AI Takes the Lead in Sports

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July 16, 2024

At the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, athletes smashed through 20 world records. Athletics played a role in those achievements, but technology did too. Much of the credit was given to new shoe technology in running events. A new type of swimsuit was seen as giving some athletes a slight edge in swimming. 

Technology has also been deeply embedded in the training regimen for elite athletes. For decades, coaches and trainers have leveraged tools like low-cost sensors, machine vision and big data analytics to improve nutrition, protect athletes from injury and analyze team strategy. 

Today, artificial intelligence is bringing it all together, according to IEEE Fellow Karen Panetta. 

“The role of video image processing to analyze an athlete’s performance has been available for quite some time,” Panetta said. “What is new is the role AI now plays in concert with the multitude of low-cost sensors that collect data on a specific individual’s movements. The data collected allows AI to look at every body part’s position throughout the execution of movement, including the forces and movement trajectories, and compare it to optimal performance. The feedback can help the athlete address specific areas of concern, especially stresses and strains that could cause injuries from improper form and execution.”

Here’s a look at some of the latest: 

Deploying Chaos in Soccer:  

In modern sports, especially in soccer, tactics play a crucial role in determining the outcome. Researchers relied on a statistical data set that described where certain events, like passes or shots on goal, happened on the field. They crunched a massive amount of data to show that randomness in team movements, like unpredictable passes, can give teams a competitive edge. The study developed new tools to identify randomness and unpredictability. The number crunching revealed that high randomness was especially beneficial early in the match to create scoring opportunities and confuse opponents. Toward the second half of a match, successful teams tended to switch to defensive play strategies.

Shooting Your Shot 

Basketball shooting is a complex skill. AI is making it easier to master. By analyzing player skills and movement patterns, AI is introducing new training methods and performance improvement. 

A recent article in IEEE Xplore summarizes the mountains of research into basketball shooting, which includes machine vision techniques and artificial intelligence to analyze players posture and the trajectory of the ball. Other programs are dedicated to helping players optimize their free throw form, showing them where they make mistakes and how to correct them. 

Diving Right In

Analyzing athletes’ body poses and motions is a hot topic in sports tech, especially with AI in the mix. Sports like diving and gymnastics involve complex moves, making video analysis challenging due to issues like motion blur. While manual analysis, however, is slow and error-prone. AI might allow coaches and trainers to provide real-time, accurate feedback.

New Frontiers in Performance and Safety

For Panetta, the rise of AI may also lead to two new developments: increasing adoption of technology at non-elite levels and the ability to make sports safer. 

“Professional sports teams were the first to use these technologies in the 1990s because they had the funds to pay for the expensive computational requirements, complex sensor configurations, and skilled human operators who could analyze the system’s output,” Panetta said.

“Today, the availability of cloud computing and low-cost sensor technologies have opened new pathways for all consumers to leverage the benefits of these technologies to keep us healthy or ensure we are not hurting ourselves.” 

Learn more: As everyone looks toward the 2024 Paris Olympics, the IEEE Standards Association produced this video to show how standards have raised the bar on sustainable planning and execution of world-class events.