The Athletic Department at Troy University in Alabama has always had world-class medical and training partners. The school still has a strong relationship with their first team doctor, Dr. James Andrews, who’s known for treating the likes of RGIII, Bryce Harper, Rajon Rondo, just to name a few. And they’ve had a long-standing relationship with their athletic training and sports medicine provider, Champion Sports Medicine. This relationship led the Trojan football team to be one of the first collegiate programs, and the first football program, to undergo testing for a movement analysis system known as DorsaVi.
DorsaVi, developed in Australia about eight years ago, is a wearable sensor technology that uses 2D and 3D analysis through cameras and sensors to provide objective data on specific movements. Athletes perform a series of movements while wearing the sensors that are synced to HD cameras to produce real-time data. That data is then used to determine injury risk, guide training, and determine when it’s safe to return to play.
“The DorsaVi quantifies the movement based on degrees and shows the degree of change within a movement to give a third dimension that a 2D image can’t give you,” explained Lesley Parrish, Champion Sports Medicine Clinic Director. “It takes the subjectivity out of it; it’s extremely objective and measurable,” she continued.
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The sensors contain a gyrometer, magnetometer, and an accelerometer to measure all planes of movement that the body can produce with great accuracy. Trent Nessler, National Director of Sports Medicine Innovation for Select Medical (Champion’s parent company) noted, “The DorsaVi detects motion and rotation within one degree of Vicon, which is the gold standard in biomechanics. This is the first time we are able to integrate full movement science into technology and scale in an efficient way so you can have a broader impact.”
Nessler has tested smaller teams like Division 1 soccer, basketball, and volleyball teams and saw results that reduced non-contact injuries by 58%, significantly decreased injured players’ days on the DL, and most importantly improved performance. Testing the Troy football team was the first time they did analysis through mass physicals.
Chuck Ash, Director of Sports Medicine at Troy University, told me that the biggest advantage is the ability to have an assessment that’s purely off data collected by the sensors and the computer. “But what’s most exciting to me is that we’re partnered with a company that’s involved in world class research and we can offer it to our student athletes,” he said. He credits Parrish and her expertise as well as the relationship with Champion and Select Medical for being able to bring the DorsaVi, which has on been in the U.S. for 18 months, to Troy through a grant.
“A lot of people in the football world are focused on how to rehab once injuries happen, but I’m always intrigued about how we can prevent those injuries,” added Head Coach Neal Brown.
With the full support of the athletic department, Parrish and Nessler got to testing. A few weeks ago, each student athlete on the Trojan’s football roster went through the 12-minute Athletic Measurement Index testing, which consists of seven exercises measuring core and single limb performance. Not only does it measure variances between the right and left side, it also takes into account how your body reacts in a fatigued state.
Senior Linebacker William Lloyd told me he was surprised about the physicality of the test exclaiming, “Going through the test was a workout, I actually broke a sweat from the jumping and squatting! There was less recovery time in between exercises to get your heart rate up, it brought me back to being in the weight room.” Junior QB Brandon Silvers added, “It was a workout doing it. We were doing planks sideways and frontways, jumps and single leg jumps, and balance exercises, but it will help us to take care of our bodies the right way.”
Parrish noted that it was neat to see the student athletes’ reactions as they underwent the tests because they were excited about being on the front side of this new technology. As Silvers said, “It’s special to be the first to test something out. It’s good for our program.”
Ash sat in on some of the testing and noted that he saw why the team was experiencing some of the problems he and Coach Brown have discussed, so his hope is that they can increase athletic ability to address those problems as well as see a reduction in injuries. Coach Brown also told me that the Trojans lost four games by six points or less – and in two of those games, some of their starters were injured. “My overall goal is to prevent injuries and identify weaknesses and work on them to correct some of the team’s weaknesses,” said Brown.
The team hasn’t received the data analysis yet, but the collective sentiment is excitement to learn what deficiencies each player has and address those to reduce injuries and increase performance. Once the results are in, players will be identified by their deficiencies and given specific exercises to improve those movements.
The training is programmed through the PhysioSports app, which was developed as part of PhysioSport’s ACL Program that Nessler’s team created. The app features four levels and includes exercises for a pre-practice routine and a post-practice routine that trains the athlete with corrective exercises in a fatigued state. The program focuses on preventing injury through performance improvement. The strength and endurance built from working in a fatigued state will carry over to when the athlete is fatigued in a game. Nessler also explained that it’s movement specific, not sport-specific, so the program can be applied to athletes from all sports.
As collegiate football players throughout the country gear up for camps in the coming weeks, the Trojan football team will be approaching their pre-season training in a different way thanks to the DorsaVi testing. Based on the results of the tests, these student athletes will incorporate corrective exercises into their training. The true test will come during the season and everyone hopes the results are increased performance and fewer injuries.