As posted by Sport Techie Kangatech — A partner of Biarri, after proving their worth in the 2016 Australian Football League season has set new sights on the American Elite Sports industry.

In sports, injury prevention is one area that teams and players are constantly trying to improve. An Australian company called KangaTech is hoping that they have the formula to continue this improvement.

KangaTech was founded after North Melbourne Football Club of the Australian Football League launched a world leading sports science program. Headed by Steven Saunders, the goal was to get maximum benefit from the club’s limited resources. Saunders, who is known as one of the leading sports scientists in Australia, wanted to focus on measuring and tracking a number of proven, modifiable and easily testable risk factors, and then improve these risk factors through targeted intervention. In order to create the platform, Saunders and NMFC teamed up with a technology company called Biarri to create something that they felt didn’t yet exist.

KangaTech’s injury prevention platform is a combination of a cloud based software package and smart training equipment. The product is targeted at elite sporting teams, and allows them to better understand their athletes and their injury risk while providing targeted intervention to boost performance and reduce injuries. The KangaTech package includes a portable stainless steel frame, detachable dynamometers to measure the force, consistency and control so athletes are able to apply pressure against the frame in different positions, and unlimited user subscription to cloud based software and anonymous athlete data.

With help from scientific literature and Saunders’ years of experience, KangaTech was able to identify a number of key risk factors. The company worked with a local manufacturer to design and build equipment which allowed them to reliably and efficiently measure the risk factors through integrated smart sensors.

One of the Analytical Interfaces on the KangaTech Injury Prevention Platform

After development, the product was passed along to staff and players to help build a feedback system that could determine the platform’s effectiveness. Through the process KangaTech was able to identify that by providing real time biofeedback to the player they could improve the accuracy of their measurements and player engagement.

KangaTech has been used by NMFC since 2011 and since it was implemented the team has one of the best soft tissue injury rates in Australian sport. The KangaTech platform has been used to test and train 20 muscle groups throughout the ankle/foot, knee, thigh, hip, lumbo-pelvic, trunk, shoulder and neck regions.

According to Nick Haslam, KangaTech’s GM of Business Development and Strategy, “The feedback from players and sport science staff using the tool has been overwhelmingly positive. As the product provides real-time biofeedback of key muscle groups no product has ever previously been able to test, players are actively engaged in their training and injury prevention.”

The next step in KangaTech’s plan is to integrate their platform in American sports. “Adopting this product will allow American sporting teams to not only reduce the quality and frequency of soft tissue injures, it will allow American athletes the ability to train for longer, at a higher intensity, therefore improving their level of performance,” said Haslam.

KangaTech will be in the United States this week to pitch their product to American sporting leagues in hopes to give teams something to change the game when it comes to injury prevention. “We know that building stronger, healthier athletes that spend more time on the court/field gives teams a winning advantage,” said Haslam. KangaTech’s motto is “Understand. Intervene. Win.” They believe that their platform can help American sports teams do all three of these things.