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.

BJ Pilling, CEO of GoFan, High School Ticketing

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BJ Pilling is CEO of Atlanta-based GoFan, one of the top digital ticketing companies for high school sports events. He joins Rick to talk about the busy year they’ve already had in 2021 and what the rest of the year has in store.

GoFan is a tech company and a sports company, providing digital ticketing for high school sports and other events nationwide. Digital ticketing has grown quickly over the last five years, but the pandemic really accelerated the pace.

BJ talks about how the technology works, the value for schools, how much money schools will save and generate, and of course the safety aspect.

A few successes in 2021:

May – California – The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) renewed a multi-year agreement with GoFan as the official digital ticketing partner to provide touchless, digital ticketing solutions to high schools and state-wide post season play across California.

June – Florida – The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) renewed a three-year agreement with GoFan as its official digital ticketing partner to provide touchless, digital ticketing solutions to high schools and state-wide post season play across Florida in all ticketed sports. https://tinyurl.com/ydp4mmeo

June – Georgia – GHSA State Baseball Championships – High school baseball fans brought their excitement to the 2021 Georgia High School Association (GHSA) State Baseball Championship games — setting record attendance with 20,788 tickets sold for this year’s games at Truist Park, Coolray Field, and Historic Grayson Stadium. As professional sports and high school sports programs lift capacity limitations, organizers are seeing increased attendance and tremendous fan excitement. Every fan attending the 2021 Baseball Championships used Alpharetta-based GoFan’s platform for purchase. Statewide, more than 60 percent of schools use GoFan.

BJ was great. Listen to this engaging conversation!

Felix Breitschädel, PhD, Norwegian Olympic Sports Centre · Technology & Equipment on GelSight

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Rick talks with Felix Breitschädel, PhD, Norwegian Olympic Sports Centre this week on ‘Tech of Sports.’

How are Norwegian athletes preparing for the Olympics? Both the summer games and the winter games.

The Norwegian Ski Team is utilizing unique tech to give their skiers an edge on the slopes by arming them with detailed data, thanks to GelSight – whose handheld 3D measurement device the Norwegian ski team is using to quite literally, measure snow.

The country of Norway loves its sports and Felix is making sure Norway’s athletes have all the latest tech.

For quick background, the skiers need to understand how the surface of their ski will interact with the snow, and even though there were other measurement tools they could use to measure the topography of the snow, it had to be taken out of the natural environment and into the lab, which impacted results. With the handheld device, GelSight mobile, Felix and his team can investigate the surface of the snow right out on the slopes or rink to identify the snow grains and take pictures of the snow’s surface for future reference. It helps also inform R&D decisions to develop new grinds for equipment for upcoming competitions.

Lots to talk about with Felix!

Dr. Stephen Liu, FORME and the Forme Tour

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Rick talks with Dr. Stephen Liu this week, the man behind FORME and the Forme Tour.

FORME is a transformative solution to daily posture training and lifestyle improvement and Dr. Liu. Additionally, Forme has created the PGA Tour sanctioned Forme Tour to help disadvantaged, minority and Canadian players boost their careers. The top 5 point earners are exempt into the Korn Ferry Tour so a good opportunity for a bunch of golfers who need it.

With athletes in mind, Forme, founded by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Liu, created the Core Tee and sports bra designed to correct and train alignment of the spine/neck/shoulder/hip and increase joint movement, reduce injuries, boost recovery and provide better breathing for increased oxygenation intake. It is a sports and lifestyle wearable therapeutic. While Whoop is a wearable, it is purely a diagnostic; Forme is a wearable therapeutic.

The Forme shirt instantly pulls your shoulders down and back, correcting posture and stance for optimal form, comfort and breathing. You don’t have to do anything but put it on. No stretching, no exercising, no charging. Forme trains and nurtures your body’s alignment, giving you posture that allows you to perform, think and live at your highest level while enhancing the fundamental basics of your biomechanics so that you can make the most use of your body.

It quickly became a hit with U.S. Olympic teams, NBA, MLB, and NHL athletes and both the men’s and women’s U.S. national rugby teams. Now dozens of PGA pros, their caddies and trainers are using it including Harold Varner III, Ben Han, Jared Wolfe (exempt on the PGA tour in 2022), Rohan Ramnath and Adam Scott’s caddie John Limonti and leading trainers and instructors. Images of HV3, (including one of him stretching with Forme under his Nike gear) Ben and John are attached. Data from Sheldon Roberts, HV3’s trainer, showing improvement from his clients are also attached.

While created for athletes, Forme has benefits for non-athletes as well as 70% of the population sits at least 6 hours a day in front of a computer or TV or traveling on a plane. Bad posture has become public enemy #1 for both golfers and non-golfers. The shirt is designed as a natural and sustainable solution for anyone with back and neck issues as the wearable therapeutic naturally trains your muscles to always be in correct posture. “I wear the shirt when I’m flying from event to event and when I am training. Sometimes I even sleep in it. The biggest difference I see in my body is good posture from wearing the shirt”-HV3.

Great to talk with Dr. Liu.

 

Pat Hegewald on the Oldest Operating Velodrome in the US

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Rick is joined this week by his friend and resident Kenosha Wisc. sports historian, Pat Hegewald to talk about the oldest continuously operating velodrome in the country, Washington Park Velodrome. The Washington Park Velodrome is an open-air velodrome in Kenosha, Wisc. It is the longest operating 333 meter track in the United States. The track opened in 1927. During the 2016 season, the track was closed and completely rebuilt. Over the years, it has hosted and produced numerous National, Olympic and World champions.

Mike Gattone, Head Coach US Weightlifting Team

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Rick talks to Mike Gattone, Head Coach of the US Olympic Weightlifting Team this week on iHeartRadio.

Mike has been involved in the sport of weightlifting and the strength and conditioning field for over 30 years. Mike served as High Performance and Coaching Education Director for USA Weightlifting, and was Competition Director for the weightlifting event at the 1996 Olympic Games, the 2009 Pan American Championships, as well as two USA National Championships, National Junior Championships, and the 1992 Olympic Trials. He has coached international and national championship athletes including competitors in multiple World, and Junior World weightlifting Championships, and was personal coach for the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, Tara Nott-Cunningham.

Mike has served as Manager of Coaching for the United States Olympic Committee, and Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago Bulls/Vermeil’s Sports Performance. In addition to weightlifting and strength and conditioning, Mike has also coached track & field at the collegiate and junior college level.

The Mission of USA Weightlifting shall be to support United States athletes in achieving excellence in Olympic and World competition and to support, promote, and educate a diverse and inclusive community of weightlifting and the use of the barbell in the United States.

The USA has a chance to win potentially about 5 medals in the Games (the most in 61 years), and will announce our Olympians next Wednesday the 19 of May, showing our largest team since the United States hosted the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Our medals were only 1 in 2016, 2 in 2000 and then nothing back to 1984. In particular, we have not won a Men’s medal since 1984 and look set to end that this time around.

Different to many sports, our unique story will be told in quick succession because a Weightlifting athletes compete only once, there is no tournament, no early rounds, it’s straight into competition and 2 hours later you win a medal or you do not!

Buoyed by historically strong athletes and a changing landscape in the sport, Team USA Weightlifting has the opportunity to win multiple medals and have its most successful Olympic Games in generations.

USA Weightlifting will send a full team to Tokyo consisting of eight athletes, four men and four women.

“In sending our largest team since 1996, Team USA has already made history,” USA Weightlifting CEO Phil Andrews said. “These 8 athletes have proven their resilience continue to train throughout the year delay, our job now is to give them unrelenting support as they look to deliver each of their Olympic moments in Tokyo, en route to potentially our best Olympic Games in 61 years.”

Nominated to the United States Olympic Team
Women
Athlete – Bodyweight – Hometown
Jourdan Delacruz – 49kg (108lbs) – Wylie, TX

Katherine “Kate” Nye – 76kg (167lbs) – Oakland Township, MI

Martha “Mattie” Rogers – 87kg (192lbs) – Apopka, FL

Sarah Robles – +87kg (+192lbs) – Desert Hot Springs, CA

Men
Athlete – Bodyweight – Hometown

Clarence “CJ” Cummings, Jr. – 73kg (161lbs) – Beaufort, SC

Harrison Maurus – 81kg (179lbs) – Auburn, WA

Wesley “Wes” Kitts – 109kg (240lbs) – Knoxville, TN

Caine Wilkes – +109kg (+240lbs) – Matthews, NC

To prepare for the upcoming Olympic Games, Team USA Weightlifting will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii for a pre-Games training camp. The USAW Hawaii Strong Camp, powered by NBH Bank, will give athletes and their coaches the chance to train in a COVID-19 secure bubble with world-class support staff as well as giving friends and family the chance to be together to support the athletes.

Adam Goodyer, Realife Tech

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A great Tech of Sports guest this week, as Rick is joined by Adam Goodyer of Realife Tech.

With live events strategically being held, we are starting to see organizations preparing their venues for fans. The safety of fans who attend these games/events is now taking priority, and new innovations in live event technology are reassuring fans’ comfortability in attending. I wanted to gauge your interest in having Adam Goodyer, CEO of Realife Tech, on the Tech of Sports Podcast around the steps organizations are taking to provide safety before, during and after live events. Adam can speak on:

What new features event venues are deploying to reduce key touchpoints, such as paperless ticketing, mobile ordering, and contactless collection from concessions?

Rick and Adam discuss all this and more.

Realife Tech works with some of the biggest sporting and entertainment clients across Europe and North America. Using advanced data analytics and innovative UI, the Realife platform creates technology that increases mobile spend and revenues at live events. Realife Tech works with the world’s biggest venues and events, including The O2, London; Tottenham Hotspur Stadium; LA Galaxy & Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Outside Lands Festival.