University Of Tulsa Uses Cutting-Edge Science To Improve Play On Football Field

The University of Tulsa hopes science can lead the Golden Hurricane to more wins and fewer injuries on the football field.

There's no secret technology that affects our world more and more each day.

There are cell phone apps and even watches that can tell you how long and how hard you've worked out.

Now TU hopes similar technology can lead to fewer injuries, more wins and better conditioning.

"Our industry is a changing industry," TU strength and conditioning coach Adam Davis said. “The days of ‘let's just go run and lift weights' are quickly dying out."

Coaches can see how hard a player is working on the outside. Now, a device shows TU how hard its players are working on the inside.

"It's really more of a performance-based industry, and you can't get the best performance out of a kid if you don't know how they're responding to what's going on,” he said.

Twenty players wear heart-rate monitors during every practice and game. Strength and conditioning coaches track the results in real time and also track players' soreness and sleep patterns.

“We want to paint a whole picture,” Davis said. “This is a long-term investment for us."

It is the football team's first season using this program. The ultimate goal is preventing injuries, but TU knows it's a process.

“Right now we're in Stage 1,” Davis said. “Stage 1 is collect the data, see the trends. …when we hit certain workloads, do our injury rates go up? When we hit lower workloads, do we perform more optimally? Are they more or less stressed?”

“Students and staff from TU's exercise science program are helping the football team analyze the data. the hope is that fewer injuries and better training leads to winning more games. and that's not the only example of athletics and academics working together."

Meet Metiman -- a 200-pound, $50,000, cutting-edge mannequin-type simulator used by athletic training students.

“There are only a handful of athletic departments or athletic training programs that have access to something like this,” Davis said.

Professor Ron Walker can control Metiman's breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and many more bodily functions. His students experience things that can't be simulated in real life.

"I've done the spleen laceration once or twice, and I think the first time I did it he died on me, because I've never done it before,” athletic training student Carly Hamann said. “I mean, that's where we learn. This time I knew exactly what to do."

Walker added that the education gained is priceless.

"As far as the training that our staff and our students are able to gain from it, you can't put a price on it,” he said. “We're graduating students with a degree in athletic training that have literally been exposed to a number of real-life, life-threatening conditions that they may or may not ever see, and that students from other programs really only read about."

TU's doctors and athletic trainers received national praise for how they treated Tulane player Devon Walker's spinal cord injury during a game in 2012.

Metiman gives them a way to stay ready in case another tragic injury happens.

“When our football staff returns for fall camp every year, part of what we do is go through emergency situations and what do we do in certain situations,” Ron Walker said. “What happens when that goes south? What do the students do? What happens when he stops talking, stops breathing and has no heart rate? The students and the staff are able to carry out the entire scenario and practice it. That's just invaluable."

While TU continues to work on the playing field/football field, advances in the science field could make a big difference for the Golden Hurricane.

TU hopes to expand this program in the future.

One option would be GPS trackers that record how far a player runs, how fast they run and which way they're going.