-sector performance settings. He currently serves as Military & Human Performance Lead for Garmin Health, where he supports wearable analytics, readiness metrics, and data-driven performance strategies for military and tactical populations. His previous work includes serving as an Advanced Health Scientist and Lead Scientist in Human Performance with Booz Allen Hamilton and as a Holistic Health and Fitness Director in the U.S. Army. Posey is also the Founder and CEO of Denali Fitness and Nutrition and has presented nationally on human performance, resilience, readiness, and health optimization.

Agenda

Expected Audience

Attendees are expected to include:

• Gym owners

• Athletic trainers

• Strength and conditioning coaches

• Clinicians and rehabilitation professionals

• Collegiate performance staff

• Tactical performance professionals

• Military personnel connected to the U.S. Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) initiatives at Fort Campbell

Why Attend

The summit is designed for professionals looking to stay at the forefront of health, performance, recovery, and human optimization.

Attendees will have the opportunity to:

• Learn from nationally recognized speakers and industry experts

• Explore emerging trends in tactical and athletic performance

• Network directly with practitioners, clinicians, coaches, and military professionals

• Gain practical insights that can be applied immediately within training, rehabilitation, wellness, and performance settings

• Build relationships with decision-makers across collegiate, tactical, clinical, and private-sector organizations

• Connect with professionals shaping the future of human performance innovation

The event’s intimate format is intentionally designed to encourage meaningful conversations, collaboration, and high-quality networking opportunities rather than large-scale convention-style interactions.

Why Vendors and Sponsors Should Participate

The summit provides vendors and sponsors with direct access to a highly targeted and influential audience actively involved in purchasing decisions across the health and performance industry.

Sponsors will benefit from:

• Face-to-face engagement with professionals in fitness, rehabilitation, tactical performance, and sports medicine

• Exposure to decision-makers from collegiate programs, private facilities, and military performance initiatives

• Opportunities to showcase products, services, and technologies in a focused professional environment

• Brand visibility within the rapidly growing Clarksville market and greater Nashville region

• Access to military-connected professionals affiliated with the U.S. Army’s H2F initiatives at Fort Campbell

• The ability to build long-term relationships with practitioners and organizations shaping the future of performance and wellness

Because the summit audience is highly specialized and professionally engaged, sponsors can expect more meaningful interactions and stronger relationship-building opportunities than at broader consumer-focused events.

Why the Summit Matters

The summit is designed to create meaningful networking and business development opportunities between:

• Industry leaders

• Practitioners

• Decision-makers

• Sponsors

• Emerging health and performance innovators

With nationally recognized speakers and a highly targeted audience, sponsors will have direct access to professionals who influence purchasing decisions across:

• Fitness

• Tactical performance

• Rehabilitation

• Wellness

• Sports medicine

The event’s location also provides access to both the rapidly growing Clarksville market and the greater Nashville region.

For sponsorship information, attendees can visit the event website or contact Dr. Tim Leszczak, Chair of the APSU Health and Human Performance Department, at Leszczakt@apsu.edu.

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You can watch the video interview below or you can listen to the audio interview above:

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on:

• The NFL draft recap, new NFL Schedule. Aaron Rodgers’ new contract with the to Pittsburgh Steelers,

• NBA draft & playoffs,

• College athletics 5 plus 5, MBB/College FB,

• NHL playoffs,

• LIV updates,

• MLS season, 2026 World Cup,

• MLB season

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Ron located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Ron:

1. NFL Draft recap, new NFL schedule, Aaron Rodgers to Pittsburgh

“Pittsburgh really shined in the NFL draft. The weather was tremendous on Thursday, Friday a little bit of rain. I took my daughter on Saturday afternoon. They’ve become the model. Every city that hosts — and next year it’s going to be in Washington DC — I believe Washington will shatter the record that was set recently by Pittsburgh, beating Detroit from two years ago because of their location. People will train down from New England, New York, Philly, Baltimore, and up from Atlanta and Florida to go to this event. It was a very, very cool event. Pittsburgh pulled it off and it was great. To see 700,000 additional people in the city was overwhelming.”

“The Steelers, Aaron Rodgers signed a one-year deal more than twice what he made last year — 22 million for this one year with an accelerator that could get him to 25 million. Some people are talking about this now while organized team activities are taking place. For the first time ever it seems like the growth here is going to be in brand-new countries that have never hosted an NFL regular season game. Melbourne is going to have a game, Rio in Brazil, and Paris, France — the Steelers are going to play there.”

“The NFL has, of the 32 teams, assigned countries to certain teams. For example, the Cowboys’ only country they’re assigned to is Mexico. The Pittsburgh Steelers are assigned to Germany, Ireland, and Mexico. They’re trying to get those countries excited about and supporting those teams, so what better way than to go there and play a game? That’s where this seems like the growth is, and that was very apparent on day three of the draft.”

“Boy, it seems like the NFL loves them some Eagles. The Eagles are playing on Thanksgiving in Dallas, they’re hosting on Christmas Eve, and they’re on a lot of the radar for national games, as are the Steelers. So it’s going to be a great football year and it’s pretty exciting.”

2. NBA Draft and NBA Playoffs

“The NBA Draft Lottery took place. It looks like Washington got the first pick, Utah second, Memphis third, Chicago fourth. In no particular order, I don’t think it’s clear-cut who’s one, two, three, and four in the draft. The players are AJ from BYU, Peterson from Kansas, Boozer from Duke — of course his dad played in the NBA and was an All-Star — and Caleb Wilson from UNC Chapel Hill. They are considered to be without a clear top four. You could argue what order, and it should be interesting what Washington does. There’s a little bit of drop-off from five and down.”

“Spurs versus OKC. This is what we’ve all wanted. This is one versus two. This is going to be an awesome series. Those two teams are going to be around for a long time because they are both so young.”

“The Knicks could get to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 with Patrick Ewing. So that’s pretty exciting in the NBA. I think OKC versus the Knicks, and OKC wins back-to-back titles.”

3. College athletics: 5 plus 5, college basketball, college football

“Brand new rule, it’s called five plus five. When you graduate high school — or when you turn 19 — you have five years you can play. They’re trying to rush this through with the NCAA and all the big conferences. There are players that are playing that are 26 or 27 years old, getting an eighth or ninth year. This is insanity, right? Let’s streamline this, let’s make it incredibly simple so everybody understands.”

“If you get injured, you don’t get that year back. You have to do it in five years. So that would cap everybody out at roughly 23 or 24 years old. The only exemptions would be pregnancy, military, and religious missions. It all kind of makes sense because we’ve got guys going in that are on second marriages, they’ve got child support, alimony — and it’s like, how do you play college sports when you’re 26 or 27 years old?”

“This will give freshmen more of an opportunity because they’re really missing out on opportunities coming out of high school. You can leave any time you want to go play professionally, but you can’t play any time past those five years. Simple as could be.”

“Ohio State, $50 million is what they’re going to pay. They have a budget of roughly $50 million. That’s above and beyond NIL — just here’s our budget for our athletic department, we’re spending $50 million this year on our football team. If you’re not going to spend 50, and you’re in the SEC or Big Ten, then can you compete with a $50 million payroll?”

“They really want to push through 24 teams in the college football tournament, up from 12. And in 2027, March Madness is going to go from 68 teams to 78. Ten additional teams will get in. But now you may see teams with three losses making the football playoff. I don’t know if that’s a good idea, but they’re going to give more opportunities to teams.”

4. NHL Playoffs

“We’ve got a Game 7 coming up, Buffalo versus Montreal. The winner takes on the Carolina Hurricanes. Then you’ve got a tremendous Colorado Avalanche team that is going to play the Golden Knights of Vegas, and the winners of those series will go to the Stanley Cup Finals.”

“No more Tampa Bay Lightning, no more Florida Panthers. They’ve won quite a few recently. Back to back, yes. So now we’re seeing a bit of a changing of the guard.”

5. LIV Golf updates

“They are on life support. They lost $6 billion in their 54-round type format. Five guys in particular want to come home and play in the PGA — Jon Rahm, Bryson, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, and Cameron Smith all saying, ‘Can we come back and play for the PGA?’”

“I believe they will take them back. I think it’s happening already. It’s forgive and forget, and probably we’ll just pretend like it never happened that they left the PGA. But for all practical purposes, LIV is dead.”

6. MLS season and World Cup ticket prices

“The MLS is going to be on a little break because the World Cup is starting on June 11. There are going to be 11 US cities hosting the World Cup. There’s been controversy about the prices going through the roof, and now it looks like the prices are finally coming down a little bit.”

“With food prices, gas prices, cost of living — for them to try to demand $5,000 a ticket or $10,000 a ticket, it’s obscene. It feels predatory, and people just won’t buy it. It’s not an inelastic product. It’s elastic. The rubber band will only stretch so far, then I just won’t go.”

“There have been lawsuits and people trying to figure out why the prices of the tickets are so high. It is very difficult, even with electronic tickets, to control the secondary market once you decide you want to go down that road. Some have argued it’s impossible to control the secondary market. But it’s something they better figure out really fast because this thing’s jumping on us June 11th.”

“They’ve got high-end facilities, they’re ready to do it, and this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime type of situation for a lot of people. I think we’re going to do a really nice job hosting it in the United States.”

7. MLB season

“We are roughly a third of the way through and a couple things jump out at you. The Rays in Tampa, their building’s been fixed after the hurricane, they’re playing there, and they have 30 wins already. That’s number one in the AL East. The Yankees are number two.”

“We had rivalry weekend, which I found very interesting. The Mets play the Yankees, the Phillies play the Pirates, Rangers and Astros — it made a lot of sense and sparked interest around the league.”

“In the Central we’ve got two teams over .500. How about the Sacramento Athletics, number one in the AL West right now. The Braves have the most wins in baseball. The Phillies got off to a horrific start, fired their manager, hired Don Mattingly, and they’ve gone on a run since then.”

“The Cubs look really good in the Central. Everybody in the NL Central is over .500. The West, it’s all Dodgers. Padres looking really good too.”

“There’s a number of brand-new Japanese players that are doing very well this year for the first time. We’re going to see more and more players coming in from the Nippon League in Japan to become stars in MLB.”

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This week our guest writer is Jordan Stewart-Mackie, a high-performance Scientist and PhD researcher with expertise in wearable technology integration and performance intelligence systems across elite football (Leicester City FC, West Bromwich), basketball (NBA), rugby, swimming, and academy environments.

Picture: Jordan Stewart-Mackie

The Trust Architecture in Performance Innovation

Sport Tech ROI Lives or Dies in the “Decision Window”

By Jordan Stewart-Mackie MSc, CSci, PhD Researcher

In the quiet hours before a game, or in the compressed minutes after a session, there is a decisive exchange between coach and athlete. It is shaped by intuition. Refined by experience. And increasingly mediated by a screen. But here is the non-negotiable truth: if the data on that screen does not command immediate trust, it does not exist.

As an industry, we have mastered measurement. We are failing intervention. We are not short of data. We are short of decisions.

What we are building, at scale, are “Data Graveyards”: repositories of highly accurate, poorly timed, and ultimately unused information. The shift required is simple but not easy: from accuracy to Contextual Intelligence. From outputs to decisions. From data systems to trust systems.

The Human Cost of Noise

Data fatigue and data latency are not technical problems. They are system design failures.

When an athlete inputs daily wellness data and sees no change in their environment, engagement does not dip. It dissolves. When a practitioner spends 60 minutes cleaning data to extract one insight, they are not data-driven. They are operating inside friction.

At the highest level, the cost is not inefficiency. It is a misinterpretation. The inability to distinguish between one fatigue state and another is not a small error. It is the difference between adaptation and injury.

If your technology cannot provide that distinction within the “Decision Window”, the time between session completion and the next prescription, you have not built a performance tool. You have built a digital autopsy.

The Decision Window Is the Constraint

The Decision Decay Curve (Figure 1) defines the constraint. Data utility peaks within the first 15 to 30 minutes post-session, the Golden Hour, where insight becomes intervention. From that point, value erodes. At 60 minutes, the window closes. The athlete has left. The plan is set. By two hours, information is retrospective only. Beyond that, your data enters the Data Graveyard, where it carries no decision impact.

Figure 1 is not a visual. It is a system test. Where does your output land in time? The further right of the Decision Window it falls, the sharper the decline in decision impact. Data still holds value, but its potency to influence the next training block diminishes with every hour of latency.

A critical caveat: this curve describes real-time decision utility, not the value of data itself. Aggregating data over weeks, months, and seasons remains essential for identifying long-term trends, understanding cause-and-effect relationships, and building the evidence base that informs future decision thresholds. The curve does not argue against big data. It argues against confusing retrospective analytics with real-time intervention. Both matter. They serve different purposes.

Figure 1: The Decision Decay Curve — a system test. Where does your product’s output land?

Mapping the Landscape: Where Does Your Product Sit?

Not all sports technology fails equally. The Sport Tech Landscape (Figure 2) separates solutions not by innovation but by decision impact under pressure.

Tier 1 — Contextual Intelligence. Delivered in minutes. Filtered. Actionable. Drives behaviour inside the Decision Window.

Tier 2 — Reporting Loop. Valuable insight, delivered too late. Latency kills impact.

Tier 3 — Baseline Monitoring. Low friction, low consequence. Necessary, not differentiating.

Tier 4 — Data Graveyard. Continuous monitoring without action pathways. Trust erodes, adoption collapses.

Figure 2 is a positioning tool. Tier 2: reduce latency. Tier 4: rebuild feedback loops. Tier 1: protect speed and clarity. Only Tier 1 operates where performance intelligence actually happens.

Figure 2: The Sport Tech Landscape — a positioning tool. Plot your solution. Identify your engineering priority.

The Blind Spot: Reporting ≠ Value

The most persistent fallacy in sport tech: more data equals more value. In high-performance environments, the opposite is true:

• Clarity beats Complexity.

• Timing beats Volume.

• Relevance beats Resolution.

There is a deeper discipline beneath these principles: decision quality is bounded by data quality. If the underlying measurement carries unacceptable error, or if the same metric means something different across two systems, then speed and clarity only accelerate a flawed conclusion. Every performance department must define its internal tolerance for measurement error and understand how meaning shifts between technologies. This is not a technical exercise. It is a strategic one. Without that foundation, even Tier 1 delivery produces Tier 4 outcomes.

The same principle applies to product teams: a unified system is the way forward, not one exceptional technology that cannot integrate with the wider purpose. The performance departments that generate the greatest return are not those with the best individual tools. They are those where every tool speaks the same language, feeds the same decision architecture, and operates within agreed tolerances. If your product exists in isolation, its accuracy is irrelevant. Integration is the multiplier.

The real shift: from Reporting (what happened) to Performance Intelligence (what to do next).

Engineering the Trust Bridge

The Workflow of Action (Figure 3) defines the minimum system required to convert data into impact. Raw signal is collected without disrupting the athlete. A filter suppresses noise and elevates what matters. Context interprets meaning and assigns priority. The Trust Bridge then demands clarity, timing, and confidence before anything reaches a decision-maker. If all three hold, behaviour changes and performance follows. If any one breaks, data falls into the Reporting dead-end: delayed, untrusted, unactioned.

The test is simple: can a coach or athlete act on this in under 10 seconds? If not, it is not performance intelligence.

Figure 3: The Workflow of Action — every stage must be crossed. The 10-second test is the standard.

A Call to Build Differently

For investors evaluating sport tech:

– Ask founders to define their decision latency in minutes, not hours. If they cannot, the product is a reporting tool, not a performance tool.

– Plot the product against the Sport Tech Landscape. Tier 2 and Tier 4 solutions carry structural ROI risk regardless of the underlying technology.

– Evaluate whether the product drives measurable behaviour change at the coaching level, not just data collection volume.

For product teams:

– Map every output against the Decision Decay Curve. If your insight arrives after the Decision Window closes, re-engineer delivery before adding features.

– Build every feature against the Trust Bridge standard: does it deliver clarity, timing, and confidence simultaneously?

– Apply the 10-second test to every dashboard, alert, and report. If a coach cannot act on it in 10 seconds, simplify or remove it.

For practitioners:

– Audit your current technology stack against the Sport Tech Landscape. Identify which tier each solution occupies and prioritize accordingly.

– Demand visible, timely return on every data point your athletes contribute. If a technology takes input without returning actionable insight, it is extraction, not partnership.

– Use the Decision Window as the non-negotiable benchmark when evaluating new technology purchases. Speed of insight to decision is the metric that matters.

Looking Ahead: From Wearables to Humanwear

There is a deeper shift emerging beneath the problems described in this piece, and it will redefine the relationship between athlete and technology entirely.

Most performance systems today are built around wearables: devices athletes strap on, charge, sync, and tolerate. They require conscious engagement. They demand workflow. They introduce friction at precisely the moments when friction is least affordable. The athlete adapts to the technology, when it should be the other way around.The next generation will not be wearable. It will be humanwear.

Imagine biometric fabrics woven into training kit that monitor internal load states without a single sensor being attached. Smart materials that detect changes in muscle stiffness, hydration, and thermal regulation through the garment itself. Surfaces embedded with force-sensing capabilities that capture ground reaction data from every stride, every change of direction, every landing, without the athlete knowing the system exists.

Imagine ambient intelligence systems in training environments that fuse optical tracking, environmental sensing, and physiological inference into a single contextual layer, delivered to the practitioner before the athlete reaches the changing room. No syncing. No cleaning. No delay.

This is not science fiction. The component technologies already exist across adjacent industries: adaptive textiles in medical monitoring, soft robotics in rehabilitation, embedded sensing in automotive and aerospace. What sport needs is the integration architecture to bring them together in a way that serves the Decision Window.

The goal is not more data. It is less friction between signal and decision. The ultimate performance technology is the one the athlete never thinks about, the practitioner trusts completely, and the coach acts on instinctively. Invisible in operation. Indispensable in impact.

Because the real constraint has never been measurement. It has always been decision velocity under pressure. The organizations and innovators who solve for that, who engineer trust into the fabric of the system rather than bolting it on afterward, will not just build better products. They will define the next era of elite performance.

Final Thought

We do not need more data. We need better decisions. The organizations that understand this will not just build better tools. They will build Trust Architectures: systems where data moves at the speed of performance, and decisions happen when they still matter.

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Austin Peay State University will host its inaugural Health and Performance Summit on Saturday, October 17, 2026, bringing together approximately 100 professionals from the tactical, clinical, collegiate, and private-sector performance industries for a full day focused on strength, resilience, recovery, and human performance innovation.

You can check out the agenda of the Austin Peay State University Health and Performance Summit, get your ticket for the summit by clicking on the link below and select register now:

Visit the website and Register now

Event Details

• Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026

• Location: APSU Health Professions Building, Clarksville, Tennessee

• Hosted By: APSU Department of Health and Human Performance

• Audience Size: Approximately 100 industry professionals

• Focus Areas: Strength, resilience, recovery, tactical performance, wellness, rehabilitation, and sports medicine

Expected Audience

Attendees are expected to include:

• Gym owners

• Athletic trainers

• Strength and conditioning coaches

• Clinicians and rehabilitation professionals

• Collegiate performance staff

• Tactical performance professionals

• Military personnel connected to the U.S. Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) initiatives at Fort Campbell

Why Attend

The summit is designed for professionals looking to stay at the forefront of health, performance, recovery, and human optimization.

Attendees will have the opportunity to:

• Learn from nationally recognized speakers and industry experts

• Explore emerging trends in tactical and athletic performance

• Network directly with practitioners, clinicians, coaches, and military professionals

• Gain practical insights that can be applied immediately within training, rehabilitation, wellness, and performance settings

• Build relationships with decision-makers across collegiate, tactical, clinical, and private-sector organizations

• Connect with professionals shaping the future of human performance innovation

The event’s intimate format is intentionally designed to encourage meaningful conversations, collaboration, and high-quality networking opportunities rather than large-scale convention-style interactions.

Why Vendors and Sponsors Should Participate

The summit provides vendors and sponsors with direct access to a highly targeted and influential audience actively involved in purchasing decisions across the health and performance industry.

Sponsors will benefit from:

• Face-to-face engagement with professionals in fitness, rehabilitation, tactical performance, and sports medicine

• Exposure to decision-makers from collegiate programs, private facilities, and military performance initiatives

• Opportunities to showcase products, services, and technologies in a focused professional environment

• Brand visibility within the rapidly growing Clarksville market and greater Nashville region

• Access to military-connected professionals affiliated with the U.S. Army’s H2F initiatives at Fort Campbell

• The ability to build long-term relationships with practitioners and organizations shaping the future of performance and wellness

Because the summit audience is highly specialized and professionally engaged, sponsors can expect more meaningful interactions and stronger relationship-building opportunities than at broader consumer-focused events.

Why the Summit Matters

The summit is designed to create meaningful networking and business development opportunities between:

• Industry leaders

• Practitioners

• Decision-makers

• Sponsors

• Emerging health and performance innovators

With nationally recognized speakers and a highly targeted audience, sponsors will have direct access to professionals who influence purchasing decisions across:

• Fitness

• Tactical performance

• Rehabilitation

• Wellness

• Sports medicine

The event’s location also provides access to both the rapidly growing Clarksville market and the greater Nashville region.

For sponsorship information, attendees can visit the event website or contact Dr. Tim Leszczak, Chair of the APSU Health and Human Performance Department, at Leszczakt@apsu.edu.

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Picture: Fitbit Air

Google’s launch of the Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach marks one of the company’s most ambitious attempts yet to reshape the consumer health and wellness market. While Google has owned Fitbit since 2021, the company has spent the past several years integrating Fitbit technology into its broader ecosystem of Android devices, Pixel hardware, Gemini AI systems, and cloud-based health infrastructure.

Picture: The Fitbit Air Special Edition Performance Loop band, Co-designed with Stephen Curry.

The Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach launches represent more than just another wearable product cycle. Together, they signal a strategic transition from traditional fitness tracking toward what Google hopes will become a fully AI-driven personal wellness ecosystem.

The broader wearable market has already evolved significantly over the last decade. Early devices focused mainly on step counting and basic activity tracking. Smartwatches then expanded the category into communication, notifications, apps, payments, and productivity. More recently, companies such as Oura and Whoop shifted the market toward passive biometric monitoring and recovery-focused wellness analytics.

Google is now attempting to take the next step: turning health data into an intelligent conversational system powered by AI.

Rather than simply tracking metrics, Google Health Coach aims to interpret data, provide recommendations, predict patterns, and eventually act as a proactive wellness companion. This transition from “tracking” to “continuous health guidance” could potentially redefine how consumers interact with wearable technology over the next decade.

What Are Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach?

Fitbit Air

Fitbit Air is Google’s new lightweight, screenless fitness tracker designed around passive health monitoring and simplicity.

Unlike most smartwatches, Fitbit Air intentionally removes:

• displays,

• notifications,

• apps,

• messaging,

• and other distracting smartphone-like functions.

Instead, the device focuses exclusively on:

• continuous biometric tracking,

• recovery analysis,

• sleep monitoring,

• and wellness data collection.

Google describes Fitbit Air as its “smallest and most affordable tracker” and emphasizes that it is designed for 24/7 wearability and comfort.

The device includes sensors for:

• heart rate monitoring,

• heart rhythm monitoring,

• SpO2 tracking,

• heart rate variability (HRV),

• sleep stages,

• skin temperature,

• resting heart rate,

• and atrial fibrillation (Afib) alerts.

The hardware itself is intentionally minimalist:

• no screen,

• seven-day battery life,

• compact “pebble” design,

• lightweight build,

• and interchangeable bands.

This design philosophy reflects a broader industry trend toward “calm technology” or “digital minimalism,” where devices are meant to quietly operate in the background rather than constantly compete for user attention. Reddit discussions around the launch repeatedly referenced this “less distracting” philosophy as one of the product’s most appealing aspects.

The Fitbit Air also carries a highly aggressive price point of $99, positioning it well below premium competitors such as Oura Ring, Apple Watch, and Whoop subscriptions.

Google Health Coach

Google Health Coach is the more strategically important launch.

The AI assistant is powered by Google Gemini models and is integrated into the newly rebranded Google Health platform, which replaces the legacy Fitbit app.

Google Health Coach combines:

• fitness coaching,

• sleep optimization,

• recovery analysis,

• nutrition guidance,

• behavioral recommendations,

• and conversational AI interfaces.

The system can:

• generate personalized fitness plans,

• analyze recovery trends,

• answer natural-language health questions,

• adapt recommendations based on injuries or travel,

• and synthesize information from multiple health sources.

The broader Google Health app also aggregates data from:

• Fitbit devices,

• Pixel Watch,

• Health Connect,

• Apple Health,

• and potentially medical records.

This means Google is not merely building another wearable ecosystem. It is attempting to build a centralized AI health operating system capable of integrating data from multiple devices and services.

This shift is critically important because it changes the value proposition from:

“Here are your metrics”

to:

“Here is what your metrics mean and what you should do next.”

That transition may ultimately prove more valuable than the wearable hardware itself.

Are Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach a Game Changer?

The answer depends on what aspect of the market one examines.

The Fitbit Air hardware itself is probably not revolutionary. Screenless wellness wearables already exist through:

• Oura Ring,

• Whoop,

• Hume,

• and other passive tracking devices.

However, Google’s larger ecosystem strategy may prove highly disruptive.

Why It Could Be a Game Changer

1. AI Becomes the Primary Interface

Most current wearables still rely on dashboards, scores, graphs, and charts.

Google Health Coach attempts to create a conversational interface for wellness.

Instead of manually interpreting data, users can ask:

• “Why did I sleep poorly this week?”

• “Why am I feeling fatigued?”

• “How should I adjust training after travel?”

• “Why is my recovery lower today?”

This significantly lowers the cognitive burden on users.

Historically, many wearable users eventually disengaged because:

• there was too much data,

• metrics became repetitive,

• or insights lacked actionable meaning.

AI interpretation could dramatically improve long-term engagement if executed effectively.

2. Google’s AI Infrastructure Is a Major Advantage

Unlike smaller wearable companies, Google has enormous AI capabilities through Gemini.

This gives Google several structural advantages:

• large-scale model training,

• multimodal AI,

• conversational interfaces,

• cloud infrastructure,

• search integration,

• and behavioral personalization.

Competitors like Oura and Whoop possess strong wellness expertise, but Google’s AI infrastructure is likely much larger in scale.

This could accelerate:

• personalization,

• predictive analytics,

• and adaptive coaching.

3. Affordable Pricing Could Expand the Market

The $99 Fitbit Air dramatically lowers the barrier to entry.

This is important because premium wellness devices have become expensive:

• Apple Watch Ultra exceeds $700,

• Oura Rings can exceed $400,

• Whoop requires expensive recurring subscriptions.

Google may significantly expand the wellness wearable market by offering:

• lower hardware costs,

• optional subscriptions,

• and cross-platform compatibility.

This creates pressure on competitors whose models rely heavily on premium pricing.

4. The “Screenless” Strategy May Be Perfectly Timed

Consumers increasingly experience notification fatigue and screen exhaustion.

The Fitbit Air’s lack of a display is not a limitation — it is the product strategy.

The device intentionally avoids:

• notifications,

• social feeds,

• apps,

• and constant interruptions.

This aligns with growing demand for:

• mindfulness,

• digital minimalism,

• and low-distraction technology.

Many Reddit users specifically praised the absence of a screen as the product’s strongest feature.

Why It May Not Be a Game Changer

Despite the excitement, major challenges remain.

1. Privacy Concerns Are Significant

Health data is among the most sensitive categories of consumer information.

Google still faces trust issues related to:

• advertising,

• data collection,

• platform dominance,

• and surveillance concerns.

Even if Google maintains strict separation between health data and advertising systems, many users remain skeptical.

This may limit adoption among privacy-conscious consumers.

2. AI Health Advice Still Has Limitations

AI-generated wellness recommendations can:

• oversimplify problems,

• hallucinate explanations,

• miss medical nuance,

• or create overconfidence.

Fitness and wellness are highly contextual fields.

For example:

• poor sleep may result from illness,

• recovery issues may reflect stress,

• or HRV fluctuations may be completely normal.

Human interpretation still matters.

This is especially important if Google expands deeper into preventative health recommendations.

3. Wearable Fatigue Is Real

The market is already crowded.

Consumers already own:

• Apple Watches,

• Garmins,

• Oura Rings,

• Whoop bands,

• and legacy Fitbit devices.

Convincing users to:

• switch ecosystems,

• migrate data,

• and adopt another subscription
  is difficult.

4. Subscription Resistance Could Slow Growth

Google Health Coach requires Google Health Premium, priced around $10/month.

Consumers increasingly resist recurring subscriptions for:

• fitness apps,

• streaming,

• productivity software,

• and wellness services.

Many Reddit users already expressed skepticism about paying for AI-generated health coaching.

The Types of AI Insights Provided by Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach

The central promise of Google Health Coach is transforming raw health data into actionable intelligence.

The AI insight system appears to operate across several major categories.

1. Sleep Intelligence

Sleep is one of the most valuable areas for wearable analytics because:

• it affects recovery,

• mental performance,

• mood,

• metabolism,

• and long-term health.

Google Health Coach analyzes:

• sleep stages,

• HRV,

• consistency,

• interruptions,

• breathing patterns,

• and recovery signals.

The AI then generates:

• bedtime suggestions,

• sleep optimization recommendations,

• recovery guidance,

• and behavioral interventions.

Over time, Google may build predictive sleep models that identify patterns linked to stress, illness, or burnout before users consciously notice them.

2. Recovery and Readiness Scores

Recovery analysis appears heavily inspired by Whoop and Oura.

The AI examines:

• HRV,

• resting heart rate,

• sleep quality,

• activity load,

• and stress signals.

It can then recommend:

• lighter workouts,

• recovery days,

• hydration,

• or sleep prioritization.

This category is particularly valuable for athletes and highly active users.

3. Adaptive Fitness Coaching

Rather than static plans, Google Health Coach aims to generate adaptive recommendations.

For example:

• reduced training after poor sleep,

• modified workouts during travel,

• progressive cardio load targets,

• or injury-aware recommendations.

This creates a far more dynamic coaching system than traditional fitness apps.

4. Behavioral Pattern Recognition

Longitudinal analysis may become one of Google’s strongest advantages.

Over time, the AI may detect:

• recurring fatigue cycles,

• declining recovery,

• elevated stress,

• reduced activity consistency,

• or changes in behavioral habits.

This moves wellness tracking from isolated daily scores toward deeper behavioral intelligence.

5. Conversational Health Interfaces

The conversational layer is arguably the most transformative feature.

Users can ask natural-language questions such as:

• “Why was my recovery poor?”

• “What habits are affecting my sleep?”

• “How can I improve energy levels?”

This fundamentally changes the relationship between users and wearable data.

Instead of interpreting charts manually, users interact conversationally with an AI wellness system.

The Impact of Competition: Oura, Whoop, Apple, Garmin and Others

Google enters an extremely competitive market.

Each major competitor occupies a different position within the wearable ecosystem.

Oura Ring

Oura Ring pioneered passive wellness tracking and recovery-focused analytics.

Its strengths include:

• elegant industrial design,

• strong sleep analysis,

• high comfort,

• and premium branding.

Oura remains especially popular among:

• wellness enthusiasts,

• executives,

• celebrities,

• and biohacking communities.

However, Google potentially has advantages in:

• AI infrastructure,

• broader ecosystem integration,

• pricing,

• and data aggregation.

Oura may maintain differentiation through:

• hardware design,

• simplicity,

• and luxury positioning.

Whoop

Whoop 5.0 may face the greatest competitive pressure.

The Fitbit Air closely mirrors the Whoop philosophy:

• screenless design,

• continuous monitoring,

• recovery analysis,

• and coaching-driven experiences.

However, Google significantly undercuts Whoop’s pricing model.

Reddit reactions repeatedly highlighted that:

• Fitbit Air offers lower hardware costs,

• free functionality exists without mandatory subscriptions,

• and Google Health integrates broader AI capabilities.

Whoop appears to be responding by emphasizing:

• human coaching,

• clinical expertise,

• and performance specialization.

This may become a broader industry trend:
AI systems handling routine coaching while humans focus on higher-value expertise.

Apple

Apple Watch Series 10 remains the dominant mainstream wearable.

Apple’s strengths include:

• hardware quality,

• medical-grade sensors,

• ecosystem lock-in,

• and brand loyalty.

However, Apple Watch is fundamentally a smartwatch first and wellness tracker second.

Google is betting that many users:

• no longer want another screen,

• do not need apps on their wrist,

• and prefer passive wellness systems.

The two companies may ultimately converge toward different philosophies:

• Apple = multifunction wearable computing,

• Google = AI wellness intelligence.

Garmin

Garmin dominates endurance and outdoor athletics.

Garmin excels in:

• advanced training metrics,

• GPS accuracy,

• multisport ecosystems,

• and athletic performance analysis.

Google is unlikely to displace Garmin among elite athletes anytime soon.

Instead, Fitbit Air targets:

• mainstream wellness,

• casual fitness,

• and AI-driven lifestyle optimization.

How Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach Are Likely to Evolve Over Time

The long-term evolution will likely center more on software than hardware.

1. Predictive Health Intelligence

Google’s future likely involves predictive wellness systems.

The AI may eventually forecast:

• illness risk,

• burnout,

• stress overload,

• recovery decline,

• or behavioral deterioration.

This would move wearable technology closer to preventative healthcare.

2. Deeper Medical Integration

Google already references medical record integration within Google Health.

Future capabilities could include:

• doctor-facing summaries,

• medication management,

• chronic condition monitoring,

• and preventative screening support.

This would move Google closer to regulated digital healthcare.

3. Multimodal AI Wellness Systems

Google’s Gemini ecosystem enables multimodal inputs.

Future systems may combine:

• biometrics,

• meal photos,

• voice analysis,

• behavioral data,

• location patterns,

• and calendar stress indicators.

This would create increasingly personalized wellness intelligence.

4. More Sophisticated Behavioral Coaching

The future of AI wellness likely depends less on raw data and more on behavioral psychology.

Google may increasingly optimize:

• habit formation,

• adherence,

• motivation,

• and long-term engagement.

This could make wellness systems substantially more effective.

5. Hardware May Become Less Important

Ironically, the wearable itself may eventually matter less.

Google’s larger strategy appears to center around:

• data aggregation,

• AI interpretation,

• and ecosystem intelligence.

The AI platform could ultimately become more important than any individual device.

Recommendations to Teams on How to Best Utilize Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach

Organizations, sports teams, employers, and wellness programs can potentially derive substantial value from these systems if implemented carefully.

1. Focus on Long-Term Trends

Daily fluctuations are often noisy and misleading.

The greatest value comes from:

• longitudinal analysis,

• behavioral consistency,

• workload balance,

• and recovery patterns.

Teams should emphasize trends over isolated metrics.

2. Combine AI With Human Expertise

AI should support — not replace — coaches, physicians, trainers, or wellness experts.

The strongest model is likely:

• AI for continuous monitoring,

• humans for judgment and interpretation.

3. Prioritize Privacy and Consent

Health data is extremely sensitive.

Organizations should establish:

• transparent data policies,

• consent frameworks,

• sharing boundaries,

• and clear governance structures.

Trust is essential for adoption.

4. Educate Users on Metrics

Many users misunderstand:

• HRV,

• recovery scores,

• cardio load,

• and readiness metrics.

Proper education is necessary to avoid:

• overreaction,

• anxiety,

• or misinterpretation.

5. Use Wearables to Reinforce Habits

The ultimate value is not the data itself.

It is behavioral change.

Organizations should use Google Health Coach to reinforce:

• sleep consistency,

• recovery discipline,

• stress management,

• and sustainable training practices.

Conclusion

Google’s Fitbit Air and Google Health Coach represent one of the most important shifts in the wearable industry since the rise of the smartwatch.

The Fitbit Air hardware itself is intentionally minimalist:

• affordable,

• screenless,

• lightweight,

• and designed for passive wellness monitoring.

But the larger strategic ambition is much broader.

Google is attempting to build an AI-powered health operating system capable of:

• aggregating data,

• interpreting wellness signals,

• predicting behavioral trends,

• and delivering continuous personalized coaching.

The launch also reflects several broader industry trends:

• AI becoming the interface layer for health,

• growing consumer interest in passive wellness tracking,

• digital minimalism,

• and increasing demand for personalized preventative health guidance.

Whether this becomes a true industry breakthrough depends on several unresolved factors:

• user trust in Google’s handling of health data,

• the quality and reliability of AI-generated advice,

• competitive responses from Apple, Oura, and Whoop,

• and consumers’ willingness to pay recurring subscription fees.

Even if Fitbit Air itself does not dominate wearable hardware sales, Google Health Coach may still prove highly influential because it points toward the likely future of consumer wellness technology: not simply tracking data, but continuously interpreting, contextualizing, and guiding human behavior through AI-powered health intelligence.

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Curt built his career at the intersection of strength and conditioning and sports science, beginning as an athlete before transitioning into coaching when his playing career ended. He started out as a strength and conditioning coach, gaining hands-on experience in training and athlete development while working in environments where sports science was just beginning to emerge. During this time, he effectively operated across multiple roles—blending coaching with early sports science responsibilities—which gave him a strong foundation in both performance training and data-driven decision-making.

Prior to his current position, Curt held various performance-focused roles across team and private training settings, where he worked directly with athletes on development, rehabilitation, and performance optimization. These experiences exposed him to different systems, technologies, and athlete needs, helping him build a holistic understanding of performance environments. Today, as Vice President of Health & Performance at Excel Sports Management, he leverages that background to oversee performance, medical, and sports science initiatives, ensuring athletes receive individualized, high-level support throughout their careers.

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on:

• His journey & journey.

• His role & day-to-day impact

• His philosophy on performance training

• Individualization & athlete care

• What makes Excel Sports Management unique

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Curt located at the top of this blog post.

Here are the quotes from the interview with Curt:

1. Background & Journey
“Growing up I would have loved to become an athlete… But at one point we fail out or the talent gets above us and we have to move on. I was more of a strength and conditioning coach by trade—that was the lens I viewed everything through. As a strength coach in that time, you kind of had to wear the hat of sports scientist before all these roles were created, and getting really good insight into the tech and what you’re looking to measure really helped me later on in my career. Having a good understanding of what those people are looking at and how those worlds come together helps create a system that sports science fuels and performance fuels.”

2. Role & Day-to-Day Impact
“My role specifically is always changing. Working within the agency is kind of this middle space between the team setting and a private setting. My role now is creating the environment and making sure the team has all the resources they need to deliver. A lot of what I do is understanding the landscape of performance and what’s out there, and if our athletes are training elsewhere, it’s about knowing who the good groups are so we can make sure they have the right support system. Ultimately, we can fill in the gaps no matter what support system they already have.”

3. Philosophy on Performance Training
“You have to look at this holistic picture of what the athlete is. There’s so much stuff out there—it’s easy to get lost in it—so it starts with asking, what problem are you trying to solve? The larger picture is that there’s a lot of context that goes into what makes someone perform well. With younger athletes, you’re still trying to grow those attributes, but once you’re established, it becomes about refining and maintaining performance. With vets, it’s about keeping you healthy so you can stay on the field—because if you’re still playing at that point, it’s because you’re a hell of a player, and we just want to keep you there.”

4. Individualization & Athlete Care
“The biggest thing you can do is the level of understanding. You know someone better after 20 years, and our goal is to get to that level of understanding with athletes. We’re never going to get it perfect, but every experience helps us learn—whether it’s something that works or doesn’t. It’s about how we utilize the tech and the numbers, but also conversations and what we’re seeing day to day, to better understand them. The better we understand them, the better we can support them—or help others support them. Ultimately, it comes down to time—time building relationships and time with the data—and I don’t think anyone is more directly aligned with the athlete than us.”

5. What Makes Excel Unique
“The differentiator for us right now is that we exist—having a performance team within an agency hasn’t really existed before. Our role is to be that internal support group for each athlete. Our North Star is on-field or on-court performance, because if you’re playing at your best, that drives contract value and opportunities. We can meet athletes at different levels, from annual checkups to fully hands-on support, but the goal is always to create a system that helps them pinpoint what’s going to move the needle. Ultimately, we’re trying to make those blurred lines less blurry when it comes to development and longevity.”

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