Category Archives: Tech of Sports

From the shoes we wear on our feet to the high definition televisions in our living room, wearable devices, the sports universe is a breeding ground for technology. Writer and Photographer Rick Limpert will examine this each week on The Tech of Sports – With guests which include athletes, inventors and journalists that cover the intersection of sports and technology.

Jeff Morin, CEO and Co-Founder of Liteboxer

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Rick is joined by Jeff Morin this week on ‘Tech of Sports.’

Jeff us the CEO and Co-Founder of Liteboxer.

Liteboxer uses technology to bring about positive and lasting change through fitness. Punch into a new routine. Punch past your limitations.

Jeff Morin is a MIT-educated engineer and certified personal trainer with an eye for both physical and technological performance. Jeff led manufacturing at DEKA and Formlabs prior to co-founding Liteboxer.

At CES, Liteboxer announced its virtual reality offering called Liteboxer VR available on Quest 2.

The fully immersive fitness experience will feature new workouts daily, making Liteboxer VR the first VR workout experience created by fitness experts. Here are the highlights:

Trainer-led Workouts: Unlike current VR fitness offerings, Liteboxer VR immerses users in real trainer-led workouts with actual coaching and interaction (rather than just exergaming).

Controllerless Experiences: Using precise hand-tracking software–a first for fitness virtual reality–Liteboxer VR offers a controllerless workout, providing all the same intensity without the need to grip hardware.

No Music Packs Required: Liteboxer’s exclusive partnership with Universal Music Group keeps their extensive music library accessible to all Liteboxer VR subscribers, enabling users to curate playlists to make personalized soundtracks.

Go Head to Head: Liteboxers can participate in direct challenges with family, friends, and fellow Quest 2 users while tracking their own performance with in-app leaderboards and personal stats.

Liteboxer’s VR fitness experience will be available to consumers on Quest 2 starting March 3rd, 2022.

Liteboxer has an assembled footprint of 37.6” x 55.5” (~95.5cm x ~141cm).

Great to talk with Jeff!

 

Philippe Etienne, French Ambassador to US on French Tech at CES 2022, 2024 Paris Olympics and more

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Rick talks with the Ambassador of France to the US, Philippe Etienne this week on ‘Tech of Sports.’

Étienne served as chief diplomatic adviser to the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, from 2017 to 2019. He was nominated as ambassador of France in the United States effective September 2019.

He was in Las Vegas last week leading the French Tech delegation, which was huge. Lots of innovation and potential from France and putting #greentech front and center.

France is the leading European country in terms of number of green start-ups as well as legal and tax reforms that support ecological goals and sustainable business models. This exclusive breakfast session will include key policy makers along with successful companies implementing innovative sustainability businesses. 

A great talk with the Ambassador and thanks for a few moments of his time.

Gabby Thomas, Olympian, Lenovo’s ‘Just Watch Us’ Campaign

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Rick is joined by Gabby Thomas this week. Thomas won both a silver and bronze in Tokyo and is the third fastest woman all-time in the 200 meters.

A graduate of Harvard University, she studied neurobiology and global health as an undergraduate. While at Harvard, Thomas won 22 conference titles across her three years of athletics in six different events, setting the school and Ivy League records in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and the indoor 60 meters. She is now doing postgraduate work at the University of Texas.

Gabby is partnering with Lenovo for a new campaign.

Lenovo’s “Just Watch Us” Campaign for ThinkPad Z.

Just Watch Us will position the new ThinkPad Z as the technology that has arrived at the most opportune time in history to help create change: a tool that will not only allow Gen Z +Y to excel in the new world of work, but to power their ideas that will imagine, create and define the future. This campaign will activate a call for the trailblazers to rethink and reimagine what’s next; they will be the face, the voice, and inspiration of the campaign.

Gabby is a Lenovo user and her passion for health and technology, including how she is using smarter technology to drive health equity outcomes and reform the healthcare industry to better serve historically disadvantaged communities.

Have a listen and best of luck to Gabby.

Paul Shirley, Author, ‘The Process is the Product’ and Basketball Opinions

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Rick is joined by Paul Shirley this week as he has a new book!

The Process is the Product.

Here’s the lesson Paul Shirley has learned: it doesn’t matter if it’s professional sports, writing, public speaking, engineering, or acting—there will never be enough money, fame, or success to justify all the work if you can’t enjoy the work itself. You have to fall in love with the process.

In The Process Is The Product, Paul shares the stories of failure and rebirth that have taught him this lesson with one goal in mind: helping you fall in love with your process so you can find meaning, finish projects, and accomplish the goals you set for yourself.

Featuring plenty of humor, humility, and outside sources, this is a book designed to equip readers with the tools to break big projects into smaller tasks while learning to love the work along the way.

Shirley talks his current book, his past book and some of the surprising early season success of the 2021-22 Iowa State Men’s Basketball Team. They are enjoying the “process.”

Shirley played for 17 professional basketball teams in a nine-year career, including stops in Spain, Greece, Russia, and with three teams in the NBA. He’s the author of two works of nonfiction: Can I Keep My Jersey? and Stories I Tell On Dates.

Holly Sonders, Golf Personality, Model, Social Media

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Rick is joined this week on “Tech of Sports” by former Golf Channel and FOX Sports broadcaster, Holly Sonders. Her story is an incredible one, rising to fame through golf broadcasting and becoming one of the first “womenpreneurs” in the Sports and modeling world through social media.

Holly is candid and insightful as the former college golfer talks about NIL deals, how she is using social media as a female entrepreneur creating a multi-million dollar business online. Her new love interest with Celebrity Boxer Oscar de la Hoya and how she helped him when he had COVID and was hospitalized a few months ago.

She’s in the tech space as her new NFT just dropped is already priced at over $10k, which includes exclusive access to the NFT community and never before released photos.

That and some great Golf Channel stories. It’s great to catch up with Holly.

 

 

Dave Heeren, NBA Statistician, New Book ‘Seventy-Five: Best NBA Players and Teams Rated by Statistician who has Seen Games Since 1947’

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Great to be joined by the legendary Dave Heeren this week. Dave has seen NBA games since 1947 and has a new book out taking statistics and the TENDEX Method into account to rank the top-75 NBA players of all-time.

The book is Seventy-Five.

Dave is an award-winning journalist and author of 18 books. He invented his pioneer statistics system (later known as TENDEX) during his sophomore year at the University of Delaware. He has served as a statistician for the NY Knicks, a sports editor, news editor and editor-in-chief. His other books include five Basketball Abstract books, Basic Ball and The Sporting Stings. His TENDEX system has been used officially on every continent that had major professional basketball leagues between 1988 and 2013, and has been used to rate players by the Australian pro league and every European league.

Throughout the 2021-2022 season, the NBA will commemorate its 75th anniversary, and the latest book, Seventy-Five, from prolific sports reporter and pioneer NBA statistician Dave Heeren is a slam dunk for every basketball fan’s wish list.

Heeren is known worldwide for his TENDEX rating system — the gold standard for ranking players, projecting drafts and rating the best teams in the NBA. He has also witnessed all 75 years of the NBA through his work as a team statistician for the New York Knicks, writing books, doing columns for The Sporting News and just his love of the game since he was a child.

Seventy-Five provides an in-depth, entertaining journey through 75 years of the NBA, with information of interest to basketball fans everywhere, including:

– A look-back at all 75 years with TENDEX (statistical) input, including insights dating to the Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain prime years;

– How, during a 30-year period, TENDEX rated two-thirds of the elite NBA draft choices more accurately than the NBA’s multi-million dollar scouting system;

– Dozens of fascinating facts and humor-infused anecdotes;

– The four legendary players in a near tie for greatest of all time according to TENDEX;

– The greatest NBA teams of all-time, greatest shooters, rebounders, playmakers, defensive players, most durable players and most athletic players according to TENDEX formulae;

– A chart rating in order the top 75 players of all time;

– … and more!

I personally enjoyed this chat with Dave, I hope you will too.