AI In Sports: Predicting Player Performance And Injury Prevention
With the introduction of Chatgpt, Bing’s AI, and other AI chatbots, people have become more curious about AI. Furthermore, Nvidia, a world leader in AI computing, had its stock rise over 200% year to date. Moreover, professional sports leagues have begun implementing AI systems to track player performance and prevent injury. Some examples include MLB’s Statcast and the NFL’s Digital Athlete. Therefore, I started researching how AI helps these professional sports leagues.
Eight years ago, MLB introduced Statcast, which combined TrackMan, a radar-enabled-hit-tracking system, with a pitch location and trajectory system called Pitchf/x. At the time, the technology was game-changing, and fans loved the data they could see because of the system. However, Statcast was not accurate enough to track balls thrown across the field or hit upwards at steep angles. As a result, MLB introduced an improved version of Statcast that integrated Hawk-Eye technology, which is famous for helping judges in sports like tennis and soccer to make precise and correct calls. The new Statcast uses pose tracking technology, which follows 18 skeletal points on a player’s body 30 times per second. Additionally, every ballpark uses 12 optical cameras that run at 100 frames per second. Therefore, data is tracked correctly and precisely in all situations, and Statcast allows people to understand crazy plays like Elly De La Cruz’s record-breaking 100 mph infield throw.
Furthermore, MLB coaches and players use Statcast to train and evaluate. For example, in 2015, Tampa Bay Rays players’ evaluation on the first day of Spring Training was based on their exit velocity instead of the traditional batting average. Moreover, players can use data given by Statcast to track their metrics over time and see what they need to improve on. As a result of Statcast’s upgrade, fans, coaches, and players can comprehend statistics easily and use them for their benefit.
While Statcast has assisted the MLB in modernizing the game, the NFL, with Amazon Web services, created its own AI system called Digital Athlete. In football, injuries are always a noteworthy concern among all involved. For example, many retired players deal with Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, AKA CTE, which has become infamous for causing nerve loss in the brain and running the rest of a player’s life. However, Digital Athlete aims to prevent player injury by creating a virtual image of a player so that the NFL can use data such as player activity and weather to improve understanding of injuries. As a result, Digital Athlete’s algorithms can use the data to run infinite simulations of in-game scenarios to understand what could improve player health and safety. For instance, what if the player had been wearing a different helmet or a different cleat? What if the game was in different weather or on another field surface?
Ultimately, Digital Athlete will help the NFL and its teams to use sports science and injury biomechanics to develop individualized training and recovery regimens for players. Furthermore, the AI can conduct real-time risk analysis during games for injuries and identify if players should leave the game for their safety. Finally, the Digital Athlete can evaluate and suggest additional player safety initiatives around equipment, rule changes, and coaching techniques to improve player health and safety.
Overall, AI is useful in helping professional sports leagues battle injuries and track player performance. With the prevalence of AI growing constantly in our daily lives, the use of AI systems like Statcast and Digital Athlete is not surprising. Moreover, these systems help players perform at a high level while staying safe and entertaining fans. In this new age of technology and innovation, AI is sticking with us for the future; whether for better or worse, we will have to see.
