The natural intelligence of sport

Andrea Candusso, 44-year-old from Turin, tested himself on Jannik Sinner to show the results of Hyper Tennis, the first and only scientific system for analyzing athletic gesture in relation to the racket. Candusso’s theory is that even the infinitesimal variations of the weight and structure of the racket can and should be customized to optimize the player’s performance. The data is collected through the Hyper Court, a playing field equipped with video cameras, radar and sensors worn by the player himself, analyzed and systemized thanks to an artificial intelligence that helps both to improve the product (and therefore the racket). and the ropes) but also to perfect the technical gesture, with a tailor-made mix for each player. It’s hard to think you can add anything to Sinner, yet the HyperTennis AI did it: with the changes made to the racket after an hour of detections, the forehand acceleration increased by 5.13%, that of the backhand by 7. , 5% (9 km / h) and 2% service (3 km / h). The cleanliness of the blows and the reduction of microtraumas which in the long run can create problems, especially in repetitive gestures, also gain. Another Turin startup, Astar Group, applied AI driven analysis to Leeds United, with a partnership that accompanied the team’s return to the Premier League. Astar Group has installed a series of cameras in the stadium capable of tracking the movements of all active athletes on the playing field, in a controlled environment condition and without the intervention of physical markers, in order to guarantee maximum freedom of movement. . The proprietary software analyzes in real time and returns detailed reports useful to improve the overall performance of the athletes and the team. Not only that: the software is also able to identify and recognize the postural structures that put athletes more at risk of injury, allowing them to correct them during the race.Astar Group promises to be able to enter the field also in the scouting of talents, overcoming the method observation and statistics, giving way to analyze the performance of a possible purchase and put them in relation with the entire team, hypothesizing their compatibility and also the propensity for injury. AS Roma also recently invested in AI and machine learning systems with Acronis, a partnership that puts as much weight on data collection and analysis as it does on data protection, in the field as well as in the office. Projects such as HyperTennis and Astar push it one step further. more on the use of artificial intelligence applied to sport. The crux so far was not so much the collection of data, now within everyone’s reach, even the amateur sportsman, thanks to devices that separate the increasingly precise and feature-rich ones, as the ability to develop truly intelligent software capable of taking that data and returning concrete analyzes and solutions.