Inside the World of Elite Training

“You have to keep up with the times.” From biosensor technology to anti-gravity treadmills, elite runners are increasingly incorporating technology into their training.

“You have to keep up with the times.” From biosensor technology to anti-gravity treadmills, elite runners are increasingly incorporating cutting-edge technology into their training, injury prevention and recovery.

Sprinter Aaron Brown is a visual learner.

His coaches can tell him to adjust the angle of his body as he explodes off the starting blocks. However, unless he can see it, it’s hard for him to understand and make the change.

So when Brown st a rted training as a college athlete at the Universit y of Southern California in 2010, he was glad that track coaches there were using Dartfish, a sports visualization software. Coaches would film Brown, t hen watch the footage with him in slow motion. They broke down and measured Brown’s movements in front of him on a screen, providing the visual feedback he needed to become a more efficient runner.

“I’d hear an instruction and I wouldn’t be able to associate what they were telling me with what I was doing,” Brown recalls.

“[Dartfish] helped me improve my connection between what my coach was teaching me to do and the movements that I was making.”

Dartfish was one of Brown’s first brushes with technology in the world of running, but it wasn’t his last. While in college, he realized all his teammates and competitors were employing some form of technology in their training, f rom using apps to track workouts to utilizing tools to speed up recovery.

“It’s kind of like if you weren’t using it, then you were almost antiquated and training like an old caveman,” Brown says. “You have to keep up with the times, and you don’t want anybody else to have an edge on you. Everybody’s adopting and seeing the advantages of using technology. So everybody has had to follow suit.”