Three Colgan grads develop sports technology
By Mark Schremmer, The Morning Sun
The recent film “Moneyball” shows how Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane used computers and advanced statistical analysis to provide a competitive advantage and eventually change the way players are evaluated.
Every so often, a new idea or technology comes along that changes the sports world.
Three former Pittsburg residents may have found the latest game-changer as they are on the ground floor of a technology that could revolutionize the sports and physical therapy industries.
Patrick Moodie, a 2001 St. Mary’s-Colgan graduate and biomechanist, devised a way to measure human kinetics without the use of force plates, shoe inserts or any contact-based equipment. Along with his brother Ryan Moodie, a 1998 Colgan graduate, and childhood friend Ryan Comeau, a 1998 Colgan grad, he formed the company Dynamic Athletics with the goals of improving performance, injury prevention and improving rehab.
With cutting-edge technology at their disposal, Dynamic Athletics could one day play a pivotal role in professional sports.
“At some point, we really believe we’ll work our way into professional sports,” said Comeau, the company’s chief executive officer. “Just like teams have strength and conditioning coaches and dietitians now, teams will have biomechanics who work with athletic trainers and physical therapists on a daily basis.”
Patrick Moodie, who has an undergraduate degree from The University of Kansas in exercise and kinesiology and a graduate degree from KU in biomechanics, started to develop a concept using 3D motion capture to analyze the forces that are applied to an athlete during a particular movement. Doing so without force plates, was something he was told was impossible.
“I can remember when I thought of the concepts for Dynamic Athletics,” said Patrick Moodie, the company’s co-founder and chief of science. “I was in my lab at KU during the start of my master’s program, and I told some people and asked their opinion and I was laughed at. Only one person actually heard what I had to say, and thought I should pursue this. That person is my wife Nicole. She has always been a believer in what I can do even when I question myself.”
Patrick Moodie had the mathematics down, but he called on his brother Ryan Moodie, who studied computer information systems at the University of Notre Dame, to create software that would put the math into practice.
Comeau, who attended law school at Washburn with Ryan Moodie and worked with the Kansas City Chiefs, was asked to help sell the product and secure the money needed to move forward. He brought in Shane Cordes and former Green Bay Packers lineman Frank Winters as investors.
So almost eight years after Patrick Moodie first developed the theory, the science is being put into reality at their headquarters in Overland Park. Several athletes, like Kansas City Chief Dexter McCluster, have used the service, and the technology is going through a third-party verification process at KU.
This all sounds good, but what exactly does this all mean in layman’s terms?
Basically, they have made it possible to study an athlete’s motions in his or her natural element. Previously, using force plates was the only way to measure this.
“A typical force plate is typically one square foot,” said Ryan Moodie, the company’s co-founder and chief information officer. “They’ll have you run and step across the plate, and they’ll calculate all the forces on your body at that point – all the forces on your knees, hips and shoulders. But that’s only one step. And that’s the scientific standard today. It’s fairly limiting.
“With the advancement we’ve taken, we can make an entire motion capture zone into a gigantic force plate. That means we can give a pitcher all the data about the forces that are acting on his ankle, knee, hip, torso, arm, wrist and elbow throughout his entire pitching motion while his on the pitching mound throwing to a catcher. So we can take the science out of the lab and put you in your natural environment and tell you what’s happening.”
Dynamic Athletics’ cameras collect 120 frames of data every second an athlete is performing a motion. Since a typical swing or throw takes about two seconds, they capture 200 or 300 frames of data over 20 or 30 data points on the body. Patrick and Ryan Moodie then take the data and determine the numbers that mean something.
That information has numerous applications in meeting their goals of improving performance, preventing injury and improving rehab.
“From an individual athlete standpoint, you can customize an athletic training regimen to your exact body based on your range of motion and your own tendencies,” Ryan Moodie said. “Instead of everyone doing the same workout routine, each of us should be doing something different. By doing that, you’re able to maximize your own body.”
The science, which can be more fully explained on their website at www.darisports.com, could have implications beyond sports.
“We touch quite a bit on health care as well,” Comeau said. “We’re getting into that field, especially in physical therapy, orthopedics and rehabilitation. Anyone who has bones and walks upright can benefit from this. We’re involved in sports, but at some point we hope it’s adopted on a much larger scale.”
Less than a year into the company’s life, it already has been a great story for these three friends and former high school athletes from Pittsburg. However, Patrick Moodie said things are just getting started.
“There were highs and lows though all of this and the motivation from my wife and family was huge,” he said. “My parents (Jack and Chloe) and Nicole wouldn’t let me stop working on this. Lots of sacrifices have been made already – long nights, fights, tears and stress all have been endured to give this a chance. It is not about what I can do, but what we can all do. I couldn’t be more happy or proud of how things have gone so far, and I’m so thankful.
“I love where this is at, but there is so much more to come. With the steps that have been made and the advancements we have developed, I just feel like the sky is the limit.”
