While a handful of the U.S. Olympic team’s athletes hail from Boston, one local startup is also making its mark in Sochi.
Video analysis and sports coaching appUbersensehas been working closely with the U.S. Olympic bobsled and skeleton team to get the crew in top shape for the games that commence this week.
The nine-person startup first heard from the team about a year and a half ago, Ubersense Co-founder and CEO Krishna Ramchandran told BostInno. When the two parties first connected, “the head coach of the skeleton team [Coach Tuffield Latour] said he found Ubersense on the App Storeand thought it would be great for the national team,” shared Ramchandran, particularly in regards to the team’s run form.
In a classic bobsled and skeleton race, each team gets two timed runs, which are then averaged for the finalized time to be sized up to competitors. Therefore, being privy to instantaneous feedback on form after the first run can be crucial for the team’s success.
“The start of every run is very technical,” explained Ramchandran, also noting that many of the athletes come from track-and-field backgrounds. For example, formerOlympic hurdler Lolo Joneswill compete in this year’s winter games on the U.S. bobsled team.
“They wanted to use Ubersense as way to record the team’s starts, analyzing it immediately and give back the analyses to the athletes right away,” explained the CEO.
As anyone who has witnessed the flash of a silvery sled whooshing down the slick shoot around 80 miles per hour can testify, bobsled is an extremely fast-paced feat, and calls for coaches to keep their eyes trained tight to the course.
“It’s hard for the coach to see it go by so fast,” noted Ramchandran. “The naked eye can’t really pick it up.” Ubersense provides a solution to this problem by giving trainers the ability to not only capture, but slow down video when viewing to assess the minute details of the run.
The iPad video and pictures in the following slideshow come fromTeam Night Train, a four-man crew composed of driver Steven Holcomb, as well as Steve Langton, Justin Olsen and Curt Tomasevicz,and were captured during aFIBT World Cup eventin St Mortiz, Switzerland.Noted Ramchandran:
We have been exclusive to the Apple ecosystemso far because Ubersense does sophisticated video encoding for the bestsports analysis experience, and iOS and the iPad/iPhone/iTouchhave been the only combination that has enabled us to do what we need to bestserve our users.
The entire Ubersense crew was even invited to go visit the U.S. bobsled team at its training base in Lake Placid, New York. “It’s really amazing how much Ubersense has become a part of the training process and help them improve,” admitted the CEO. “They really push Ubersense to the limits … We’ve gotten great feedback from them, and that’s helped us improve the product.”
The U.S. Olympic speed-skating team is also using the app to tweak performance, as are various Olympic teams from Spain, South Korea, Canada and Great Britain.
Shared a humbled Ramchandran:
