Athletes try out new innovations

Most people have encountered an athlete that seems to be covered from head to toe in accessories. Most of the time, a favorable appearance is paramount, but sometimes athletes hope to gain a competitive edge with these items. From all different configurations of arm and leg sleeves, to athletic tapes, to special shoe insoles, to Q-collars, to recovery devices, sports consumerism has become increasingly popular among athletes. However, many new technologies tend to lack consistent results.
For sophomore lacrosse player JT Teinert, a Q-collar helps him feel safer on the field.
“Its purpose is to protect my brain by reducing its movement during hits, in addition to safety and long term health,” Teinert said. “In lacrosse, contact is unavoidable, so I’ll try anything to protect my body. I think what it does is more important than how it works.”
Head Athletic Trainer Matt Hjertstedt has seen athletes try all sorts of alternative technologies to aid their safety or performance. Athletes who compete in contact sports require more protective gear and often suffer from higher injury rates, so they are more likely to buy into new equipment claiming to protect players.
“I think a lot of (these devices) are related to football – for example, a Guardian Cap, which is that rubber shell that goes over the top of the football helmet,” Hjertstedt said. “A Q-Collar would be something else, and both of those are theoretically put out there for concussion prevention.”
However, potential buyers should still be wary of how effective these technologies really are, even if companies claim that their product can help players avoid injury or concussion.
“Digging in on the research is really important,” Hjerstedt said. “With those two, there’s not really a ton of great studies. So, I think it’s just being really cautious of what you’re purchasing and why.”
The school, however, has invested in some new technologies for athletes, especially for recovery purposes. Many of these have become quite popular among Marksmen. For instance, the training room features Normatec, air compression devices geared toward combating soreness in the legs.
“Normatec has good research behind it, which is why we purchased it as an item to help somebody recover. It’s also created for a very specific instance where somebody is doing very hard, repetitive workouts, day after day after day,” Hjertstedt said. “When I recommended getting it, it was for our SPC tournaments because we do back-to-back-to-back games, so we were trying to let the guys get the most optimal recovery in between.”
While recovery items make up a large faction of sports consumerism, athletes also use accessories in games to feel more comfortable or enhance their looks. While wearing some tape or an arm sleeve mightseem inconsequential, every piece of gear has an effect on the body.
“Whenever you put something on or in the body… even if it’s just ibuprofen or an ankle tape, there are always consequences for what you’re doing,” Hjertstedt said. “If I lock down your ankle, which is because we’re focusing on ankle stability due to an injury; you might not have as much plantar flexion now in your foot, so your hamstrings are going to have to work harder. There’s always a risk versus reward.”
Companies use the media and advertising to hype up their products to consumers, some even going as far as making claims about producing state-of-the-art equipment that exceeds expectations in testing. However, those claims don’t always prove to be true.
“I think that helmets get really oversold in the concussion prevention world,” Hjertstedt said. “Some have better scores, but the research has shown that those don’t necessarily translate over to better concussion prevention.”
Often, the trainers have found, athletes can better prepare themselves by eating healthy and getting enough sleep rather than by purchasing the most expensive gear.
“As a high school athlete, your goal should be to eat a well-balanced diet. You need lots of carbohydrates and calories,” Hjertstedt said. “My biggest concern is herbal supplements and caffeine. Celsius is one that gets advertised as a healthy energy drink and it’s not.”