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WSJ: New Tech gives LSU huge training advantage
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:30 am
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:30 am
From today's WSJ:
No. 2 Louisiana State heads to Atlanta this Saturday as the favorite in the Southeastern Conference Championship. The Tigers’ rise is due in large part to its new-look offense, anchored by quarterback Joe Burrow’s devastating efficiency and an unstoppable run game.
But the Tigers’ success may also be partly owed to a technological advance in the weight-room arms race that has gripped college football in recent years. And it might not have happened if an unsolicited email last January from an unknown fitness startup founded by a trio of 20-something athletes-turned-entrepreneurs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology slipped through the cracks.
LSU strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt received the unusual email in January from Jacob Rothman, the chief executive and co-founder of a company called Perch. The fitness startup wanted LSU to test a device it created to collect data in the area of “velocity-based training,” a weightlifting technique in which coaches prescribe and measure how fast athletes move a weighted barbell in addition to total weight and repetitions. This kind of training increases power and explosiveness, key aspects of impeding defensive linemen and breaking tackles.
The Perch device works by pointing an XBox-Kinect-like camera on top of a weight rack and tracking an athlete’s movements, uploading data to the cloud in real time, and allowing coaches and trainers to see the results immediately on a tablet. Existing systems are clunky and error prone: wires with magnetic sensors attached to the barbells record data, but they are prone to falling off and tangling.
“What we’re doing is essentially making a weight rack smart,” said Perch CEO and co-founder Jacob Rothman, who first began working on the product with fellow mechanical engineer Nate Rodman and computer science grad student Jordan Lucier in 2017.
Perch was looking for a major team to serve as a pilot program for its device, without much luck. “We were just doing cold outreaches to Power Five schools and universities and professional programs,” said Rothman.
LSU’s Moffitt, who oversees one of the country’s most highly regarded conditioning programs, was the first coach to respond. Moffitt was intrigued, if a little incredulous, by Perch’s claims. The company didn’t yet have any clients in college football’s top level Football Bowl Subdivision, but its founders were convincing in subsequent phone calls. He ordered assistant strength coach Jeremy Jacobs to test a demo unit the startup sent to “see if it was legit.”
Three weeks after Perch installed units on each of the 22 weight racks at LSU’s indoor football facility on Oct. 1, Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said he noticed differences in his team’s performance on the field.
“I think our guys are stronger and quicker and faster,” he said in late October. “I think as the season goes on, there’s not as many injuries this year as there were in years’ past and that’s because of our strength and conditioning.”
Existing systems that are used in velocity-based training are reliable, but tedious, Moffitt said. Assistant coaches had to manually record the velocity readouts for every player, which the junior trainer on staff then entered into Excel after the team’s Monday and Thursday lifting sessions.
“We were glad to stop using it,” said senior defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko.
Now that players are lifting with Perch twice weekly, they say the benefits are tangible.
“When we get into short yardage situations, that’s when you really see the explosion of the hips and the lower body workouts come together,” said center Lloyd Cushenberry III.
No position group has become more explosive on the field than LSU’s running backs. Consider Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the Tigers’ 5-foot-8 running back who has racked up 1,234 rushing yards and averages 6.8 yards per carry, both second most in the SEC.
“Clyde—he’s a short guy, but he has so much power in his lower body,” said the 6-foot-4, 315-pound Cushenberry. “He’s a great power cleaner and squatter, so you can definitely see that transfer to the field.”
No. 2 Louisiana State heads to Atlanta this Saturday as the favorite in the Southeastern Conference Championship. The Tigers’ rise is due in large part to its new-look offense, anchored by quarterback Joe Burrow’s devastating efficiency and an unstoppable run game.
But the Tigers’ success may also be partly owed to a technological advance in the weight-room arms race that has gripped college football in recent years. And it might not have happened if an unsolicited email last January from an unknown fitness startup founded by a trio of 20-something athletes-turned-entrepreneurs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology slipped through the cracks.
LSU strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt received the unusual email in January from Jacob Rothman, the chief executive and co-founder of a company called Perch. The fitness startup wanted LSU to test a device it created to collect data in the area of “velocity-based training,” a weightlifting technique in which coaches prescribe and measure how fast athletes move a weighted barbell in addition to total weight and repetitions. This kind of training increases power and explosiveness, key aspects of impeding defensive linemen and breaking tackles.
The Perch device works by pointing an XBox-Kinect-like camera on top of a weight rack and tracking an athlete’s movements, uploading data to the cloud in real time, and allowing coaches and trainers to see the results immediately on a tablet. Existing systems are clunky and error prone: wires with magnetic sensors attached to the barbells record data, but they are prone to falling off and tangling.
“What we’re doing is essentially making a weight rack smart,” said Perch CEO and co-founder Jacob Rothman, who first began working on the product with fellow mechanical engineer Nate Rodman and computer science grad student Jordan Lucier in 2017.
Perch was looking for a major team to serve as a pilot program for its device, without much luck. “We were just doing cold outreaches to Power Five schools and universities and professional programs,” said Rothman.
LSU’s Moffitt, who oversees one of the country’s most highly regarded conditioning programs, was the first coach to respond. Moffitt was intrigued, if a little incredulous, by Perch’s claims. The company didn’t yet have any clients in college football’s top level Football Bowl Subdivision, but its founders were convincing in subsequent phone calls. He ordered assistant strength coach Jeremy Jacobs to test a demo unit the startup sent to “see if it was legit.”
Three weeks after Perch installed units on each of the 22 weight racks at LSU’s indoor football facility on Oct. 1, Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said he noticed differences in his team’s performance on the field.
“I think our guys are stronger and quicker and faster,” he said in late October. “I think as the season goes on, there’s not as many injuries this year as there were in years’ past and that’s because of our strength and conditioning.”
Existing systems that are used in velocity-based training are reliable, but tedious, Moffitt said. Assistant coaches had to manually record the velocity readouts for every player, which the junior trainer on staff then entered into Excel after the team’s Monday and Thursday lifting sessions.
“We were glad to stop using it,” said senior defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko.
Now that players are lifting with Perch twice weekly, they say the benefits are tangible.
“When we get into short yardage situations, that’s when you really see the explosion of the hips and the lower body workouts come together,” said center Lloyd Cushenberry III.
No position group has become more explosive on the field than LSU’s running backs. Consider Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the Tigers’ 5-foot-8 running back who has racked up 1,234 rushing yards and averages 6.8 yards per carry, both second most in the SEC.
“Clyde—he’s a short guy, but he has so much power in his lower body,” said the 6-foot-4, 315-pound Cushenberry. “He’s a great power cleaner and squatter, so you can definitely see that transfer to the field.”
This post was edited on 12/5/19 at 10:37 am
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:34 am to prplhze2000
Okay so good read but you posted half of it twice lol.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:34 am to prplhze2000
I read every single word of that post
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:37 am to Hoovertigah
quote:
It’s so looong!
That's what she said.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:39 am to prplhze2000
Brady + Burrow is the new tech
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:40 am to prplhze2000
Fortunately Tommy does not have a spam filter installed
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:45 am to prplhze2000
I'm at a loss to see how collecting data helps with real time conditioning. Unless they're tailoring the workouts and conditioning based off of this data. It sounds like they were already doing "velocity-based training", now they just have a better way to measure it.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:46 am to prplhze2000
This is incredible. It'll make one hell of a recruiting pitch as well.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 10:56 am to Hoovertigah
frick you.
It's behind a pay wall. If I'd just put up a couple of paragraphs and linked it, you would be griping just as much about a pay wall.
I actually did something nice for you guys. Go frick yourself.
It's behind a pay wall. If I'd just put up a couple of paragraphs and linked it, you would be griping just as much about a pay wall.
I actually did something nice for you guys. Go frick yourself.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 11:04 am to prplhze2000
Thanks for serving your community so well. Didn’t realize you typed it out and everything. Such a strenuous job to copy and paste.
Why would you be offended about a comment about something you didn’t even write? Freaking entitled bit ch.
Why would you be offended about a comment about something you didn’t even write? Freaking entitled bit ch.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 11:04 am to KamaCausey_LSU
quote:
I'm at a loss to see how collecting data helps with real time conditioning. Unless they're tailoring the workouts and conditioning based off of this data. It sounds like they were already doing "velocity-based training", now they just have a better way to measure it.
As a researcher that has worked with humans before, if the system is to cumbersome to use and it relies on human-eye monitoring, then it is flawed. Humans get tired and have bias, so data can get skewed.
It sounds like this system gives them true quantifiable information. Good data probably allows them to tweak the training more reliability. That is all that is happening here. They are doing the same thing they were doing before with better data getting better results.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 11:04 am to prplhze2000
quote:
frick you.
It's behind a pay wall. If I'd just put up a couple of paragraphs and linked it, you would be griping just as much about a pay wall.
I actually did something nice for you guys. Go frick yourself.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 11:05 am to KamaCausey_LSU
The velocity based training is now real time. Meaning each rep can be tailored. Lift too fast add weight, lift too slow decrease weight. Progressive overload not just by completion of form but also by speed which translates to power.
I read another article earlier in the season about it but dont remember where to give a link.
I read another article earlier in the season about it but dont remember where to give a link.
This post was edited on 12/5/19 at 11:06 am
Posted on 12/5/19 at 11:06 am to prplhze2000
For all that our D Line has not been very physical and we've had a lot of injuries.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 11:11 am to Bleeding purple
quote:
The velocity based training is now real time. Meaning each rep can be tailored. Lift too fast add weight, lift too slow decrease weight. Progressive overload not just by completion of form but also by speed which translates to power.
I read another article earlier in the season about it but dont remember where to give a link.
They can also measure exhaustion and injury. If a player is way off of their average velocity on lifts it can alert them to something wrong in real time. Often players will lie about pain and lift through injury, this gives trainers/coaches empirical evidence in real time they aren't 100%.
It's pretty damn cool.
Posted on 12/5/19 at 11:15 am to prplhze2000
Ok, seriously. Who were the two arse clowns that downvoted this? This is a great post!
Posted on 12/5/19 at 12:13 pm to hueygnr
At first, I accidentally pasted several sections twice
Posted on 12/5/19 at 12:56 pm to KamaCausey_LSU
LINK
This is an article from the advocate which explains a little more about why this is better than what they were doing before. Basically it’s like the difference between having to go look up info in a paperback encyclopedia versus everyone having google in their hands at all times.
This is an article from the advocate which explains a little more about why this is better than what they were doing before. Basically it’s like the difference between having to go look up info in a paperback encyclopedia versus everyone having google in their hands at all times.
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