California Sports Lawyer® CEO, Founder, and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans column about the improvement of technology in sports to help evaluate athletes and monitor their health and performance.
You can read the full column below. (Past columns can be found, here).
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Talent evaluation in sports has often centered on skills on the field or court of play. In addition, intangible skills are those that scouts often find through investigation of the athlete’s background by analyzing moral character, ethics, relationships, past success, grades in school, interviews with people that know the athlete (e.g., family, friends, teachers, and coached), the athlete’s content on social media, business relationships (including those with NIL partners), and anything else to analyze personality and responsibility. Technology has more recently been introduced to collect data for analyzing and measuring health, fitness, injury avoidance, and actions that the human eye cannot see. Technology that has been used to measure spin rate in baseball for pitchers, speed in any sports, efficiency rates in basketball, and release time in football for quarterbacks.
However, what about technology that is used to measure athlete decision-making, response times to an action in sports, learning efficiency, and visual-spatial processing that is available through artificial intelligence and wearable devices that can enhance player safety, performance, and front office executive and scout evaluation? That technology is now available and several studies have proven their value to sports organizations. In a study performed by Pison Technology and Athletic Intelligence Quotient (AIQ), Sportico reported that several professional leagues now have such data on players.
First, when measuring reaction time, the objective data can help determine whether diminished reaction time is evidence of a concussion occurring. Secondly, in professional baseball, studies have shown a significant correlation between faster reaction times and improved pitching performance, which can be measured by statistics like earned run average (ERA). Third, in the NFL, research has linked reaction time scores to the frequency of false start penalties among offensive linemen.
Lastly, the reaction-time data can help talent evaluators (e.g., scouts) identify players with superior cognitive skills, where teams can make more informed decisions during drafts and tailor training programs and rosters to enhance on-field performance. When thinking of the future and talent evaluation and performance, measurable data through technology is what colleges and the professional leagues have wanted in decision-making. When making financial and time investments in athletes, guesswork and risk-taking through statistical performance and character intangibles is complemented and supplemented by wearable technology and real data.
We live in the content and information age. However, the value of content and information is only as good as applying the information to a problem that leads to a solution. What good is information if it is not useful. Data and technology, with the appropriate disclosures, privacy protections and waivers, and without violating HIPAA, can add another tool to the proverbial shed in athlete evaluations leading to better protections, safety, and team investment.
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About Jeremy M. Evans:
Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.
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