PORTABLE SENSORS

Cycling used to be very much a sport of feel and arbitrary judgement , riding a certain distance or climbing up a particular hill so many times was enough to prepare people for a race.Along came heart-monitors and people could train with in particular heart-rate zones , but this was still only analyzing what effort was doing to the body , rather than what the effort was doing for the actual performance.   When power meters came along , it allowed cyclists to train in accordance  with how much power they were pushing through the pedals. Having the ability to train at consistent  level with the readings appearing on a screen in handle bars meant that consistent power could be achieved , something that is vital in the modern day peloton. Team Sky may not have been the first team to use power meters , but the way way they utilize them changed the way that every professional team trained  and has totally changed  the landscape of cycling from a sport based on feelings to arguably the most number intensive support in the world. Similarly we can see the use of GPS sensors that have allowed rugby , football and soccer coaches to see exactly where a player is at any point during a match , then look at their movements and see how these can be  changed to improve the athlete. These kind of sensors are constantly evolving and getting  smaller , making even more impact on  performance whilst being able to pick up the most minute information. It has been predicted that soon they will be embeddable within everyday clothing , allowing for complex measurements to be taken constantly and improving analysis even further.