What happens when sport and technology collide?

In sport we must keep moving forward and not look back. Yes, it’s important to reflect, to learn, to analyse but we must keep striving for success and looking forward to what lies ahead. In an ever-changing world, full of knowledge, technology, nutrition, supplements and aids to our training, figuring what is real and what is not can be a challenge. What one can tolerate another cannot stomach. Every day there are new products being advertised to improve performance, to help recovery, to track our sleep, training, our heart rate. What about listening to the body and doing what feels right? What about eating proper meals and not looking at stats? What about keeping a written training diary and not following Strava? Does technology know more about the body than we do? I’m not so sure.

I had the most wonderful invitation recently to visit DCU’s sports testing centre. It’s a haven of science, research, facilities, statistics, knowledge, technology, state of the art resources and the future. We headed to a basement on arrival, with a feeling like I was going through some hidden underground world. Not much research has been done on female masters endurance athletes, on their bodies, their performances, their recovery, their nutrition; a lot of research is generalised, but we are all different and therefore a lot of information that is out there might not be helpful to some athletes because we all have our own needs, wants, capabilities.

How do we tailor our individual lifestyles to meet what our minds and bodies need and no one else’s? I do think we must first realise that we are all different, that we are all uniquely built and that’s what makes us all individual. Our mental strength varies greatly, and what one can endure another cannot bear. And our life experiences are from a range of backgrounds, some of us know what it’s like to work all day and train all evening, others have the privileges of resting lots and training twice a day. Our physics, structures, muscles, stamina and strength all are different. I think sometimes we must listen to our own bodies; at different times and seasons of the year, or on weekdays or weekends, our bodies need more warmth, more carbs, more water, more hot drinks and on it goes.

Sometimes I worry about the future and to where our sports are going. Will our youth want to leave the couch, the phone, the TV, to continue to train in terrible conditions, on wet pitches, on roads with potholes? Will we have the stamina and strength to endure the bad weather, considering we spend all day inside? I think the key to this testing is to use it as an aid to assist and develop athletes in all aspects of their training.

Running has been a popular form of exercise and sport for centuries, and it is likely to continue to be so in the future. As society progresses and technology advances, the way we run and the benefits we derive from it are likely to change. Today most people have a fitness device that tracks a whole range of our personal statistics. This information will continue to be developed and expanded on in the future. I can still remember packing for a schools cross-country competition and my dad giving me a stopwatch, I thought it would send me to Mars. More feedback on our performances will make us more dependent on technology to enhance our performances. Some shoes and clothing already have sensors to analyse our foot strike, our cadence, our balance and a range of other functions related to our bodies while exercising. This information could prove very useful in preventing some injuries, aiding proper exercising form and improving performance.

The world of virtual training is already becoming popular in the cycling world, where one can train on a stationary bike, in their sitting rooms, in front of a TV, and pick what country they want to cycle in, who they want to cycle against, what distance, elevation etc. Virtual reality will become part of lots of athletes training in the future, where one can wear a pair of virtual reality goggles and head off to an imaginary race course, designed around their likes and preferences, maybe surrounded by trees, water and whatever else helps on a run, where one can strive to beat their personal bests and choose opponents or even spectators.

I do think this will help many an athlete but I cannot see myself leaving the west of Ireland countryside for an imaginary world. I need to breathe the air, I need to feel the wind, I need to smell the flowers, I need to hear the birds and most of all I need to push the legs up mountains, hills, and trails and overcome real obstacles because come race day my body will still have to compete in real terms.

I didn’t like the Covid world where we ran virtually, alone, in an isolated world. Yes, it was a pleasure at the time to get to run, but I did miss the realness of racing, competing, the longer distances and the varieties of our sport.

For what I saw in DCU, where advances in science, sport, research and technology influence analysis, design and research, I do think the future will involve personalised training plans based on our own body’s statistics and individualised analysis of nutrition, sleep, recovery, stress and lifestyle, where athletes may be able to optimise their performances like never before, reaching new levels. I think as the boundaries of what is possible are continually being pushed, and as new levels are achieved, the future of sport will be rewarding and every bit as fulfilling as it is today.

Our environment, our climate, our weather will also all be major factors in the future of sport. Will the frost get harder, will the flooding get deeper, will the winds become stronger? Our winter’s weather conditions made for a tough season gone by in terms of outdoor training. With many of our GAA and rugby pitches unplayable, leading to Astroturf pitches being in great demand, and with some roads flooded and some roads too dangerous to drive or run on, the sheltered and higher grounds of woods, trails and mountains were and are, a saviour. Will people leave the car at home and cycle, walk and run more to training, work and other events? Will we ever see a day where people can cycle safely from ends of the county to our towns for work? In many villages we now see tarmacadam’s footpaths, running tracks around pitches, so perhaps it will be possible, while also avoiding the cost and problems of parking. All of this would contribute to a cleaner air, environment and a healthier population. From the gear we will wear to the materials in equipment, from cycling instead of driving, from green spaces to trees, lakes and rivers, all contributing to an environmentally friendlier, sporting future.

Our ever-changing society demands that we in sports must keep up. The needs and wants of our athletes are changing and our sports must become more inclusive, fair and accommodating to welcome all of society to partake in a fun, supportive and caring environment, where one can compete to the best of their ability. With outside influences more powerful now than ever before, the need for sports psychology for athletes around mental health, body image and self-awareness, will heighten even more, with athletes needing support to help manage the pressures, the comments, the negativity, to fill them with the power to believe in themselves and not social media.

In our modern-day world where a large part of daily life can be consumed with smartphones, devices, computers, TV and apps serving as a means of communication, entertainment, information, shopping, a pastime, a hobby, will our sporting world be consumed by a technology world too? Will we favour the entertainment of watching sport on a huge wide screen rather than partake? Will we be able to compete on an international level with countries who don’t spend lots of their time working with, living with and being entertained by smartphones and IT? Countries where children still walk to school, play outdoors, and where families climb mountains to pass the time.

However entertaining and important our smartphones are, they will never replace that wellbeing feeling one gets from moving outdoors, surrounded by nature, trees, rivers and exercising with friends, where one gets into a feel-good rhythm. Our bodies and minds become transformed, posture improves, so too our strength and mental health, while we also make lifelong friendships through fostering teamwork and social engagements.

The self-confidence gained by achieving one’s goals, the sense of pride in one’s success, the feelings of laughter, the toughness of moving out of one’s comfort zone, the euphoric feeling that lasts all day, cannot be replicated by staring at a screen.

I believe the future of sport will face enormous challenges but challenges and change are good; they keep us interested and wanting more. I think we will embrace the technologies, the virtual worlds and the better ways of training and travelling. And I think I will embrace the robots handing out water at virtual races, and the cycling to events and the watch telling me I am not working hard enough. But no matter what the future holds I think I will still head out the back door, up the hill, turn the corner, get into my flow, see the real sights, hear the real sounds, smile at everyone I meet and push the uphills, because I feel good for it. I’ll run through the puddles because it’s refreshing and push a bit harder at the end because I want to. No watch, no stats, no fuel, just pure running at its best. Whatever the future holds, let’s look forward to it and believe that the best is yet to come.

For now, I will listen to the top advice and return to DCU to help the research, science and technology fields, and hopefully provide some information for female athletes of the future. In a world where participation is key and maintaining participation is challenging, sport will continue to bring many, bright new horizons, real, imaginary and both.