Sportstar·India·Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 11:11 AM UTC

Technology, data and the making of an athlete

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Ramji Srinivasan

The data trap: Is there an over-reliance on statistics? In the race to appear contemporary, old methods are sometimes repackaged with new metrics. Players, however, are not looking for numbers. They want results. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

In the recent decade, the world has moved into a tech-driven mode, and it has become the norm for an S&C coach to speak the same jargon as a techie. Otherwise, one may be left stranded, gaping at the sky and trying to understand what is happening in the field of sports science.

In that context, there are loads of points to ponder on the holistic approach to excellence and developing robust athletes. There seems to be a missing link, I think! I may be right or wrong; it depends on what a person wants to see through their optics and within their domain in the context of preparing and making a professional, all-terrain athlete.

Currently, many of us are spending insane amounts of time measuring training loads, recovery, sleep patterns, diet and many more parameters, and revel in being one step ahead of the other, trying to tick the right boxes to satiate the wrong person and acquire the desired results.

I personally feel there are massive restrictions being put on players by deriving and crunching numbers. In many cases, it is fashionable to appear contemporary, little realising that it is old wine in a new bottle, with a certain concoction added to it. Little realising that players are not keen on knowing the numbers; instead, they want results.

I feel that instead of creating adaptable athletes, we are creating fragile athletes, breaking down with repetitive injuries and unconnected injuries related to the sport or skill.

Mostly, we are trying to protect the athlete from injuries by sacrificing various components of fitness and skill-based work appropriate to the game requirements. Peak performance and robustness are not just about avoiding injuries. We have got the wrong end of the stick, I suppose?

Building the athlete with an apt competitive load during the training session, which can transfer onto the field for the particular format of the game, is the key to peak performance. Instead, we are creating athletes who are unprepared for a training load of any significance, much less a competition load, because they have never been under duress in training.

There is a huge void in this department in marrying the training mode from a sports science angle with skill-based training sessions. Just measuring numbers and equations does not mean all parameters are being adhered to. There is always a missing link in the system that can play a role in performance excellence.

The athlete preparing for competition needs to understand the format transfer from one to another within a limited time frame and work on the specifics pertinent to the skill and mode. It starts with the physical aspect of it, and how this can be grooved into skill-based training and adapted to the game format is the key to professional success.

Since sports science is evolving each day through various research, applications and technology, one needs to be mindful when choosing the right tool, with utmost prudence, for success. Old methods need not be bad or out of fashion, as believed by some S&C professionals. Proper adaptation by professionals, deriving a stable and suitable concoction for the athlete and giving them peak performance at the highest level while avoiding injuries, is a huge success.

In the last decade in cricket, for example, we have seen so many major repetitive injuries, especially hamstring, lumbar-region and quadriceps injuries, putting players on the physio bed. Why is this happening despite specialists for each format, monitoring systems and professionals being involved? Can it be too much workload, or perhaps too little workload? Or is the workload not specific to the skill, with format transfer not happening? These are points to ponder for professionals as they seek suitable answers to keep players safe and extend their careers too.

Make the module robust and accountable for all the professionals involved. Else, it becomes a fixed post-mortem, with stupefying logic that many are experts at finding as an escape route. At the end of the day, the athlete suffers and the whole team suffers too during crucial competitions.

The responsibility lies with the athletes too, to understand what they are getting into in terms of fitness, rehab, recovery, diet and so on, along with the skill-based training sessions. Players need to push the envelope and get intense in their training mode to make it easier on the field when it matters.

By knowing the athletes and having a professional system with a plan to implement that system, some common sense would go a long way towards protecting athletes while still creating highly adaptable players who can handle a training load and thrive in competition.

To solve the issue of making the athlete weak, three basic pointers are essential:

- Target

- Is the player on or off target?

- Evidence to show the above two points

There may be more, but keeping it simple would be a good idea. The essential aspect is reflection on the process.

The system needs to demand having a target that is clearly articulated and measurable. Keeping it simple can work both ways for the coach and the athlete in maintaining the target. Noting down each session is the key to progression. It may be a bit pedantic, but it is truly effective.

Try basic human observation for two weeks to understand what one can see through the naked eye and assimilate, and work on the grey matter without any tech. Trying this helps in understanding what one needs to look at through intense observation and assimilation.

Keep all the tech gadgets away for two weeks and observe. For example, look at the lifting form rather than the velocity of the bar. It is simple, by the way, that most of the training is velocity-based.

Observation is the key here. Have a keen eye on movement and tempo from varied perspective angles. Talking with the athletes in each session would give a better perspective from their point of view.

Once done, bring in technology to see the differences and similarities. This can be a huge learning curve for both the coach and the athlete. Marrying data with human observation would be key to harnessing technology to its optimum level.

This would give a comprehensive outlook and help the athlete reach the target with full intensity throughout the season.

Published on Oct 14, 2026

Technology, data and the making of an athlete

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