Sports technology has crossed leaps and bounds as you may have read in the cricket news since the last few years, giving a significant competitive advantage to its adopters. It gives new data and insights about player performance, monitor training sessions, compare progress and much more to break previously established limits and add a whole new dimension to the world of sports.
In an exclusive interview with SPOGO, Mr. Arminder Thind, Founder of StanceBeam speaks about the role of AI and its benefits, StanceBeam striker, raising the standards of sport through technology, implementing feedback from end users and his vision for the future of innovations in sport.
Q 1) As a founder of StanceBeam, what led you to foresee the future of sports being driven by technology? What is your aim and vision for this company?
Working in the sports-tech space for over 6 years and being sports players ourselves, we experience few key challenges – lack of curriculum based and data driven coaching leading to untapped player potential. Limited availability of trained coaches so their time is spread very thin for players and the problem aggravates more for non urban players. We continue to hear stories of players travelling hundreds of kilometers to get access to coaches and training facilities or even worse, a lot of talent never get a chance to show talent and excel in sports. Our VISION is to empower players globally to play sports, stay fit and achieve their true potential by breaking the barrier of physical places to train and the right coaches to train with.
Q 2) How is Artificial Intelligence changing the face of sports? What are its benefits for the sporting industry?
As of today, we have multiple start-ups like StanceBeam working on ground breaking ideas in sport-tech space, from fan engagement to player performance improvement and injury prevention. StanceBeam is specifically leveraging AI in conjunction with IoT devices to gather data to attempt to optimize training and performance of the players. With so much innovation happening in this space, there are very healthy signs of adoption of sports-tech at consumer level, though it’s currently at an early adoption stage.
Q 3) What sort of data does StanceBeam striker provide that will turn a regular bat into a smart tech device? How will it benefit the players and coaches?
The StanceBeam Striker is the most accurate Cricket Bat sensor and is designed to fit on top of any Cricket bat which turns it into a Smart Bat. StanceBeam app seamlessly connects with StanceBeam Striker to provide you real-time feedback and give players a view of their game never seen before. Smart Video Capture capability of the StanceBeam app allows automatically to record 4 seconds of video per bat swing, Tag it with the players every shot and overlay swing metrics. The Stancebeam measures a unique set of metrics in real-time – with each swing of a cricket bat – including Power Analysis, Shot Efficiency, Max Bat Speed, Speed at Impact, Bat Angles, and Directions. StanceBeam app also produces a summary session, highlights and insights for each session and players can compare their progress over time, share stats/videos with their coaches for further feedback and improvements. To build a better player – we need to build a better coach. Providing key information traditionally only available to elite coaches in a controlled lab situation can now be used anywhere and be tracked in real time, or remotely – working around the modern cricketing world – where players will be away from the home base for months at a time. StanceBeam App allows coaches to manage multiple players within the app. Coaches can also create a big impact on players' improvements by giving data driven feedback using Mobile Video Analysis, Audio and Text Notes, Session Rating, and assign Video drills.
Q 4) How is StanceBeam bringing its technological innovations in the hands of aspiring cricketers? Do you believe it will significantly raise the standard of sports in our country?
The StanceBeam device made in India is available in multiple countries including India as well as e-commerce channels like Amazon. Kookaburra, a leading Cricket Brand, is our distribution partner for key global markets. Being a new category product and cricket being such a traditional sport, changing players and coaches' mindset about a data driven approach for better performance is not easy. So we have been working with progressive coaches, academies and associations across India to enable access to our technological innovation to the cricket players. We are glad that now we have a good number of players and coaches across the globe who have used our technology and seen a positive impact on their training regime and overall performance – 1 million plus cricket shots have been recorded on StanceBeam so far and counting. We have kids in India training with coaches in Australia on our platform. We’re breaking the access barrier, especially for players from small towns. Throughout COVID-19 pandemic, we have many players who were able to stay in touch with coaches and continue their training regime.
Q 5) How is StanceBeam incorporating feedback from players and coaches to constantly make improvements to its services for a more useful and better experience to end users?
At the heart of what we have done is focus on the player – building an experience that can help them with their game – both in the nets and on the pitch. By focusing on what’s important – seamless integration, meaningful data and feedback with technology that isn’t intrusive – we are delivering what will help refine the next generation of players. Through our research and development, design and implementation, software and hardware – we have been focused on creating the most accurate and interactive experience for our customers – allowing for no compromise in terms of accuracy, interactivity and uniqueness to create an experience not only relevant for cricket – but in answering the demands of our customer. What we have developed could only have come from seamless customer integration and feedback. Other than 10,000 plus players and 500 coaches on the platform which continue to inspire us to do more for them, we are fortunate to have Shikhar Dhawan as mentor and regular user of StanceBeam and share his feedback to make it more useful for players. Since everyone in the StanceBeam team are passionate sports players and fans, we spend considerable time with coaches and working in academies so we stay on ground to understand our customers’ requirements/feedback and solve their real problems.
Q 6) What do you envision in the future use of AI in sports? What sort of technological innovations can we expect and how do you think it will revolutionize the sports industry?
AI which is humanised and has a real human perspective will be a game changer. It will allow actionable insights on player performance and injury risks and let coaches/players make more informed decisions. Just as an example, StanceBeam generates an abundance of data via Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, video and audio during player session captures. However, the data by itself does not provide any value unless we can turn data into actionable, contextualized information. Artificial Intelligence provides us the tools and framework to perform real time data analysis and actionable insights with complete automation. AI will enable players more quality training time and manage load to reduce injury risks.
