The days of the notebook and stopwatch are on their way out for sports trainers, according to Neal Henderson, founder of APEX Coaching & Consulting, LLC. Now, and moving into the future, pro athletes are making use of cutting-edge technology to monitor their progress, he told John Furrier and Dave Vellante, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team.

“We’ve really advanced the tools we’re using,” Henderson said.

Henderson utilizes technology to train cyclists and says that the new tools are helping him to get insights into athletes’ progress much faster and with greater accuracy. Performance aspects that used to take months and weeks to gauge for improvement can now be measured for changes in days. “So we’re tightening up that feedback loop,” said Henderson.

The race is not to the swift … but to the tech savvy

Henderson demonstrated how his IBM-powered glasses worn by cyclists collect and transmit data to trainers to help them customize training. The topic of illicit steroid use came up, and Henderson said he hoped that tech would help athletes looking for an edge resist the allure of doping and turn to the new technology instead.

He said that he was able to hone in very specifically on athletes’ weaknesses and tailor training to help them overcome them. “We look at what the genetic tendencies are for a given person to respond to a type of training,” he said.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM InterConnect 2016. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE