Riddell's Sideline Response System (SRS)

                This is where the technology of Riddell’s helmet comes into play. The helmet is not just built to prevent concussions; it actually senses if a concussion has (possibly) occurred. The Sideline Response System is considered one of the most advanced methods of detecting an impact which may result in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

                Two technologies form the foundation of the SRS, the Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) and the Team Administrator Data Service (TAD). The HIT system is the active monitoring system that measures and records all significant head impacts and alerts staff to potentially harmful head impacts, called Suspect Impact Profiles (SIP’s). The HIT System monitors and records every significant incidence of head impact sustained during a football game or practice. The system measures the location, magnitude, duration and direction of head acceleration. When it detects a SIP for a particular player, an alarm pager alerts the medical or training staff.

The system is designed so that when a player receives a blow of 10 G’s, the HITS sensors are activated and a signal is sent to a receiver connected to a laptop computer on the sideline. The impact is then registered on the screen along with a 3-D graphic of the human head to show where the player was hit.
               The TAD Service is an Internet-enabled, data management and analysis service that permits all registered users to have instant access to team and injury management information.
               This sort of advanced technology improves the safety of the athletes. In a sport such as football, preventing a player from going back out onto the field is crucial. Even if he has a minor concussion, another blow to the head could be dangerous and perhaps deadly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_impact_telemetry_system
http://www.simbex.com/Riddell_SRS.htm

Helmet Safety- Inside the Helmet

In an attempt to validate Riddell as a good company, I will firs describe what it has accomplished. In a study Riddell conducted with their helmet, out of 1,500,000 football players that wore it helmet during a specified time period, there was a 5.3% concussion rate compared to a 7.6% concussion rate for those that did not wear the helmet. That 31% concussion reduction is a tremendous accomplishment.

           The way Riddell does this has to do with the foam technology on the inside of the helmet. The inside of Riddell’s helmet is covered with its Z-Pad design foam. The main goal of this design is to perform energy attribution; this is the process of absorbing the energy from another object so that it is not transferred to the player’s skull. This padding is the most essential part of the helmet, as it contributes the most to the prevention of concussions. 

Player Safety-Outer portion of Helmet

As athletes seem to be getting bigger and stronger, with weight training techniques becoming more prevalent, there has been a need to improve the protective equipment for the players. One of the most violent sports that has become even more of a concern due to the increased size, strength and speed of the players is football. The head is the area of concern, as an estimated 3.8 million of sports and recreation-related concussions occur annually. One study estimates that 300,000 sports-related concussions occur every year. Yet another study reports that over 250,000 concussions occur playing football. All of these numbers are somewhat speculative since it is impossible to know how many concussions go unreported. In general, it is obvious that concussions are a problem in sports.

One of the leaders in helmet technology innovation is Riddell, which has attempted to increase the safety and reliability of its helmets for years. First I will discuss the features of the actual helmet. The most obvious and first aspect about the helmet it the outer shell. This material is made up of polycarbonate material, which is a very durable and light plastic. While this does not necessarily prevent concussions from occurring, it does prevent the helmets from cracking and breaking, thereby decreasing the proper funcionalty of the rest of the helmet’s pieces.

The outer portion of the helmet is also equipped with a stainless steel faceguard cage. Stainless steel is a commonplace in today’s world, as it is extremely durable, light, and abundant. Riddell is always attempting to change this aspect of helmet technology for the comfort and agreeability of the player. The next post I will discuss the properties of the inside of the helmet that have undergone much change over the years.

Player Tracking

Technology improvement has spread to every aspect of sports, not simply the balls. A company such as Vis.Track, which is a video based tracing system, stems from its larger parent company Cairos Technologies.  The basic idea of this sort of new technology is to track every player on the field in a simple and easy way. The system does not need to be permanently installed, as it takes only two cameras and 30 minutes to set up, which makes it a viable and important piece of technology in the present and future of player analysis.

                The system not only tracks a player’s movements throughout a game, but it also tracks the speed a player runs; this type of information can be used to compare one players versus another, or versus the entire team average. Instead of running drills in non-game type situations, this system accurately can compare one player’s ability to another.

                Coaches oftentimes like to look at video replays of his team’s game during team meetings in order to discuss strategy. One of Vis.Track’s features is that it has the ability to view the players in 3D and estimate how far apart players are from each other on the field. In a soccer match, formation is important, so this sort of technology can be important. As of right now, Vis.Track is most useful in a game such as soccer, as athletes are in constant motion running at varying speeds throughout a game.

http://www.bundesliga-datenbank.de/en/59/

http://www.bundesliga-datenbank.de/uploads/media/VIS.TRACK_Flyer_English.pdf

Cairos Technologies

In this day and age, with technology as advanced as it is (and by Moore's Law, how much further it will continue to increase) the common fan can no longer be fooled by bad calls. The high-definition resolution of cameras now catch every wrong call by umpires, referee, and officials. People demand the correct calls, and for that reason, technology is finally being introduced into the game, just as it has been introduced into our living rooms.

One such company that has been working on this sort of ground breaking technology is Cairos Technologies. Based in Karlsbad, Germany, one of the areas of research CT is in, is the goal line technology. Soccer fans have become accustomed to missed calls by referees, but fear not.

Change Of Heart

Early on, I have had a change of heart in the direction this blog is going. At first I thought I would blog solely about sabermetrics and the statistics that help baseball teams make sound business decisions (which player to sign and which to forget about). However, in my searches for blogs and relevant information about this topic, I stumbled across something that is much more interesting (perhaps even more relevant to this class) that also encompasses a wider array of sports.

Instead of writing about one specific aspect of one sport, I have found the answer: blogging about sports technology. I do not know why I had not thought of this before. Sports Technology research is a multi-million (perhaps even reaching a billion, although I am not sure yet) dollar a year venture. Technology in sports rages from strike zones to triangulating a spot on a tennis court.

With sports technology becoming as advanced as it has, and now with 3D technology emerging in television, the world of sports is becoming increasingly more available for the common person to use.

Understanding Terminology

In today's baseball world, there is much more than simply runs, home run, wins and losses. The sabermetrics study has developed this into an actual course, as it is even being taught in universities around the country.

Even a statistic that seems straight forward, such as batting average, is not so simple in the sabermetrics world. A player's Equivalent Avereage, or EqA, is intended to express the production of a hitter in a context independent of park and league effects.

This statistic is also used to evaluate minor league players, and in fact has been shown to be a good determinant of how well they will perform in the major leagues. The PECOTA, or the Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm, is the study that sabermetitians undergo every year for players. This PECOTA business is actually pretty interesting, as I will explain later.

Information such as EqA can be very valuable for a general manager. Perhaps a player played in a hitter friendly ballpark, or faced and above average number of terrible pitchers. These sorts of things can falsely improve the batter's statistics, yet he might not be as good as he seems. This EqA helps to eliminate this factor.

Does 'Runs Created Category' Exist?

I have taken a few players (some I feel that are under appreciated, others that are over appreciated, and a third category of players that are known good players) and tested James' runs created category that he so proudly created:
The Standard "Good Players":
Derek Jeter (SS, NY Yankees)
2009 Season: Scored 107 runs, batted .334
(212+72)x295/(634+72)
=83780/706
Runs Created=118.66 (Over Estimated by 11)
Lets take one of Derek Jeter's worst seasons (generally determined by a poor batting average and not many actual runs scored)
2008 Season: Scored 88 runs, batted .300
(179+52)x243/(596+52)
56133/648
Runs Created=86.625 (Under estimated by 2)

The Over Appreciated Player:
Adam Dunn (OF, Washington Nationals)
2004 Season: 105 runs, batted .266
(151+108)x323/(568+108)
=83657/676
Runs Created=123.75 (Over Estimated by 18)

The Under appreciated:
Justin Upton (OF, Arizona Diamonbacks):
2009 season: 84 runs, batted .300
(158+55)x280/(526+55)
=59640/581
=102.650 (Over Estimated by 18)

Rickie Weeks (2B, Milwaukee Brewers)
2010 Season: 110 runs, batted .269
(174+73)x301/(464+73)
=74346/537
=138.44 (Over Estimated by 28

The runs created category was relatively close, and usually is the case (usually within 5% of actual amount of runs scored)
                                                            

Investigation Commences

As I have found, there is not only a plethora of information out there about sabermetrics, but within the study of sabermetrics there are many things to learn. I am not going to try and attack this subject all at once, since I will probably be overwhelmed with statistics and language that I have never heard before. I mentioned in my first post about the statistic 'runs created'. This was one of Bill James' first breakout statistic that caught nationwide attention. After years of putting James on the back burner, as baseball executives viewed him more as a disgruntled fan who thought he knew more about baseball than he actually did, James was recognized for his brilliance.

The first model that James had for runs created was fairly simple to what it has transformed into today. His model:
Runs Created = A + B/C  where A is on-base factor, B is Advancement factor, and C is opportunity factor

More in depth, the formula is simply this :
Runs Created = (Hits + Walks) x Total Bases/(At Bats  + Walks)

With this formula, James figured he could correctly estimate the amount of runs a player SHOULD produce in a given season, or career, or whatever other time period he wished to know. Instead of focusing on a players batting avereage, rbi's or even hits alone, James believed that this was more valuable to know; after all, the point of a baseball game is to score as many runs as possible, not to collect the highest batting average.

I have decided that I will take a few players who I personally like and think are valuable and apply their stats to this formula. I have also decided to take some players who are viewed as valuable, but in fact are not as valuable as their rbi and batting average numbers make them seem. I will blog my findings in the near future.

First Post!

Well, I'm trying out this blogging thing for the first time. Although I am a recent graduate with a degree in English, I didn't do much free writing (let along any sort of blogging) in college. However, I am prone to surf the internet from time-to-time, so I hope I will be able to acquire the necessary information for this assignment.

To be honest, during this entire first paragraph I had no idea what I was going to become an "expert" on; however I have come up with the most ideal topic for myself and my own interest. I am currently ready Michael Lewis' novel "Moneyball", which is based on a concept created by Bill James, baseball statistician. Instead of following conventional methods of evaluating players, such as batting average, runs batted etc..., James felt that those sort of available statistics were not good enough. He also believed that there must be other statistics not yet discovered that people could use in order to correctly evaluate a player.

Through intense research on his own, James first created a statistic called runs created. Runs Created = (Hits + Walks) x Total Bases/ (At Bats + Walks). This sort of statistic now widely used by baseball franchises across the country, was somehow not known of before James. With this sort of thinking and his yearly release of his book "Baseball Abstract", James fostered a new field of thought amongst many statisticians (many of whom were wall street men simply finding a more interesting way to utilize their talents). This field of thought grew into the term "Sabermetrics". SABER is an acronym for Society For American Baseball Research.

As an avid baseball fan and overall sports fan in general, this is what I plan to blog about for the next few months. My goal is to become an expert on sabermetrics and the types of statistics that it looks at. An obvious dream job for me would to become a GM for a baseball team (although I know that path that one must take to get there is very tough). Possessing this sort of knowledge could be extremely helpful for me in this pursuit. I intend to search the blogs and website, of which there are plenty, in hopes of learning all I can about sabermetrics.