Informed by Open University (OU) research, a new golf monitoring app has launched, which is designed to offer in-depth athlete analysis as well as research insight. The AMI Sports: Golf app enables golfers to track their training, practice, tournaments and daily wellness measures to provide insights to optimise their performance and reduce the risk of injury.
Example of the golf duration screen
The concept for the app was conceived by Dr Ben Langdown, Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport at the OU. Dr Langdown has a background of working and researching in golf for over 20 years, including coaching elite professional golfers on their strength and conditioning, as well as delivering presentations and keynote workshops to organisations such as England Golf and The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA).
While conducting research with the England Golf Performance Pathway squads, a challenge arose in the reliability and frequency of data being logged by participants. The aim of the research was to build on existing insights, from other sports, to understand how volumes of practice influence performance and long-term injury risk within golf. However, the use of a traditional spreadsheet made it difficult for participants to record their data while practicing, relying on them trying to recall and record figures at a later stage.
As a result, the AMI Sports: Golf app was conceived and developed. The mobile application, available on both Android and iOS, enables golfers to immediately record their data while on course or training. The app then provides intelligent insights to help athletes and their coaches make decisions about their schedule, practice habits, and strength and conditioning priorities, all while monitoring their daily wellness. In turn, data gathered through the app will inform further research, where permission has been granted, with blog posts, research papers and insights to be published by Dr Langdown, benefitting the wider golf community.
The app will also be used as an applied example of athlete monitoring in OU curriculum. In the sport module, E236: Applying sport and exercise sciences to coaching, students explore the concepts of athlete monitoring, measuring training loads and the response of the body. The app will look at the monitoring processes used to ensure athletes are not under or over training to reduce the risk of fatigue and injuries while maximising performance. Furthermore, as Lead Digital Champion in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, Dr Langdown will promote the use of mobile applications for research and share experiences with academic colleagues as an example of digital innovations enabling research to have real world impact.
Dr Ben Langdown
Commenting on the launch, Dr Ben Langdown said:
“From original conception through to development and testing, it is incredibly exciting to see the AMI Sports: App officially launch today. The app is the first of its kind to offer in-depth athlete monitoring intelligence purpose-designed for golf. It’s great to see the impact of my research resulting in a product with real-life applicability, and I’m keen to see what further insights the data gathered from the app might help uncover.”
The AMI Sports: Golf app is available to download now for iOS and will be coming soon to Android. Find out more on the AMI Sports: Golf app website, or discover more about the OU’s School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport.
Lauren Robinson is part of the Strategic External Engagement Team within the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies at the OU. Specialising in B2B communications management, she is responsible for employer and partner communications within the Faculty. Lauren has completed her Bachelor of Laws (Hons) with the OU and is currently studying towards her MBA. She is a keen reader and enjoys travel and cooking.
