LE3 .A278 2021

2021

King, Colin

Acadia University

Bachelor of Kinesiology

Honours

Kinesiology

Kinesiology

Wearable technology, specifically within varsity athletics, has the potential to empower athletes to make informed and educated decisions about their training. The current literature provides little attention to varsity athletes and their perceived usefulness of these devices. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between data variables collected by a specific type of wearable technology, the WHOOP band. This study also explored the perceived effectiveness of the WHOOP band for varsity women’s basketball players through a questionnaire and an interview process. The data analysis portion of the study utilized data from 24 (mean SD; age 20.6 1.6) past and present women’s varsity basketball players of the same program. The questionnaire was completed by 19 participants, with 5 participants taking part in the interview section. A strong correlation was found between HR max and the time HR was in zone 5 during exercise (r = 0.82). Additionally, moderate relationships were observed between average HRV and average recovery (r = 0.54) and average workout strain and HR max (r = 0.57). The emerging themes from the mixed- methods part of the study centered around privacy concerns, consideration of life aspects outside of sport, and important things to consider when applying and understanding the data produced by wearable technology. These findings will allow future users to consider important factors when implementing wearable technology in a university sport environment. Moreover, it can also inform future users of the effectiveness of wearable technology from the athlete’s point of view, an area that has very little research available.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3577