Columbus, Ohio – What happens when you combine Ohio State University’s leading human performance researchers with the Department of Athletics sports performance team and elite student athletes and coaches? The result is improved and optimal training, performance, recovery and well-being for Ohio State’s student-athletes.
Like any great partnership, the relationship between the Department of Athletics and the researchers at Ohio State’s Human Performance Collaborative began with a mutual need. Ohio State’s strength coaches, athletic coaches, and other members of its performance team needed to ensure their student-athletes had every scientific advantage to maximize performance and recovery, and Ohio State researchers needed real-world data from elite athletes.
Introducing: The PIT
The Performance Innovation Team or PIT was created through this partnership between sports science and athletics and with the Human Performance Collaborative (HPC), a strategic initiative of the university’s research office. The HPC is designed to continue OSU’s leadership in human performance research by forming interdisciplinary teams to optimize individual and team performance through a unique approach to brain, body and behavior.
The PIT enables rapid and flexible implementation of human performance research, ensuring that Ohio State’s athletes and coaches have full benefits in terms of peak performance, competitive success and overall well-being.
“PIT’s work provides an incredible opportunity for growth and improvement for the sports performance department and ultimately our student-athletes,” said Mickey Marotti, Ohio State’s Assistant Athletic Director for Football Sports Performance. “Our student-athletes are fortunate to have world-class leaders in exercise science, enabling evidence-based strategies for training, recovery and overall athletic development.”
The PIT is managed by Dr. Josh Hagen, Faculty Director of HPC and Associate Research Professor in the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering, Nick Domicone, Director of Exercise Science in the Department of Athletics, and Jason Stone, HPC Performance and Exercise Scientist. Stone serves as Director of Sports Research and Innovation and is responsible for the day-to-day oversight and administration of the PIT.
Crucial to the PIT is its comprehensive and interdisciplinary structure, which utilizes and integrates skills and resources within a single team. Areas of collaboration include biomechanics, sports medicine, athletic training, rehabilitation science, data science, nutrition, physiology, psychology, research methods, and strength and conditioning, among others. Team members include:
• Mickey Marotti – AD assistant for football sports performance
• Tyler Carpenter – Director, Strength and Conditioning
• Kaila Olson – Performance Nutritionist
• Adam Stewart – Physical therapist, athletic trainer
• Doug Calland – Associate AD, Sports Achievement
• dr William Kraemer – Senior Advisor in Sport Performance and Sport Science and Associate Professor at the College of Education and Human Ecology
• dr Justin Merrigan – Senior HPC Research Scientist
• dr Jimmy Onate – Director, Department of Athletic Training
• dr Samantha Kring – Deputy Professor in the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering and
• dr Ted Lambrinides – Sports Science Advisor
How it works
Before performance can be improved, the PIT must first quantify an athlete’s current state of training, sleep, recovery, nutrition, wellness, fatigue and performance. Commercially available technologies are researched and validated by PIT to ensure only the best products are used with Ohio State’s athletes based on the needs of the sport, accuracy and reliability of the data, and ease of implementation of athlete tracking. Technologies used by the State of Ohio include:
• Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems for external loads
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems for external loads
• Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) systems for external loads
• Heart rate monitoring systems for internal stress
• App-based systems for subjective well-being
• Sleep and sleep physiology monitors to track recovery
• Neuromuscular and biomechanical performance status force plates
• Linear position encoders for speed-based training
After selecting and implementing technologies and tools, the PIT manages a data platform that receives thousands to millions of data points every day. These datasets enable the development of advanced analytics to monitor athletes’ physical demands and physiological responses, actionable data visualizations and reports, and predictive modeling powered by machine learning. This data is used to make real-time training and recovery adjustments as needed and, more importantly, highly individualized.
where it started
The intersection of sports, science and research first arrived in the state of Ohio in 2014. Back then, the football and wrestling programs partnered with Wright Patterson Air Force Base and its Air Force Research Laboratory to advance innovative science between top athletes at OSU and elite service members. This led to many novel performance science developments and helped prove the efficient, collaborative research process by working with athletes and the military.
In 2018, a gift from the Harry T. Mangurian Jr. Foundation Inc. enabled the continued growth of exercise science at OSU by supporting a full-time position for exercise science staff, developing data analysis tools and platforms, funding research initiatives, and providing advanced recovery modalities such as Flotation, cryo and light therapies. Not coincidentally, more Ohio State teams began to benefit from these technologies and recovery tools, and today all 36 sports are positively impacted by Ohio State Sport Science.
What’s next
Ohio State and PIT will continue to lead in exercise science and advance the training and recovery practices of Ohio State’s athletes and programs. This is accomplished by creating student learning experiences for future sports scientists, increasing the breadth and depth of athlete monitoring practices, and building programmatic confidence in advanced analytics.
Above all, it is planned to continue the growth of the comprehensive, interdisciplinary, unique and important PIT.
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