Some college football teams are using cutting-edge helmet technology to monitor hit data by position

College football programs across the country are further investing in new cutting-edge helmet technology to measure the hits players take during practice. Earlier this month, Riddell unveiled new technology that allows coaches and trainers to measure head impacts for each position like never before.

Riddell’s InSite technology helmets are equipped with a set of sensors that record the hits taken by players during practice in terms of G-Forces, location, direction, and severity. One of the even cooler parts about the technology is the data from the hit is then sent to a handheld sensor, which is used by the training staff.

A total of 17 teams including Texas and Tulsa, 14 FCS teams, and one DIII school will use the new technology, which tracks individual positions in 2018.

Some other schools using the technology include Dartmouth, Bucknell, Wofford, and Florida A&M. Texas has been using Riddell’s InSite technology since 2017:

Here’s more from the official press release:

The ITT platform uses data Riddell collected from more than 5 million impacts gathered over a decade of on-field monitoring. ITT also includes an advanced practice planning feature for team personnel, offering a data-driven approach to proactively manage athletes by identifying training opportunities based on head impact data.

”This is an exciting innovation that creates a first-time opportunity for programs at all levels to take a data-driven approach towards reducing exposure to head impacts,” said Thad Ide, Riddell’s Senior Vice President of Research and Product Development. “The ability to track head impact exposure for a team provides a coaching tool to help better evaluate how effective they are in limiting unnecessary player contact during practices and games.”

There aren’t any NFL teams that have used the technology yet, but Riddell helmets tested well in the NFL’s most recent helmet testing performance results.

Perhaps we’ll see more programs use this same technology in the years ahead. For now, it’s still pretty cool to see a good number of college programs use it. Per Riddell, over 35,000 players have been outfitted with the InSite since 2014.