Injuries can have big implications for athletes and their teams. Professional franchises invest millions of dollars in their players, who need to stay healthy to maximize their earnings. An injury can result in lost time for the player and lost money for the organization.

This is a concern for college athletic programs as well. Student-athletes are awarded scholarships for their talents in the hope that they will bring championships and prestige to their school. They can also help the school earn revenue from ticket sales, televised events, sponsorships, and merchandise. An injury can take all of that away.

Elite college athletes undergo strict training so that they can perform at their best and maintain their health. However, there is technology available that could have a significant impact on reducing the risk of injury.

Think of a scholarship as an investment for the college. Like any investment, it comes with a degree of risk. In this case that is injured athletes. We spoke to Dr. Thomas Kaminski, Director of Athletic Training Education at the University of Delaware to get his perspective on this issue and the technology that can help reduce the risk of injury in college athletes.

Injuries are a huge concern for college athletic programs. No doubt these athletes are an investment on the part of the university and they are looking for better and cost-affordable ways to keep athletes healthy and on the field. Injuries are going to happen—that’s a risk of participating—and when they result in a career-ending outcome, universities usually uphold the scholarship commitment until those athletes graduate. It’s a costly predicament but a gesture in goodwill in most cases.

- Dr. Thomas Kaminski

Technology plays a large role in these efforts, and a key element of that technology is the data tracking. For injury prevention, it’s important to be able to gather baseline data, record and save data over time, and monitor changes and progress in athletes. Using objective data can be a great benefit to training as well as injury prevention and rehabilitation.

The athletic training and physical therapy fields rely heavily on subjective analysis for many assessments. It’s common to study human movement visually, which can be an imperfect science depending on an individual’s knowledge, experience, and methodology. These are important pieces of the puzzle, but technology can enhance analysis even further. Colleges like the University of Delaware seem to believe it.

A big area right now in college athletics is recovery and injury prevention analytics. Keeping top athletes in shape, on the field, and away from injury is very important. The University of Delaware is focused on improving athletic performance and has prioritized finding ways to prevent/reduce injuries in athletes.

- Dr. Thomas Kaminski

A system like Tekscan’s MobileMat with SportsAT software aims to minimize subjective analysis, replacing it with objective data that can be used in evidence-based assessment and treatment. Watch the video below for a quick demonstration of what you can do with MobileMat and SportsAT.

The first step towards injury prevention is analyzing your athletes and gathering data to better understand their body movement. You can identify areas of imbalance and stress and use that knowledge to determine changes to optimize performance, treat injuries, and prevent injuries down the line.

If athletes are investments, then they need risk-management. That’s what technology like this can help provide.

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