How health data gives the pro edge

With sports medicine experts and GPS devices, professional athletes are notching up their game and endurance

DR SIDAK DHILLON dreamt of becoming a professional football player as a child. While his life took a different turn as he pursued medicine, the love for the sport brought him back to it. If he couldn’t become a footballer, he could at least create one. Armed with composite health data, he now spends his hours ensuring that the players in his team, Round Glass Punjab FC, remain fit, play their best and don’t get injured.

He is among a growing number of sports medicine experts who are looking after professional athletes in various sporting leagues this season to enhance their performance and prevent injuries. And all this is done with a data-driven customised approach, the latest health trackers and technologies. Each player has a dedicated team of coaches, doctors, physiotherapists and masseurs.

So how does this work? Take the case of wearables that can be slapped on athlete jerseys. “In a game of football, wearables can monitor how many yards a player runs in a game, session or week. They also show tackles, pass completion and goals. That data transfers to graphs and guides coaches on how to boost player strengths and work on player weaknesses and get them off the ground. Managers use the information to choose their best players in a squad and position them in a team game,” says Dr Dhillon.

Tools like biomechanical sensors and motion-capture programmes can guard players from a burnout by spotting wear and tear. Addressing imbalances and poor technique means players suffer fewer injuries and enjoy quicker recovery. That’s why injuries like tennis or golfers elbows are becoming a thing of the past.

“From tracking the strength of individual muscles and planning training sessions accordingly, to advising rest when the muscles are overworked, every little detail matters. Data on how much distance the athlete has covered running, how many accelerations and decelerations have happened during a game or a training session tells us when the muscles of a player are fatigued or prone to injury. We know exactly whether to push them more or less,” says Dr Dhillon. Though elite players perform in short seasons, their training takes place in three modules round the year — preseason, in season and post-season. This becomes necessary at a time when event calendars are overcrowded.

Before the games begin

Profiling begins way before the league season where doctors first look at strength and agility. Dr Mukul Mittal, sports medicine expert at Delhi’s BLK-MAX Hospital, who has worked with professional football players, says, “There is a lot of testing that happens pre-season to create a profile of the athletes. What tests are done depends on what sports they play. If they participate in endurance sports such as long-distance running, it’s important to test their oxygen consumption. If they are power sports athletes, their peak strength and power have to be tested. For sports such as cricket or football, where the players have to run around as well as use short bursts of force when they are batting, bowling or kicking the ball, they have to be tested for both parameters.”

With an increasing number of athletes, specialised labs have come up offering a series of tests to athletes to gauge their strength and power. Dr Mittal explains how strength and power of different muscles during different movements can be evaluated using a isokinetic dynamometer — a machine that looks like a gym equipment with sensors to record the strength. The amount of power in the lower limbs of the athletes can be gauged using a force plate that can calculate the force exerted when they jump on it.

A 3D motion analysis pans joint angles, range of motion and velocity during movements. The maximal oxygen consumption or VO2 max can be very accurately determined in the lab with the help of masks that can calculate air exchange while the player is on a cycle or treadmill. This is the best measure of cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance. “Of course, smart watches can monitor them but that calculation is based on their pace of physical activity and heart rate. They do not actually look at the oxygen that you take in, so it is inaccurate,” says Dr Mittal.

Dr Dhillon says that field tests like the onerepeat maximum test — the amount of weight a person can lift for one repetition — can be used to gauge the strength of different muscles. However, Ashutosh Nimse from Mumbai’s Kokilaben Hospital vouches for the Y balance test, T drill and the Yo-yo test. The Y balance test requires an athlete to balance on one leg while reaching out as far as possible with the other leg in three separate directions. The T drill requires players to move forward, then left and right in a T shape to test agility. In the Yo-yo test, they have to run between two markers at increasing speeds till exhaustion to determine aerobic endurance. “Coaches can then understand which muscle to train. Sometimes there could be a difference in power on, say, the right and left leg, that also has to be corrected,” explains Dr Mittal.

A full body check-up

Of course, there’s no skipping basic blood

tests to check for deficiencies and body composition tests. ECG and Echo are done for athletes, especially those who participate in endurance and mixed sports.

Specialised tests such as sport concussion assessment tool-5 are performed for those into contact sports like kabaddi where players are likely to take hits to the head. As Nimse, who has worked with kabaddi players, explains, “This is a series of tests to assess memory function, balance, coordination, cognitive function, reactive ability, decision making and memory. It is essential to map the neurological function of an athlete at the beginning of the season for contact sports. Should they take a knock on the head, we can compare with the baseline and treat it.”

The game season drill

Dr Dhillon emphasises the importance of adequate rest to prevent non-contact injuries — those that are caused by overuse of muscles. That’s why, Nimse argues, workload monitoring becomes essential. “GPS devices that can be attached to the players’ chest strap or jersey are used throughout the matches and training sessions. These devices can record how much a player is running, the acceleration, sprints and deceleration throughout the game. For example, for a fast bowler, they will provide details of the distance covered and intensity of play for each ball. Once the match is over, you can collect the data, an alyse performance sand determine if athletes need to train or rest.” This is widely used during IPL.

Dr Dhillon plans resting routines for players. “After a match, there has to be 48 hours of rest. The first 24 hours will be active recovery, so you do light jogging or movements in the water. the second day you take complete rest .” Players get massages, ice baths and and cryocompression to relax their muscles. The chill, before the stadium roars with excitement.

TASHI TOBGYAL