Miami Hurricanes Use Technology to Improve Performance & Safety

During this year’s “Canes Camp”, leading up to the 2015 college football season, the Miami Hurricanes aren’t just suiting-up in helmets, pads and jerseys. Nope, they’re also throwing on GPS systems, attached to a vest-like harness (worn under their pads) to help perfect and monitor: speed, distance and impact.

“With the help of the Catapult GPS system worn by most of Miami’s starters through spring practice and fall training camp, Golden and his staff have tried to create the perfect practice,” writes Christy Cabrera Chirinos, Sun Sentinel Reporter. “They can see – in real time – when players are getting overworked and need to take a break. They’ve built-in additional rest and teaching periods after the more intense portions of practice. And if a player exerts himself too much – as one did on the day he covered more than 7,000 yards in a single workout – Miami coaches and trainers pull him off the field and ease his workload until his body has recovered.”

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And so far, this GPS technology seems to be working. Other than some minor injuries to players like: Gus Edwards, Braxton Berrios, Malcolm Lewis and Juwon Young, the Hurricanes have remained intact.

According to Catapult USA, “Monitoring elite athletes was predominantly laboratory-based, however, relying on participants using gym equipment – which provided great insight into elite sport demands, but because the athlete wasn’t in their natural environment, they weren’t physically exerting themselves in the same way they would during competition.” Thus, the company founded their mission on a want for a new way to take the experiment to the game itself, developing and deploying wearable sensors, making it more accessible and routine for athletes to be monitored during game-like conditions.

Another technology Miami has implemented this off-season is the use of drones to oversee play. And in return, giving players and coaches footage like no other to be reviewed. And, why wouldn’t they? Drones seem to be everywhere and quite affordable. For a whopping $500 this newer technology can become available to anyone looking for a height advantage.

“When you see from the drone’s point of view, you get a complete panoramic view of the field,” Kaaya told The Associated Press. “You see what I’m seeing. You see the whole field better and then it’s easier to show coaches what I was thinking at any given moment.”

Apparently, Hurricanes’ Offensive Coordinator, James Coley purchased a drone with five battery packs (the life span of each battery is about 10 minutes per charge) after witnessing one buzzing around, while on a trip to the British Virgin Islands.

Though the drones and GPS systems seem to work well, there’s no better and more beneficial technology than the one being applied to Miami’s Offensive Lineman, Hunter Knighton.

On February 29, 2014, Knighton nearly died on-field after seizures, brain swelling and vital organs shutting down due to heatstroke. He fell into a coma.

Now cleared to play football (after 18 months recovering), Knighton is using a new technology that monitors his vitals.

“The night before practices, Knighton swallows pills that allow trainers to use a sensor to reflect his internal temperature while he’s playing,” writes Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald.

When it comes to a player’s safety, I completely believe in taking every precaution necessary. However, when it comes to using technology to try improve a game I already love, I’m still on the fence – call me old-fashioned.

But, who knows, maybe that terrible overtime, pass-interference call against Miami in the 2002 National Championship game would’ve been reversed if there was better technology back then like instant replay?

Still, what’s next? A chip inserted into every football? Or, micro-cameras embedded into every helmet? Or, how about robots? That’s it, robots playing football against robots… Who needs players? Just engineers.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. What do you think about the combination of technology and sports?

Next: Check out Pro-Canes, Phillip Dorsett turning heads, literally!

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