In the athletic world, every second counts. Every movement matters, and small injuries can throw an athlete off his or her game. Even as sports technology advances, athletes continue to work out inefficiently and sustain a high rate of injuries, which can be costly.
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According to one estimate, during the 2019 football season, NFL teams spent $521 million treating injured players. Despite the NFL's more than 100 certified trainers, injuries seemed to be inevitable in high-risk sports.
But a small Haifa-based startup is determined to change that. Tropx is developing high-tech clothing designed to maximize athletic performance and minimize injuries by analyzing athletes in real time and creating personalized gym training programs for them.
"Every time I went to the gym, I saw people hurting themselves and wasting their time," said Tropx founder and CEO Salay Haim Raveh. "As a fitness instructor with 12 years of experience, I wanted to create a technology that could help athletes be the best they can be."
Tropx was founded in 2020 by a small group of sports enthusiasts and tech engineers. Using sensors that measure parameters such as heart rate, muscular electrical activity, respiration rate, and lactic acid levels, and combine them with smart algorithms to analyze workout patterns and athletes' demographics, the Tropx technology aims to be a holistic solution to enhance performance by athletes in all types of sports.
The smart clothing is designed to connect to an app that monitors performance on the field. Based on an athlete's weaknesses and athletic goals, the technology will generate a workout program that meets their needs and provides real-time feedback, informing the athlete if he or she is moving correctly and highlighting any mistakes they might be making.
A machine learning algorithm uses binary classification to detect whether movements are correct or incorrect, while the user interface provides a clear visual indication of the exercise in real-time, allowing the user to correct their movements based on the individualized feedback.
For example, if an individual's left knee is bent incorrectly as they work out, the interface will highlight the knee in red until the user adjusts their form. Tropx has a pending patent for its technology.
"We identify the exact part of the body that is causing the execution of an exercise to be incorrect and help the athlete adjust their movement," said research and development specialist Hayim Makabee.
Head of the Sports Therapy Department at Ono Academic College Ella Been explains that learning how to balance muscle groups and train properly can be difficult without assistance.
"In the front of your thigh are the quadriceps, and the back is the hamstring. If they're not balanced, you're more prone to knee injury," Been said. "It's the same with the lower back. If your abdominal muscles aren't balanced with your back muscles, you're more prone to back pain."
In Been's view, the most essential aspect of the Tropx technology as its ability to monitor muscle groups that are often trained improperly. She believes that even the most advanced athlete could benefit from using machine learning personal trainer.
Tropx CTO Gal Abir says that the current proof of concept has 90% precision in identifying errors, and the company's goal is to develop algorithms for over 100 different exercises.
To launch the rollout of its technology for professional athletes, Tropx has signed a contract with Maccabi Haifa Carmel, the largest sports association in Israel, which brings together 16 different sports branches. By the end of 2023, Tropx will be beta testing its tech on Maccabi athletes.
"Technology today is an integral part of sports," said Maccabi Haifa Carmel CEO Roy Shvetz. "Tropx technology can change the world of sports and give coaches and athletes all the tools to achieve new athletic goals and prevent injuries. The system is very necessary and we as sports leaders need this technology for all fitness activities."
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Tropx is also in contact with Wingate Institute – the National Institute for Sport Excellence, as well as organizations abroad, such as soccer teams in the US, Europe and South America.
Although there are quite a few companies developing performance-enhancing sports technology, Tropx claims that its combination of sensors and lack of reliance on cameras makes its tech unique.
"Many companies are using cameras, which are very limiting," Makabee said. "With our sensors we can detect a movement of a few millimeters, and a camera can't offer you this kind of precision." He also points out that Tropx technology can be used for long distances, is waterproof, and can be adapted for any sport, which other technologies do not allow for.
Israeli VC fund Cactus Capital was one of Tropx's first investors.
"At Cactus Capital, we believe that Tropx's human capital has the tools to transform the sports industry," said Executive Director of Cactus Capital Adi Azulay. "Their vision of creating a more efficient sports world can be possible with their high-tech solutions and innovative machine learning algorithms."
