the Spanish invention that you put on the racket to learn to play better by yourself

In Europe, sports fans sometimes follow trends. Football is always present, but sometimes, over the years, a love for other sports is born, such as Formula 1 when Fernando Alonso competed for the title year after year or cycling with personalities like Miguel Induráin. In recent times, a sport that does not have such well-known personalities, although it does have high-profile figures, has gained importance: padel.

This discipline has become popular throughout the countryat a time when citizens seem to be aware of the importance of playing sports and leading an active lifestyle. Being a team sport, you tend to stay with friends or colleagues to play and also exercise.

Gradually The number of fields to practice this sport has increased and they are found in cities and even in some private urbanizations, both on the coast and in the interior of the country. Of course, the fever to know which rackets are the best, or those with the best quality-price ratio, has also reached the Spanish. There are even systems installed on courts that allow you to know if the ball has already touched the ground or the wall, to put an end to many of the arguments that arise during matches.

Smart excavators

There are many types of excavatorsof all types of finishes and prices, recommended depending on the type of padel we are going to play. Intending to play with friends is not the same as trying to improve the game to get to the next level.

As this sport becomes more and more popular and more people participate in it as well small tournaments increase which are celebrated throughout Europe and more and more athletes want to improve their game. It is for them that a Spanish company, Astur Advanced Technologies SL, has created a device that turns any padel racket into a smart one. Andrés Viña, one of those responsible for the project, in statements to EL ESPAÑOL – El Androide Libre stated that “the product was initially designed to improve Padel in general, but over time, and doing tests with many players of different levels, we discovered that the information useful to each player varied depending on their level. Since the hardware allows data to be collected and then analyzed, it is possible to “develop useful features for any level of player. A beginner will be able to see which basic shots he needs to improve, while a more advanced player will be able to know data as precise as the evolution of his level of play.

It’s a bracelet for the shovel itselfcall Group of Padel. This is reminiscent of the smart bracelets that we wear to count our steps, measure our heart rate or blood oxygen saturation. In this case, this device measures the behavior of the racket while we play with it, being able to calculate how we are playing and how we can improve. Andrés Viña told us that they had “almost four years of development, since we created everything from scratch. This includes everything from the design of the electronics and firmware to the development of the mobile application, server and database infrastructure, among other aspects of the software.

The Padel Band is placed on the handle of the racket and turned on just before playing. In less than 15 seconds it will be ready to collect data and send it to the application that we have installed on the smartphone via Bluetooth connection. The bracelet is elastic and high friction, making it can adapt to any racket without moving. For obvious reasons, the Padel Band supports impacts so that you don’t have to worry about accidentally hitting it with the ball or when the racket falls. Additionally, as it weighs only 12 grams, This does not interfere when playing since it does not change the center of gravity of our shovel.

This smart bracelet for snowshoes charges via a microUSB port which he has on one side. Unlike those that we wear on the wrist, it must be turned on and off, for which you just have to press the only button it has to turn it on and hold it for several seconds to turn it off. Small LEDs next to the charger will indicate whether it is active or not.

Application is key

But the most interesting part of this product is the application with which the Padel Band connects. It is possible to manage all the information extracted by the bracelet to analyze the data and know how to improve our game. To begin, once the application is downloaded and linked to the bracelet, as we would do with a smart watch or headphones, it You have to turn on the Padel Band itself.

Padel Band app

Alvarez del Vayo

Before we start playing we have to tell the app if we are going to do a training or a match since the metrics are different and the app takes them into account to give us more precise numbers. The bracelet can measure the steps we take, the calories burned but also the position on the field, what is our best shot and much more. There are also charts that have an explanation on the back, accessible via a question mark icon in the upper right corner of each. The application includes a part gamified which allows us to create the classic profile of an athlete but with our statistics. These characteristics as a player are summarized in a personalized card that can be exchanged with other paddle players, in addition to being able to collect them.

Other sports

Considering the possibility of creating products for other sports, the head of Padel Band told us that “in the long term we have several ideas in mind that we plan to launch. However, when we talk about Padel Band, we still present it as a constantly evolving platform “We are currently working on several developments that will significantly transform the use of the device, providing a more complete and versatile experience.”

Its short-term objective is that “the Padel Band becomes an extremely useful tool for any Padel player”. But they are aware that “our technology could be applied to a wide variety of sports, starting with similar sports like tennis, pickelball or squash and potentially ending with sports as different as boxing with a bracelet on each wrist”.

Available by reservation

The Padel Band is currently available for purchase in reserve, with its launch planned for this month of October. The price is 99 dollars per unit, although there is a promotion to buy four at once with a discount of 40 dollars, 10 dollars per bracelet. Additionally, this option also includes a one-year subscription to the premium version of the app.

To purchase this four-unit pack, simply select four units from the cart on their website and enter the discount code PACKAMIGOS. The system will deduct 10 dollars per unit. At the moment there is not much information on the price of subscribing to the application in case we do not want to settle for the free version. In the future they do not rule out distributing it in physical stores in Europe and other countries.