(Courtesy RightBlue Labs)
RightBlue Labs — a start-up company partnered with the Ryerson’s DMZ — recently announced a new partnership with Racquetball Canada to provide raquetball players with Logit, an athlete monitoring system. The Logit application monitors different health risks during training sessions with the goal of preventing or minimizing time lost due to injuries.
Geri Powell, the administrator of high performance and sport development for Racquetball Canada, said in a press release that Logit will ensure proper training for its athletes.
“We were having challenges with consistency of receiving timely information from athletes and coaches and knowing that the athletes were training their plans while not over-training and ensuring proper recovery,” Powell said.
Using this system, athletes, coaches and trainers are able to identify physical and mental issues that arise during training and address them. Logit has a 90 per cent compliance rate amongst its users and is credited for reducing training time missed due to illness and injury by up to 23 per cent.
The company launched in 2013 with the help of Ryerson’s DMZ. In its first four months, the founders were able to sign their biggest client, Hockey Canada, which recently agreed to continue the partnership.
The company’s main focus since its launch has been to provide affordable monitoring to amateur athletes.
“Amateur athletes put in close to the same time in training as professional athletes, but no amateur team or university could afford a (monitoring) system that (a team like) the Cleveland Cavaliers could afford,” said chief operating officer Daniel Benin, a Western University graduate.
Logit is also available for purchase to the general public for $12 a month or $120 a year, although the company is planning to restructure their pricing model. Along with Racquetball Canada and Hockey Canada, other clients using the Logit system include Skate Canada, Swim Canada, Badminton Canada and Wrestling Canada.
“Our goal was to take over the Canadian market, which we have been able to do, but our plans are to find a way to penetrate the U.S. market,” said Benin of the company’s success over the last three years.
Injuries have always been a concern for athletes both physically and mentally. When Benin and his brother Ronen, who co-founded RightBlue Labs, were training as competitive swimmers, they kept daily training logs in order to track their performance. However, they found it difficult to sort through the data. This led to the creation of Logit.
The Logit system gathers data that the athlete inputs on a daily basis. After a month, the application creates a baseline that is used in comparison with the data collected afterwards so that the athlete can see where improvements are made and are needed. It sends out notifications to users to fill in their daily logs and provides alerts when the results are analyzed after each session.
If any issues arise with the data collected, the athlete, coach or trainer is notified so that they are aware of potential risks and are provided solutions.
One use of this feature is its ability to address recovery from concussions from contact sports. Logit can provide evaluation to determine whether an athlete is physically and mentally ready to return to the game after injury.
“By asking athletes questions every day geared towards concussions monitoring, coaches and athletes can know for certain when an athlete is ready to return,” Benin said.
With recent concussion lawsuits filed against the NHL and NFL, the issue with athletes returning when they were not fully healed has had major repercussions for both leagues. Athletes will try to do what they can to get back into the game because of their competitive desire. However, an app like this will ensure accountability in the decisions made by coaches and medical staff because they can consult the data and be held responsible if they choose to ignore it.
“Athletes were coming to us and telling us about how fantastic the program is, because the athlete was inputting what they were doing every day and they were asked the same questions every day to see whether progress is being made,” Benin said.
Last year the company was the Canadian winner at global start-up competition Start Tel Aviv.
With the rising number of young athletes who drop out of contact sports due to fear of concussions and the uncertain health risks that come with them, an app like Logit could alleviate those concerns — especially for amateur athletes. Benin said this was a major part of the company’s plan when they partnered with Ryerson three years ago.
“The DMZ has given us much needed support by providing things like network opportunities, free office space, programmers and business development leads,” Benin said.
