February 15, 2021

As the America’s Cup nears, it’s Ben Williams’ job to make sure INEOS TEAM UK is prepared.

INEOS TEAM UK is battling once again in the fight for the America’s Cup. While world-class engineers pour through the data to understand how the boats have performed so far and seek to make every gain possible, Ben Williams, the team’s Head of Human Performance, will be doing the same on the human side with the help of Garmin technology.

Managing human performance

Williams must physically prepare the crew off the water, maximizing their potential on the water. The boat may be a technological wonder, but it doesn’t sail itself — and having a crew at their peak is essential.

“When most people think of athlete performance, they think about race day,” Williams says. “But for the most part races are won through dedication before the event in both crew and boat development. If the crew aren’t fit enough to be out on the water or the boat isn’t competitive, the race is lost before we begin.”

Garmin has teamed up with INEOS TEAM UK, providing human performance technology that will help them get the crew to the next level. Data across the crew’s training and recovery is crucial in understanding progress and optimising time in and out of the gym.

“Having the data to understand the team’s physical health means they can be on the water as much as needed, in peak shape, and we can prevent any issues in advance. With Garmin’s support, we go a long way to removing unknowns and guess work so we can be much more accurate in the prescription of training and recovery. Like the athletes on the water, we aim to give our all in a support role to enable their endeavours,” Williams says.

What technology is INEOS TEAM UK using to maximize performance?

Garmin has kitted the team out with all sorts of tech, including  cycling computers and smart scales. The fēnix 6 Pro Solar watch, with its comprehensive and non-intrusive data collection, has been particularly important. Equipped with this, Williams and his team can measure all sorts of vital metrics.

Making gains with heart rate, variability, training load and stress

Whether you’re in an elite sport or just improving your personal fitness, it’s all about training adaptations.

“Essentially, progressive overload is where we do something that challenges the body which creates signalling for adaptation to cope with the new demands,” Williams says.

Getting the data from Garmin devices helps Williams and the team track these adaptations. It’s not just about pushing the athletes to their limits; they use the numbers to make exact judgements.

“We measure heart rate, power average, normalized power, peak power and time in zone,” Wiliams says. “When we’re trying to develop an athlete, we’re looking at what exposure we have to give them for them to overload a stimulus, so the body recognizes the need to adapt. In recovery we look at their stress score, chronic load, heart rate variability and resting heart rate to ensure they’ve recovered from the physical load to create a positive adaptation.”

Boosting recovery with advanced sleep monitoring

Rest is hugely important for boosting performance. According to Williams, you don’t get fit from training — you get fit from recovering from training. It’s at this point that your body adapts to cope with the stress you put it under.

“We look at health and recovery protocols just as much as we do training itself,” Williams says. “There is no point having an excellent training block if you do not recover and harvest the stimulus.”