Seattle, WA
Saturday August 27, 2016
Sports is a passion that unifies everyone. Athletes are a source of pride for their teams. But to make them the legends that they are, a lot of hard work has to go in off the fields as well. There is a constant check on their diet and nutrition, the frequency and intensity of their workouts and practice matches. It would be fair if you say a lot goes in into that last goal that distinguishes the winner from the losers.
Seattle Reign women’s soccer team recently had an astounding victory against the Portland Thorns. Megan Rapinoe was the star of the match, who managed to score a goal against a much younger defender, a year and a half after a major knee surgery.
The team who is responsible for keeping Reign players fit and on the top of their game has a new tool to help them do that. Sports Performance Platform is Microsoft’s latest attempt to make a niche for itself in the sports arena. Sports Performance Platform is a customized, data analyzing system that helps a team more data driven decisions on the field.
The software is an analytics display tool as well as a web-based data source. It works fairly simply. The players are required to a take a mini wellness survey daily that inquires about their quality of sleep, soreness, hydration and other variables that might affect their performances. GPS and heart rate trackers that they wear during training sessions also get logged in to the software. The results are displayed for each individual and helps the coaches to decide the team’s weaknesses and when a player requires time off field. This really helps in preventing injury.
Microsoft has partnered with several other sports team to enhance its experience in the field of sports science. Microsoft’s aim is to make this a more commonplace tool not only limited to the professional but also to the high school and amateur teams.
