Why Energy Management Is the Next Big Performance Tool

Sarah Karmel

So it allows you to combine properties which are usually contradictory, such as comfort and protection.

Richard Graves 01:16

And for you personally, given your background is in chemistry and technology, this must be something of a passion, isn't it?

Sarah Karmel 01:22

Yes, it is. So essentially my b background is in polymer chemistry and I've been in the polymer industry for a long time and I'm obviously passionate about materials and performance, but I'm also passionate about sports and how you can improve the performance of both elite athletes but also everyday weekend warriors and how they can feel better and perform better through material science.

Richard Graves 01:45

Well, let's talk about technology then. First of all, let's start with what is a polymer?

Sarah Karmel 01:50

Yeah, polymer is essentially a a long chain of molecules. So most most polymers are essentially plastics or elastomers or rubber, so those are all polymers. and in this specific case it is a dynamic polymer. So most polymers display the same type of properties regardless of what scenario they're in. So whether they're resting, whether they're subjected to force. They will have the same modulus, the same stiffness and the same hardness. Dynamic materials are they behave dynamically, so different modules at rest, whereas when they're subjected to to force. And this force can be impact, as we said, but it can also be tension, so when you pull them or vibration. And actually, where the company started is in the use of this type of polymers and impact protection. So the question was: how can we manage energy?

in impact scenarios more efficiently, so in helmets, for example. We we have worked with the NFL

Richard Graves 02:53

Let's start with helmets because it's in NFL helmets where perhaps it's the most high profile use. There's been tremendous investment over the last decade, particularly with the National Football League in the United States of America as they look to reduce the instances of concussion and the effects on the athletes involved. what happens when a player in an NFL setting is on the receiving end of a high impact, high force

tackle because this is where this comes into its own, isn't it?

Sarah Karmel 03:27

Yes, so NFL players are at the end subjected to various different types of impact scenarios. It can be high energy crown impacts, but it can also be repetitive lower energy impacts, which all of them cause damage. It can be, for example, repetitive brain damage repetitive loads which lead to brain damage or CTE, for example. Recent reports show that ninety one percent or ninety two percent of NF ex NFL players have

or are likely to get CTE, which is significant. Or you have high energy impacts which cause concussions, for example, or that can also cause skull fractures. So it really depends on the type of impacts they're subjected to. At the end, NFL players, if we class it, are subjected to two different types of impacts. Linear impacts, which is the type of impact that leads to skull fracture, as well as rotational impacts. And rotational impacts are the type of impact that leads to brain damage, if we class it into two broad categories. And it's really important when we are protecting NFL players that they are protected from both of them. And that's for instance where where material technology plays a role. Because materials by themselves they can essentially

protect you from a part of this, but how you use the materials, for example, and the geometries you use the materials with are also really important. So I can maybe speak a little bit to the to the NFL helmet with Zenit, where specifically we engineered components to protect players both from rotational impacts, which is the type of impact that leads to brain damage, as well as linear impacts that lead to skull fracture.

Richard Graves 05:12

You mentioned their repetitive impacts, Sarah. I wonder, is reducing the impact of smaller collisions, smaller hits, becoming just as important as managing the major ones?

Sarah Karmel 05:13

here it's really for essentially linear impacts can be accounted. I believe it is. There's a lot of research at the moment going into traumatic brain injuries and into into the NFL and also frankly into rugby. And it it has started to become evident that both types of impacts are significant. Previously, helmets only focused on high energy impacts and on single impact scenarios. But in recent years, a lot of research has gone into what is the role of

lower energy impacts and repetitive impacts, and how does that affect, for example, brain injuries and re repetitive brain injuries specifically. So in recent years you can see that it has gone from traditional foams that are that will protect players from one-off impacts into other material technologies or helmet technologies that are multi-use, for example. So they're they're not a one-off, essentially they will protect players repetitively again

against impacts, but also technologies that account for example for rotational impact. So MIPS, for example, not specifically for ra for American football, but for example for cycling has played an incredibly big role because rotational impacts play a significant role in in traumatic brain injuries.

Richard Graves 06:51

When I was preparing for our conversation today, one of the things I came across, which surprised me a little bit because it's not what I was expecting, was that this technology is also proving to be hugely beneficial in materials such as those used for women's sports bras. I think from reading this, this was fairly unexpected. I don't think it was a path that you set out on. Explain how this helps.

Sarah Karmel 07:18

Yes, so in sport bras what the technology focuses on is dynamic support. So again we leverage dynamic properties of the materials and in this case we use thin films and highly strain rate sensitive film or dynamic film is a film that you can stretch slowly and it's very stretchy and flexible, but when you stretch it fast it stiffens and it dampens. In a sport bra, what happens is that it's a s it's a sports bra that is soft and flexible at rest.

so comfortable, yet when athletes start running, for example, and their soft tissue starts moving, the material stiffens and provides dynamic support. And dynamic support in sports bra is a real ad I would say advantage for for female athletes and a field that hasn't been looked into that much and compared to for example helmets. Currently female athletes have to ch to choose between bras that are either comfortable or supportive.

So, for example, all female athletes know we have yoga bras which are very comfortable and you can wear them all day long, but when you start running, they're not very supportive. Or you have high support bras, which are great for running and very supportive, but they are not very comfortable and often quite compressive. And over the years, there have been various different technologies trying to address this compromise between comfort and support. for example, there there have been

Bras that look into there is a the Reebok PureMove bra, for example, that looked into using a strain rate sensitive or fluid that the bra was coated in. There is lycra adaptive, and there is also a screen printed Lycra version that provides zonal support. Ryon is also providing this dynamic support through the material properties of Ryon.

Richard Graves 09:11

So in terms of performance then, obviously this material is designed to improve comfort, but by reducing excessive movement in soft tissue, can it improve performance at an elite level as well?

Sarah Karmel 09:26

So breast pain, for example, is a real issue for elite level athletes. Forty-four percent of elite female athletes report having exercise induced breast pain throughout their career, with thirty-two percent finding that this act negatively impacts their performance. So by addressing breast discomfort and breast pain, I believe athletes can perform better by being more comfortable for longer. And this is not only an issue for elite level athletes, but also a recent study in the London Marathon showed that recreational athletes also experience exercise induced pa breast pain during their run training, for instance, up to the London Marathon, with a third of the athletes reporting exercise induced breast pain, for example.

Richard Graves 10:15

It strikes me from what you're saying Sarah that this has the potential to be a game changer not just at elite level but all levels when it comes to female sport.

Sarah Karmel 10:26

Yes, I think performing better as a female athlete is not only about being faster or or have or for instance having more energy in a or putting more energy into a certain gate cycle, for example, or jumping higher it's also about how you feel when you run a marathon. So if you have discomfort throughout a marathon, if you're experiencing breast discomfort, it will make you perform a little bit less well because you're you're focusing on this on this discomfort that you have. And essentially being able to feel supported and comfortable, I believe, makes a big difference. There there is also some research that goes, for example, that has been going into how breast support impacts the biomechanics of running.

And inadequate breast support has shown to reduce the female's trid length by up to four centimeters. And if we look into that in over the course of a marathon, that equates to running an extra mile in the course of a marathon. So there is the proprioception aspect, but there is also the the biomechanical aspect that improved support will actually make you perform better as an athlete.

Richard Graves 11:44

Yeah, fine margins can make big differences, can't they? OK, let's move the conversation away from the use of this technology in terms of protecting athletes into the sphere of the equipment that we use itself. And I want to speak specifically about tennis rackets, paddle rackets. I'm sure everybody listening's played tennis or paddling and you just strike the ball off center and you feel that vibration go all the way up your arm.

How is this being used to reduce that whilst at the same time not losing the feel that you need an Elite level?

Sarah Karmel 12:22

Yes, so Ryon can be Ryon films again can be used as constrained layer dampers in carbon fiber layups. So many of the paddel pickleball rackets or also tennis rackets are made with carbon fiber composites and by integrating small thin layers of Ryon in the carbon fiber layup, for example in the handle of rackets, you can reduce the vibrations which are transmitted to the arms of players by up to thirty percent.

For example, we have worked with Macron, an Italian company on a Padel racket that has been independently tested at the University of Bologna. And what they've shown there is that by integrating a very thin layer of Ryon in the handle of the racket, you can reduce the vibrations transmitted by 30%. So you at the end you're making a player. again more comfortable for longer periods of time by reducing the vibrations transmitted to their arm arms. And I believe it's not only about comfort. We don't make any injury prevention claims, for instance, but there there is scientific research that look has looked into how vibrations affect overload on tendons, for example, in in the in arms. So.

Richard Graves 13:44

I was going to say there you mentioned reducing vibrations by 30 percent. How much of that vibration have we measured that goes up through the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder for example?

Sarah Karmel 13:55

we have not measured that. So that's a very interesting question, and I believe it's something that we will look into in the future. However, we have not specifically looked into how how much of the vibration is transmitted through the soft tissue of the player into into the shoulder, for example. And what we have looked into

Richard Graves 14:14

Is that the next boundary if you like? obviously anybody that's played these sports and felt the vibration, we'll talk about things like tennis elbow through repetitive play and if you're having less vibration it stands to reason there's less stress on the joint.

Sarah Karmel 14:32

That's what we believe. And actually we have done some preliminary research, not specifically on paddle rackets, but on running shorts, where we again use thin films for dynamic muscle support. So similar to the brass, here you have a compression type short which is soft and comfortable when you're sitting in it, but when you're running, the material stiffens and realigns the muscles that shear with the with your direction of running, essentially, and makes you lose.

less energy. But what we looked at here is the effect on tendon loading specifically to with the University of Wisconsin, where we have found some effect of using Ryon shorts compared to conventional compression shorts and the reduction of of load on the patellar tendon specifically.

Richard Graves 15:20

A few moments ago I mentioned at an elite level you still want to have that feel and so whilst reducing vibration on the face of it no matter what context you're using it in seems to be beneficial. You talk about fine margins, they're very top athletes whatever the sport it is they're participating in still wants to have that feel. How do you ensure that that remains there whilst having these advantages you've spoken about?

Sarah Karmel 15:47

So it's all about how you engineer the material. you can for instance the material will will dampen, but you can engineer the structure of the material for a specific range or a fresh for a f specific frequency. So only some of the spectrum is filtered out, for example, and you can while still providing the the f so you don't overdamp. So the the term of over damping is something we have come across.

I cannot go into a lot of detail of how exactly we do it, but there are ways of engineering the material and and the structure of the material to provide specif a specific damping response without being over damping so the athlete does not lose the feeling in the game, for instance with rackets or with with other sporting equipment.

Richard Graves 16:36

And I know you mentioned there a few moments ago, Sarah, about using this technology in shorts as well. It strikes me that through this discussion, we've spoken about three very different, very major sports. So different contexts applying the same material for different benefits. Is that the next frontier in sport generally, I wonder, that you start looking at materials that intelligently respond to the way an athlete moves?

Sarah Karmel 17:05

I believe it is. So previously a lot of in of sport equipment engineering focused only on how you can make an athlete faster, for example, or how they can hit a ball s more s more strongly. Or yeah, it focused on perfor on performance alone. And now the industry is starting to look into the in into athlete performance in a more holistic way. So But rather than looking into how an athlete adapts to the equipment, we are looking into how equipment or apparel can adapt to an athlete and also improve performance by improving, for example, comfort or feeling of athletes. and and essentially all of these areas that we spoke about, all of them have one thing in common, and that's how we can manage energy. So how we can use materials to manage different loading scenarios and different

energy loading scenarios. So they sound very different, but the problem is is at the end at the cords the same, whether it's soft tissue movement, muscle movement, or high energy impacts on on in in on skulls and heads, essentially, all of that is has energy management in common.

Richard Graves 18:24

What excites you most about this technology moving forward? you've mentioned that it's essentially the same technology being used in very different environments. Looking into the future, where does this take us? What excites you the most about it?

Sarah Karmel 18:39

the f the variety of fields that you can address with it. And I believe we have just started looking into the various areas, for example, on vibration damping. I believe here we we can refine that into into a variety of different applications for both sports and outside sports. And we have just started exploring that. Another thing that really excites me is actually we are currently working on making Ryon into a yarn. So we can integrate it directly into textiles.

So we've been working a lot with stra injection molded structures or thin films that need to be heat laminated onto textiles, but integrating it directly into a textile provides you a whole different field of applications and and yeah, that that we haven't yet explored.

Richard Graves 19:26

It's remarkable isn't it because I can remember as a kid growing up watching cartoons where the animated characters would have soft material and suddenly the click of a finger it would become solid and you thought this was the stuff of dreams and yet here we are talking about this very same thing in practical everyday use at an elite level. It's certainly an exciting subject and one that I'll be across for sure going forward. Dr Sarah Carmel before we go where can people

find you on social media, I'll be kept up to date with the latest developments.

Sarah Karmel 19:58

we are on LinkedIn, we are on Instagram and our social handles are essentially we have at Rion Labs for our main account on Instagram and then we have specialized accounts at RionMoto, at RionMTB for mountain biking and motorcycling, as well as YouTube at Rion Labs.

Richard Graves 20:21

There's a lot to stay across there and I will do my best to endeavour to do so. Dr Sarah Carmel, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for joining us this week.

Sarah Karmel 20:29

Thank you, Richard.