It’s time we use our buildings to optimize athletic performance.
Simple design strategies and innovative building technologies are the biggest untapped advantage in professional sports.
“The next frontier in solving problems in sports is keeping players healthy - Minimizing injury and keeping them on the playing field… I think ultimately, data will help solve that.”
Thanks to innovations like wearable sensors, traditional locker room analytics can target human performance metrics like resting blood oxygen levels, heart rate, and blood sugar - probably many of the data points that Beane referenced in his recent interview on Dan Senor’s Post COVID Podcast. But what about a FitBit for the training facility itself?
A typical conference room in a Class A office in New York City comes equipped with a sensor on the wall that will blink yellow when air pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, rise and trigger automated mechanical air ventilation from a crowded conference room. It’s not a coincidence that the yellow light will start blinking at the same time that the people around the table start yawning, developing headaches, and requesting a quick break. A Harvard School of Public Health study shows that doubling the air ventilation rate in an office space generated an 8% increase in employee’s decision-making and improved productivity by $6,500 per employee per year. Imagine the return for professional athletes.
These same spaces, which optimize other factors, such as light levels, acoustics, and even odor, known as ‘indoor environmental quality’ (IEQ) increased employee’s ability to pay attention by 38%, ability to align decision-making to ultimate goals by 44%, and increased strategic thinking by 31%.
Most critically, the office design influences employee’s off-the-clock health too. The same Harvard study also found that employee’s sleep quality score was 6.4% higher for participants in the space designed to optimize IEQ.
It’s no secret that athletes who sleep better will perform better. A study from Stanford showed that basketball players that slept fewer than seven hours per night had slower sprint times, lower free throw percentages, and slower reaction time. Leave it to 7x Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady to sum it up: “You can only work out as hard as your ability to recover.” If buildings can be designed to help us recover, why aren’t we taking advantage of that?
Dan Senor’s recent interview with Billy Beane also highlights the 2020 NBA Bubble, when player travel was restricted due to COVID-19 and resulted in 28% fewer injury-induced missed games. Forget the element of fans in the stands, professional sports teams can no longer avoid this angle on home field advantage.
The commercial real estate industry has given us the data-driven set of design solutions. With stakes much higher in professional sports, why wouldn’t every space be designed to maximize performance? Teams that are ready to leverage this research and get their physical environment to work for them will have the advantage.
Redefining Home Field Advantage is about employing these strategies in three major categories physical environments:
3 Critical Areas of Opportunity:
Team Facilities
Integrating a suite of building health solutions into spaces where athletes spend the most time, especially while training, will allow them to optimize their performance. Ignoring the science could quite literally cost a win, especially when other teams’ home facilities tap into this advantage.
Athletes’ Homes
A team nutritionist equips athletes with knowledge about the diet to optimize performance, even for their meals at home. Teams must also teach athletes how to get their homes to work for them. We know how to create environments that are conducive to maximizing restorative recovery. Translating the success of building science into the athletes’ at-home environment will positively impact the player’s recovery and overall mental health.
On The Road
During the grueling mid-season travel, building conditions could be modified to feel more like home. Simply renegotiating travel and hospitality agreements to factor in some of these elements could drive rest and recovery time, regulate sleep schedule, and influence concentration levels that lead to athletic performance.
If Moneyball is any indication, Beane may be onto something in claiming that the power of data to influence athlete health is the next frontier in sports. While most sports teams focus on metrics related to nutrition and fitness, the sports teams that leverage the existing validation that buildings can positively contribute to performance will have the advantage.
To learn more about Redefining Home Field Advantage, please contact Recipric.
More about Home Field Advantage Package for athletes homes
Concepts recently featured in:
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The Sustainability Report: What sport can learn from commercial real estate