VANCOUVER – The UBC men's volleyball team will be making a trip to the U SPORTS national championships for the first time since 2007-08 this week. Lack of injuries to key players is one of several reasons rookie head coach
Kerry MacDonald has transitioned a non-playoff team in 2015-16 to the number three-ranked squad heading into the national tournament.
Of course any coach will tell you avoiding injuries takes a lot of luck, but the 'Birds have upped their chances this season by implementing state-of–the-art technology to assist in injury management and maintenance.
In 2016-17 the team has worn VERT Jump Rate Monitors, a wearable device that measures jump rates amongst athletes. Here is how VERT, a company based out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, describes the device:
"The VERT Jump Rate Monitor is a non-invasive, miniature inertial measurement unit (IMU), that allows athletes to perform in games and practices without discomfort. The device pairs with an iOS app that can be monitored by coaches during use, and instantly provides jump rate, jump height and any additional jump-related measurements…
VERT units can calculate motion in all directions, and does so through a proprietary algorithm that contains more than 53 simulations to measure vertical height. The device itself is unnoticeable to both observers and the user, but allows coaches to monitor player jumps in practices, games, tryouts and workouts. This results in a better experience for the athletes who know their injury risk will be minimized."
"What it gives us is a measure of training load, so how much load we are putting them through from a training perspective," says MacDonald. "As well as performance. How high are they jumping? Are they too fatigued and are they able to jump maximally?"
Recently, the US National Volleyball team has signed on with VERT to use the technology. In year one of the Thunderbirds wearing the monitors, the results have been well received.
"Certainly keeping athletes healthy is the number one way to improve performance," says UBC sports scientist
James Brotherhood. "The team has decreased their physiotherapy requirements by thirty percent this year."
"We do some work to make sure we are avoiding over-training," adds MacDonald. "We really look at it around pain and pain severity surrounding knee joints…some players that have had chronic knee injuries in the past, have been healthier this year."
UBC's healthy line-up will begin it's quest for the 'Birds first national championship since 1983 on Friday at 7pm PT in Edmonton.
