New York, NY – December 9, 2015 – Madison Square Garden: Michal Cekovsky (15) and Jaylen Brantley (1) of the University of Maryland Terrapins celebrating off the bench during the 2015 Men’s Jimmy V Classic
(Photo by Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)
The University of Maryland men’s basketball team is partnering with Sparta Science – a technology company that applies data and technology to help improve athlete performance and reduce player injury risk – just in time for the NCAA tournament.
Sparta Science has collected over seven years of real world data on athlete performance and injury outcomes by analyzing force patterns in order to develop Sparta Scan, an assessment of athlete’s movement sequence. Maryland will be able to use this data to analyze its players’ performances and make informed decisions about their workouts based upon force readiness and health.
Within the platform, data can be analyzed alongside metrics such as bar velocity, heart rate variability (HRV), accelerometry and game stats.
“In partnering with Sparta Science, we have been provided with meaningful information on how to best put our student-athletes in a position to be successful,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said in a statement last month.
Sparta founder Dr. Phil Wagner said in a statement that the basketball program was “innovative and progressive,” as Maryland now has a tool for gaining an objective understanding into its athletes.
“It enables us to prescribe individualized and scientifically validated training protocols with the goal of creating well balanced and robust athletes,” Kyle Tarp, the director of basketball performance at Maryland said in a statement. “The Sparta software has also provided a platform for consolidation of all of monitoring data and streamlined communication throughout our basketball staff regarding the health and preparedness of players.”
Maryland will open NCAA tournament play on Thursday with a game against Xavier.
