In an era where algorithms analyze every play and wearables track every heartbeat, it’s easy to believe that data now drives professional sports. But as technology transforms the industry at lightning speed — from AI-generated scouting reports to virtual reality training — one truth remains: It still takes a leader to motivate players, inspire a team and steer a franchise to success on the field and off.

The future of sports may be increasingly digital, but its heart is still deeply human. Behind each advanced analytic is a person who created it — a flesh-and-blood being who, despite possessing incredible talent and athletic ability, is subject to the same human fears, doubts and need for interpersonal connection as all of us are.

That’s why leaders matter. We instinctively know this to be true, yet despite the billions of dollars the sports industry has invested in advanced technology, analytics and cutting edge artificial intelligence platforms, sports has invested very little in maximizing the capacity of those who are perhaps the most influential in developing raw talent into highly capable performers.

Leadership pipelines still look like they did a decade ago with sporadic mentorship, a weekend seminar and the occasional MBA. Meanwhile, the tech stack keeps piling higher. And in this high-tech arena, strong, visionary sports leadership will be more essential than ever.

At Abilene Christian University, we decided the answer wasn’t another gadget. It was a new kind of curriculum. On May 19, we launched the Center for Sports Leadership and Learning, a fully online bachelor’s and master’s hub built in partnership with organizations like the Texas Rangers and Houston Texans.

Our goal is to unlock the human potential within each sports professional and athlete. Our curriculum is grounded in self-assessments, guiding leaders to understand themselves on and off the field.

We’re also helping leaders understand others by developing the emotional intelligence it takes to navigate high-stakes situations and conflict. We call this “high-performance leadership” and it makes all the difference in an industry where the tech stack keeps rising and the pressure to win at all costs builds.

Our early pilot with RangersU, an academic pathway for Texas Rangers players and coaches, shows what’s possible. The Houston Texans, the National Amateur Fall Baseball Federation and Endebrock Talent Management are among our growing list of partners who believe sports, at its core, is a character venture.

But ACU is just one university. The larger point is this: Every conference, league and sports-tech startup now faces the same choice. Invest in comprehensive leadership development or watch emerging technology outpace the people tasked with wielding it responsibly.

In the biblical Book of Proverbs we’re reminded, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The sports industry is staring at a vision vacuum — one that no sensor, streaming deal or blockchain ticketing platform can fill. The solution is deceptively simple and incredibly hard: Build better leaders to keep up with tech.

That’s the play ACU has chosen. We invite leagues, athletic directors and forward-thinking franchises to run it with us, because the scoreboard of the future will measure character every bit as much as points, and the teams that train for both will own the next era of sport.

Stephen Johnson is CEO of Abilene Christian University–Dallas, home of the Center for Sports Leadership and Learning.

The Sports Training Market Report by The Business Research Company delivers a detailed market assessment, covering size projections from 2025 to 2034. This report explores crucial market trends, major drivers and market segmentation by [key segment categories].

How Big Is the Sports Training Market Size Expected to Be by 2034?

The sports training market size will grow from $19.53 billion in 2024 to $21.12 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.2%. The market expansion is attributed to modern sports techniques, advanced training equipment, media coverage of sports, investment in athlete development, and sports nutrition advancements.

The sports training market size is projected to reach $28.67 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 7.9%. Growth is driven by technological advancements, health and fitness awareness, sports participation growth, training equipment innovations, and personalized coaching demand. Major trends include AI-driven coaching tools, virtual reality for training, personalized fitness programs, wearable technology expansion, and focus on athlete wellness.

Purchase the full report for exclusive industry analysis:

https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/purchaseoptions.aspx?id=19203

What Are the Emerging Segments Within the Sports Training Market?

The sports trainingmarket covered in this report is segmented –

1) By Sports Type: Soccer, Cricket, Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, Badminton, Others

2) By Medium: Online, Offline

3) By Application: Men, Women, Kids

Subsegments:

1) By Soccer: Youth Training, Professional Training, Skill Development Programs

2) By Cricket: Batting Coaching, Bowling Coaching, Fielding Coaching

3) By Basketball: Shooting Techniques, Dribbling Skills, Defense Tactics

4) By Volleyball: Serving Techniques, Blocking Skills, Spiking Drills

5) By Tennis: Serve Techniques, Forehand And Backhand Drills, Match Play Practice

6) By Badminton: Footwork Drills, Smash Techniques, Net Play Practice

7) By Other Sports Type: Athletics, Swimming, Rugby

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https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=19203&type=smp

What Long-Term Drivers Are Shaping Sports Training Market Trends?

The rising participation in sports is expected to drive the growth of the sports training market. More people are engaging in physical activities due to increased awareness of health benefits. Sports training helps athletes improve specific skills and overall fitness. For example, in December 2023, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reported an increase in team sports participation in the U.S. from 2020 to 2022. Therefore, the rising sports participation is contributing to the growth of the sports training market.

Who Are the Top Competitors in Key Sports Training Market Segments?

Major companies operating in the sports training market are Tata Steel, i9 Sports Corporation, Palms Sports LLC, Kitman Labs Inc., USOPC, Ignite Sport UK Ltd., Sports Academy, Athletic Lab, CMT Learning Ltd., Dynamic Sports Training, Edstart Sports Coaching, Sport Structures Limited, The Coach Crew, TOCA Football Inc., Spolto, Beijing Ice Sports Training Centre, EL1, Elle Football Academy, ESM Internationale, Nanjing Inner Sports Technology Co Ltd

What Trends Are Expected to Dominate the Sports Training Market in the Next 5 Years?

Companies in the sports training market are focusing on human pose estimation technology to improve athletic performance and training precision. In December 2023, BeONE Sports (US) partnered with MobiDev (US) to launch an AI-powered comparative training platform. This platform provides real-time feedback on athletes’ form and compares their movements to ideal repetitions, offering personalized recommendations for improvement and making elite coaching more accessible.

Get the full report for exclusive industry analysis:

https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/sports-training-global-market-report

Which Regions Are Becoming Hubs for Sports Training Market Innovation?

North America was the largest region in the sports training market in 2024. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the sports training market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What Is the Market Size and Growth Rate of the Sports Training Market?

2. What is the CAGR expected in the Sports Training Market?

3. What Are the Key Innovations Transforming the Sports Training Industry?

4. Which Region Is Leading the Sports Training Market?

Why This Report Matters:

Competitive overview: This report analyzes the competitive landscape of the 3D imaging software market, evaluating key players on market share, revenue, and growth factors.

Informed Decisions: Understand key strategies related to products, segmentation, and industry trends.

Efficient Research: Quickly identify market growth, leading players, and major segments.

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The ‘adidas x Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team Collection’ brings together two global icons in sport and innovation to deliver a modern capsule that fuses high-performance design with motorsport heritage. As an Official Team Partner, adidas has developed a comprehensive range of apparel, footwear, and accessories tailored for both team members and the wider F1 fanbase.

From the outset, the collection reflects a shared commitment to technical excellence and cutting-edge style. Featuring dark, streamlined aesthetics and precision-engineered materials, each piece is designed to meet the demands of high-performance environments while maintaining everyday versatility.

By combining advanced functionality with a refined visual identity, adidas and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team present a unified expression of speed, style, and team pride. The result is a capsule that allows fans and athletes alike to embody the spirit of Formula One through elevated, purpose-driven gear.

Image Credit: adidas

The TQ HPR60 is a lightweight electric mountain bike motor engineered for integration into modern e-MTB systems. The motor provides up to 60 Nm of torque and 350 W peak power while maintaining a compact design at approximately 1.92 kg. It is developed using TQ’s Harmonic Pin-Ring transmission technology, which facilitates a reduction in mechanical complexity and contributes to a quiet operation as well as an immediate response during pedaling. This design approach aims to optimize the power-to-weight ratio to suit applications where minimal system weight and unobtrusive motor placement are critical requirements.

The HPR60 incorporates several enhancements over prior iterations, including a more efficient cooling system and the integration of a high-resolution display for monitoring key performance metrics. The motor’s design supports expanded battery options, allowing for greater flexibility in configuring overall powertrain systems for diverse e-MTB applications. Its compact form factor enables integration within the bottom bracket area, reducing interference with suspension dynamics and overall bike geometry. These technical modifications align with the goal of providing an advanced drive unit that meets the demands of lightweight electric mountain biking.

Image Credit: TQ

How the Global Esports Federation is leading a new digital era

A New Kind of Athlete

The Global Impact of a Digital Movement

Responsibility at the Forefront

Shaping the Future with Intention

Most smart rings these days claim to offer marathon battery lives, but often fall short of their promise. Many smart rings claim to last a week’s worth of battery, but only make it to five or six days before dying on me. Part of the appeal of smart rings, compared to smartwatches, is their longer battery life, so what gives? 

Also: I biohacked my sleep with these 5 gadgets (and it worked)

I’ve got one for you if you want a smart ring with a truly competitive battery life. I’ve been testing the RingConn Gen 2 smart ring that boasts a marathon battery life of 10 to 12 days. The smart ring comes with other perks — and a few drawbacks — that I’ll get to below. 

Right off the bat, the RingConn 2 has some green flags. Unlike competing smart ring brands with products that start at $350 and go all the way up to $400 or $450, this smart ring costs $300 — and does not require a subscription to gain full access to your health data. Sizing starts at size six and goes through size 14, and you can get the ring in three colors: silver, black, and gold. 

The build of the ring is more square than circular, but I found myself unbothered by this unique shape. It fits comfortably around my finger with no problems. Despite healthy and frequent wear, the ring doesn’t tarnish easily either. 

Also: Two popular smart ring makers just got caught copying Oura – here’s what happens next

The RingConn Gen 2 comes with a case that extends its already impressively long battery life, powering the smart ring’s empty battery for over 150+ days. As someone who is constantly charging several wearable devices at a time, this long-lasting charging case that I could use without hooking the smart ring up to an outlet made me partial to RingConn. 

Most smart rings offer up daily scores for two to three important health metrics: sleep, activity, and readiness. Readiness is calculated based on yesterday’s activity, how you slept, and other biometric data, like how late your heart rate dropped as you slept. 

Also: The best sleep trackers of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

The RingConn Gen 2 measures your vitals, sleep, activity, and stress, but doesn’t measure readiness. Instead of readiness, it provides a Wellness Balance feature. It takes all of the aforementioned data and displays it in a flower-like graph, with longer petals for the biometrics that are meeting or exceeding the recommended benchmarks and shorter petals for those that aren’t. 

When all your petals are the same length, it indicates that your wellness is at equilibrium. I liked that I could see all the important data displayed in such a digestible and visual manner right as I opened the app. 

Hardcore trainers use the readiness or energy feature on their smart ring apps to gauge how intense their exercise regimen should be for the day. If that’s you, you might be displeased with the Wellness Balance functionality, and I’d recommend the Oura Ring, Ultrahuman Ring, or Galaxy Ring instead. 

The app delivers your scores alongside context that helps inform the reasoning behind your sleep or vitals score. I was ill one day while testing the ring and spent the entire day sleeping. Because of the large amount of time I spent in bed, it told me that too much sleep can slow down my metabolism or lead to weight gain. 

Also: The best smart rings of 2025: I tested and found an obvious winner

RingConn says that the battery on its second-generation ring lasts up to 10 to 12 days, but in my testing, I found that it only lasted seven. Still, that’s far longer than the battery lives of other smart rings I’ve tried, which last four to five days on a single charge. I can say without a doubt that this smart ring has the most impressive battery life out of every brand I’ve tried. 

According to its website, the RingConn Gen 2 also boasts a sleep apnea detection feature with 90.7% accuracy. If you’re a chronic snorer looking to learn more about how your breathing impacts you throughout the night, the sleep apnea feature could help monitor your conditions and answer some of your questions. 

It tells you when there are significant or minor outliers in your sleep throughout the night, providing not only a graph detailing this but also a timeline showing when your SpO2 fluctuated during the night. 

I wore the Oura Ring 4 in tandem with the RingConn Gen 2 and found that the latter seems to underestimate both the time spent asleep and the steps I’ve taken throughout the day. 

Also: Oura Ring users are customizing their wearables with this clever design hack

The RingConn and Oura both ranked my sleep efficiency in the 87th and 88th percentiles. Oura said I got 11 hours and eight minutes of sleep, while RingConn said I spent 10 hours and 50 minutes asleep. RingConn reported 11,091 steps, while Oura reported 15,259 steps. I’ve seen in various Reddit threads that the Oura Ring tends to overestimate step count, which could account for the great disparity in steps between rings. 

On a healthy night of sleep, Oura recorded eight hours and two minutes, a sleep efficiency of 94%, and a sleep score of 90. RingConn recorded an 84 sleep score, seven hours and 45 minutes asleep, and a sleep efficiency of 91%. In both cases, RingConn is subtracting around 15 minutes from my night’s sleep. 

ZDNET’s buying advice

I enjoyed most aspects of wearing this subscription-free smart ring, and at $300 ($50 less than competitors), it’s a smart ring I’d recommend to those looking for an alternative to Oura’s subscription-based services. especially if you want a smart ring with a battery life that will actually last you a week before recharging. 

The one area where I noticed RingConn’s smart ring lacking was in its user interface. The app feels underdeveloped, and some of the messages lacked personal context that proved they were being generated from my own data. On one good sleep score day, all that it said when I clicked on the sleep tab was: “Good sleep makes you happy.” That’s my only true gripe, and I hope the recommendations can become more tailored and informative in future software updates. 

Otherwise, the RingConn Gen 2 is an impressive smart ring with comprehensive health metric monitoring that’s on the cheaper end of the smart ring spectrum. It accurately tracks sleep with features like sleep apnea monitoring that could help you uncover your snoring patterns, it’s got a marathon battery life (plus a charging case with 150 days’ worth of juice in it), and a build you can wear comfortably. 

Looking for the next best product? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends.