Wearables getting niche
Smart wearables are getting more advanced, and more specific. We started out with Google Glass, then came smartwatches, and then came a bevy of fitness trackers. Most fitness trackers count steps and give you feedback about your workout.
They’re popular amongst people who jog or walk recreationally for exercise. But a new wearable called StrikeTec aims to give even more precise and specific analytics to top athletes in boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts.
A competitive edge
StrikeTec is a small, square sensor that come with a strap, or can be attached to your own wrist strap or nestled into the Velcro of your boxing glove. It’s designed both for “high performance athletes” looking to learn more about their progress to “get a competitive edge,” as well as for “anyone who wants to make sure they’re getting the most from their fitness.”
StrikeTec can give you useful information whether you’re using a heavy bag, doing mitt training, or sparring. It tracks your hits, and with the accompanying app you can view your daily, weekly, and monthly progress in a calendar. The sensor measures the precision, speed, force, rotation, acceleration, and deceleration of your strikes, giving you the detailed information and “actionable data” about the entire “range of motion” so that you can improve.
Track your favorite athletes
And it’s not just your own workout you can learn about – StrikeTec hopes to equip professional fighters with their sensors so that fans can track the stats of their favorite athletes. Similarly, StrikeTec’s Arena App streams live fights, with accompanying statistics of your favorite boxers – stats only available because of StrikeTec’s highly specialized sensors. You can predict who will win a fight based on the speed and accuracy of their hits, or break down the performance of your favorite athlete by round.
Developers are coming up with ever-more inventive smart technologies, so we’ll likely continue to see more and more wearables on the market that are designed for specific tasks.
