OptoSource will provide a pair of OptoJump Next systems and access to 4Pillars athlete management software to the Team First community in order to showcase a new approach to student development by facilitating coaches and principals' ability to work closely with students and their parents to ensure success in academics and athletics. This weekend Team First and OptoSource will show athlete testing methods and academic evaluations being used together as a vehicle to help students achieve goals in and out of the classroom.
The reception will precede the Jordan Brand Classic game and a private performance by entertainer, Drake.
We hope you got your tickets early, because we are completely sold out! We appreciate your interest in this great cause!
This weekend, OptoSource will be honoring it's partner Team First New York (www.teamfirstny.com) for their achievements in bringing an influential after school initiative to the Brooklyn community. Team first is a non-profit 501 (c-3) organization that offers a creative strategy for educational advancement through athletics and vice-versa. Team First attracts it's student athletes through basketball, as the program is run by Tyrone Grant, former NBA player for the Charlotte Hornets. Grant, a product of the Brooklyn school system, brings other former professional and college basketball players to lead the youth programs in promoting education through team-oriented mentorship.
This April 13 & 14, Team First will host it's after school initiative reception and combine event prior to the 12th Annual Jordan Brand Classic game (www.jordanbrandclassic.com) at the brand-new Barclays Center, which will be televised on ESPN2. The event will welcome coaches and trainers as well as principals and school board members to meet and discover what opportunities are available for schools in the New York and New Jersey communities.
Grant and Team First will host guest speakers, current members and sponsors to tell their stories of how Team First has made an impact in the lives of the children in their communities. Grant welcomes OptoSource as an integral part of the ever-evolving after school program. OptoSource will be providing Team First and participating schools direct access to a secure web portal that will be used to provide feedback on testing results, accolades and academic history on each student athlete. Grant aims to enhance the cooperation between teaches and coaching staff in enriching the experience for each athlete involved by stressing the importance of academics, health and technology in the proper development of youth today.
By inspiring students to appreciate the discipline and determination it takes to succeed on the court, Team first hopes to associate that hard work with what it takes to achieve our goals in the classroom. We invite anyone and everyone to attend this wonderful event and we ask that you please pass the event information on to anyone who may be interested. Sponsorships are greatly appreciated and can be made directly through the Team First website. Each sponsor will receive tickets to the Jordan Brand Classic in addition to a set of tiered promotional benefits.
Medical Device Consulting exists to unlock the full potential of the human spirit through ambulation research, mechanical outcome design and fabrication.
Our vision is a one-of-a-kind facility that cultivates character in our consultants so we may better work together, cooperate, compete and lead our services to better medical device outcomes for our clientele. This is the driving force behind everything we do.
We look forward to accepting the challenges that are brought to us and hope to provide a service that pushes physical and mental boundaries so as to challenge the potential of both our consultants and our clientele to achieve more through the many services we are able to provide, including assessment strategies and corrective exercise strategies that we have implemented which are innovative and applicable to many asymmetry conditions that we see in our clients.
We feel that objective gait analysis has been the missing link in this field and look forward to implementing the technology to assist our clients and enhance referral relationships. We are beginning to design an application for its use in concussion scenarios with local high schools to validate return to competition justification, as well as to establish baseline performance data outcomes for strength and conditioning coaches to better guide their strength and conditioning strategies.
Having the ability to obtain objective gait data from our clients has proved helpful in coordinating corrective strategies to better manage our clientele. We have many ideas for outcome studies in a wide array of pathological conditions as well as more truths to uncover as we study and analyze the data. The key will be to implement the appropriate strategy for correction utilizing the gait data.
Overall we hope to provide significant outcome measures that will reveal the truth about clinical decisions regarding ambulation recovery in pathological conditions as well as better corrective strategies for athletes.
from Kimberly Reed, Medical Device Consulting
With excitement brewing around Red Bull Project X and the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the fusion of technology in sports has become an important step for high level competition. OptoSource has been taking time to work with industry friends, Dynavision (DynavisionD2.com), using their D2 system in unison with OptoJump Next to research a new level of feedback combining cognitive processing through vision training with the tracking of changes to dynamic movement. Having a common partner in Northeastern University Athletics, both companies met at the campus to test the marriage of two sophisticated monitoring systems. Our results were more than stimulating. As we work to define the learning curve for our new tests, we have started to see how an athlete or patient will respond to cognitive exercises through the disruption to basic movement patterns.
As we performed the three main Dynavision D2 programs that Northeastern Athletics' Strength and Conditioning Coach, Dan Boothby (DanBoothby.com), has implemented for his training schedule at the university, we had our test subject simultaneously perform the March in Place inside the OptoJump Next. Comparing the results of these tests to the trend of March in Place's performed over the last year made for easy identification of differentiation when examining ground contact times, flight times and pace of each leg. The results of our March in Place, which is typically the easiest of our 4Pillars tests, were instantly transformed into a key indicator for reporting on cognitive processing in a functional situation.
With Dynavision slotted to showcase their technology in Providence at the NSCA National Conference later that week, OptoSource was more than happy to tag along and continue our testing in front of the public. Though a new conceptual fusion of technology in sports, the booth saw amazing responses from the conference attendees.
Look for our first case study together in the coming weeks on our community news blog and go check out Dynavision if you haven't had the pleasure of working with their incredible visual training system.
To bring together the most comprehensive level of athlete assessment, Red Bull Project X has unified OptoJump Next, Phantom-Flex Camera system and Vicon 3-D Motion Capture to provide the most precise and detailed data set on US Olympic 100 meter hurdler, Lolo Jones. With preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Lolo appears to have a serious advantage over other athletes because of this detailed information Project X has give her and her coaches.
Lolo Jones and Red Bull Project X Preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The technology provided Coach Dennis Shaver with instantaneous data and feedback attributed to Jones' running mechanics and capabilities. The Vicon 3-D Motion Capture system allows the team to calculate Jones' motions in 3-D space using reflective markers on her body. The markers relay information 250 times a second providing the team with detailed data coinciding with her mechanics.
The OptoJump Next system captures data on each foot strike, precisely calculating stride lengths, contact times, flight times, and acceleration of each step. With real-time feedback attributed to ground contact time, the system is especially valuable when paired with other technologies in order to bring a rounded view of her body in motion.
Phanton-Flex Camera's provided high-definition cameras to provide slow-motion recordings at a rate of 2,570 frames per second. Cameras are mounted on a track and follow Lolo through the 100 meter hurdles.
The marriage of the three sources of information gives the team the most comprehensive look at Lolo in motion. Through minor tweaks to mechanics and posture the team can find Lolo's optimal sprint and then focus on coaching for hurdle cues and maintaining velocity through the track.
With the conclusion of the 2012 NBA Draft Combine, everyone is looking for athlete testing results. The information gathered from our OptoJump, BAM Testing, Kinesio Capture and others will be exclusive to the NBA and kept for careful evaluation as the 2012 NBA Draft, on June 28th, quickly approaches.
Teams are often looking to fill a hole in their lineup, better stated, to fulfill a role for situational success. Firstly, having a draft pick come up, walk-on and succeed in that is more than anyone can hope for. So if the role is, say, getting to the ball and providing pressure, the agility drills and skills tests are valuable in showcasing the athletes' individual physical capabilities.
Additionally, determining each athlete’s specific longevity is integral in decision-making. Serious injuries and ailments are commonly detectable through objective measurement tools. Within the Three-quarter-court sprint, gait and run parameters are measured. Media buzz around many of the athletes were focused on medical histories that may be visible such as plantar fasciitis and ACL surgeries. Most serious injuries will affect gait symmetry and other stretch shortening cycles, which can be precisely measured, using ground contact time as a key metric and compared using OptoJump.
Valuable metrics on the NCAA's top competitors have been acquired and some information may be more telling than other factors. Scouts can hope to get a feel for the level of maturity, discipline and preparedness each athlete brings, but evidence based numbers are many times a deciding factor when it comes to an athlete.
Although there happens to be little press surrounding the 2012 NBA Draft
Combine event, it doesn't take away from the importance of this special event to many of the NBA future elite.
OptoSource will be assisting Basic Athletic Measurement (BAM), who is in their fourth consecutive year participating in the Draft Combine, with a 10-meter OptoJump Next for the Three-Quarter-Court Sprint to assess the abilities of the 60 NCAA athletes invited with objective results.
2012 NBA Daft Combine
When: Thursday, June 7th and Friday, June 8th
Where: Chicago
Watch: ESPNU
Live Stream: ESPN3
Attendees will have a chance to see OptoSource partner Kinesio Capture, who also attending the 2012 NBA Draft Combine, a demo of the widely known iPad application as a powerful integrated video tool that assists in visualizing the evidence based feedback in 4Pillars. This will prove to be a valuable workshop for teams with traveling schedules like in the NCAA and NBA.
Meet us at our stationary booth throughout the weekend for demo opportunities, educational lectures or for some product and software information. Look for us during the testing periods during the combine at the three-quarter-court sprint and check your local listings to look for us on ESPNU, who will be covering the event all week long.
BSPMG 2012 was an incredible conference to be a part of, as any participant should 
know. There's something about the pristine Northeastern University setting as summer sets in Boston, the magnitude of the lectures from some of the worlds most brilliant people, and the diverse community of professionals and supporters that drive the success of this annual event.
Art Horne, Director of Athletics at Northeastern, organizes this event, and because of his passion, we are all able to enjoy it. Half of his list of speakers for 2013 are already in the books. The determination it takes to bring the community the kind of education from the most interesting and respected speakers is all his, and we thank him for that.
We also thank the keynote speakers Craig Liebenson, Bill Knowles, Joel Jamieson, Dr. Bruce Williams, Tim Morgan, Keith D'Amelio and everyone we forgot for great insight, perspective and some new tools to work with!
Thanks again to Dan Boothby for his constant efforts to make BSMPG a success and Evan Chait for joining us during our fusion workshop. OptoSource will be supporting Evan and Kinetic PT in Ramsey NJ on Wednesday May 23 for an ACL Assessment Clinic. Check out this video to learn more!
May is shaping up to be huge for OptoSource and our partners. On May 9th, we will be supporting Kinetic PT in Ramsey, NJ for their ACL Performance Assessment Program. Evan Chait, founder of Kinetic PT, will be speaking on injury prevention, stabilizing the knee and the lower leg, mobility do's-and-don'ts for best practices in maintaining a healthy ACL.
Doug Fidellow, founder of OptoSource, will be presenting on the use of performance assessment technology in aiding the discovery of risks in the leg and ligaments. Management of the body through a series of user-friendly tools will be discussed to show the ease at which any individual can track and trend the performance of their lower leg under any condition using a set of tests designed to highlight the core functionality of the body through balance, power, rhythm and speed. Registration is free and is open to the public. Sign up today by clicking HERE and you will be eligible to return to Kinetic PT for a free follow-up and individual evaluation.
On May 19th and 20th, OptoSource will be sponsoring it's second consecutive year of the Boston Sports Medicine & Performance Group. BSMPG 2012 will be an amazing collection of sports medicine professionals from all over the globe as in years past. New this year, is the Fusion Track Event, where OptoSource will be holding an interactive seminar for attendees. Detailed discussions on athlete management and data analysis will bookend a workshop that anyone can participate in or get a chance to have their ideas or questions put to the test. Seats are still available, but are selling fast, so head over to BSMPG.com and secure your spot now!