Upside Global Org

Today we have the honor to interview a group of NFL sports performance executives to talk about the latest trends in the world of sports performance, load management, sleep/recovery management, rehabilitation and data & wearable tech integration, and mental performance in the NFL. - Ted Rath, Director of sports performance,?New Orleans Saints?(NFL team). - Ryan Juarez DPT, SCS, ATC, CSCS, Director of rehabilitation,?Washington Commanders?(NFL team). - Roderick Moore, Jr., coordinator of sports science,?Pittsburgh Steelers?(NFL team). I want to give a big thank you to Ted, Ryan and Roderick for taking the time to speak with us on the Upside podcast. Great insights! Check it out: https://lnkd.in/eMBqF6SY #Upside #NFL #Training #Rehab #mentalpreparation #sportstech

Maturation status is a critical factor in youth athlete development, influencing training adaptation, injury risk, and talent identification. Accurately assessing biological maturation helps coaches, sports scientists, and medical professionals tailor training loads and recovery protocols to optimize performance while minimizing injury risks. This analysis explores both gold standard and field-based methods for quantifying maturation status in athletes aged 13-18. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/e6g7n_JY #Upside #Maturation #talent

Today our guest writer is Dr Leonard Zaichkowsky, PhD. Len is a world-class expert in biofeedback, psychophysiology, and cognitive fitness, specializing in the application of neuroscience and psychology to elite sports performance. With decades of experience as a professor, researcher, and consultant, he has worked with top professional teams across the NHL (Penguins, Canucks), NBA (Warriors), European soccer (Real Madrid), NFL, and Olympic levels, the Spanish men national soccer team, integrating cognitive training and psychophysiological techniques to enhance focus, resilience, and decision-making under pressure. A pioneer in sport psychology and human performance, Dr. Zaichkowsky has authored influential books, including?The Playmaker’s Advantage, and continues to shape the future of cognitive fitness in sports and beyond. Today’s article is called “Enhancing Cognitive Fitness in High Performance Environments”. Read on. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/edHca363 #Upside #Cognitivetraining

Today we have the honor of interviewing Kyle Sela, CEO of?AVA Cooling Technology, a leading performance enhancement company leveraging thermoregulation through palm cooling. I want to give a big thank you to Kyle for joining our Upside podcast and sharing his story with us. What is Palm Cooling? Palm cooling is a thermoregulation technique that leverages the body's natural heat exchange mechanisms to enhance performance, delay fatigue, and accelerate recovery. It involves cooling the palms of the hands, which contain specialized blood vessels called?arteriovenous anastomoses (AVAs)?that play a critical role in body temperature regulation. Today a growing number of top athletes are starting to use AVA Cooling Technology such as Cooper Flagg (Duke University/NCAA), DeAndre Jordan (Denver Nuggets/NBA), just to name a few. AVA Cooling Technology is working with a large number of teams, including in the NBA, NCAA, NHL, NFL, and WNBA. Through this interview, we touched on his background, his company and product, the benefits for sports organizations and teams to use his product. We also talked about his competitive advantage, business model, and his plans for the next 12 months. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/eSGxDnPs #Upside #palmcooling

Today we are announcing 3 new speakers at our 2025 Upside US Summit: (1) Abdul Sillah?is a?world's class high performance coach?who has worked with top athletes such as top tennis players, like Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Sloane Stephens, Bianca Andreescu. He also worked with MLB/NFL players. Prior to becoming a high performance coach, he was a competitive athlete for over twenty years. (2) CiCi Bellis?has an accomplished and diverse background in business, sports, and entrepreneurship. Recently, she completed her MBA degree at the University of Miami with a focus on Management and Finance. Alongside her academic achievements, she had a successful background as a professional athlete, competing at the highest level in pro tennis, reaching #35 in the world on the WTA tour at 17 before having to retire from an elbow injury. After several years working there, Cici made the bold decision to embark on her entrepreneurial journey, founding Cartan Capital in July 2023—a venture capital firm centered around seed and series a stage companies focusing on advances in human performance, sports tech and health tech. (3) André Antonelli?is?founder and CEO of Machina Sports,?empowering sports organizations to develop generative AI without complex infrastructure. Lifelong Corinthians fan, he merges his passion for sports with a mission to accelerate generative AI adoption, delivering advanced AI capabilities that enhance fan experiences and drive innovation across the industry CiCi will be speaking on the sports tech investment panel on ROI while Abdul will be speaking on our panel on the future of training and rehab by 20230. Andre will be speaking on the fan engagement panel. We will host this panel on October 23, 2025, at our 2025 Annual Upside sports tech summit at a world's class sports venue in Sunrise FL. You will have a chance to meet 300 sports tech execs, 50+ top teams (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, MLB, NCAA, Premier league..), 30 exhibitors, 15+ top VCs/family offices. We will have 10 panel discussions, 2 keynotes and 1 hr speed dating session with teams. We already have 32 top speakers confirmed for only 50 speaking slots so the speaking slots will be gone soon. We are also talking to nearly 40 vendors for only 30 booths so they will go quickly. So if you want to exhibit, sponsor or speak at our summit,?please PM me. thank you. Stay tuned! You don't want to miss our summit! I would like to give a big thank you to Abdul, CiCi and Andre for being part of our summit. And we want to thank our sponsors namely Kinmetrix, VALD, Machina Sports, ActivBody, Inc., Prism Neuro, Quantum Movement, OxiWear, Summus Laser, Box Altitude, ThermoHuman, Valor, KinetikIQ - Precision Sports Technology, and Davinci Wearables for supporting us and helping us make this event possible. If you would like to attend, sponsor, exhibit or speak at our summit please PM me. You can also visit our site at: https://lnkd.in/eYSmVcCN #Upside #sportstech

This week we had the honor to interview Joshua Bonhotal, Director at Sequence Equity,?a leading multi strategy investment platform dedicated to backing resilient technologies, sports, and innovative businesses that enhance the human experience. Joshua is a Director at?Sequence Equity,?where he leads investments across sports teams, leagues, and sport adjacent technologies. Prior to this role, he served as VP of Operations at Future, scaling the company from seed stage to series C and over $100m raised from top Silicon Valley VC's. He also served as the Director of Sports Performance for Purdue University's men's basketball team, where he was instrumental in developing six NBA players. Earlier in his career, Bonhotal was a Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago Bulls, working closely with MVP Derrick Rose. His expertise has been featured in prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN. I want to give a big thank you to Joshua for joining our podcast and sharing his journey with us. Check it out: #Upside #VC #NBA #NCAA

Cooling therapy has become a critical component of athlete recovery, injury prevention, and performance optimization in elite sports. With advancements in technology, cooling devices are now more efficient, portable, and accessible, with 85% of professional sports teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and European football leagues using some form of cooling therapy today. This report analyzes the current cooling therapy device vendor ecosystem, covering market size, key drivers, challenges, use cases, adoption rates, major vendors, and strategic recommendations for professional teams. Vendor profiled: - AVA Cooling Technology - CoolMitt - Nice Recovery Systems - Kuhler Technologies - Hyperice - Apex Cool Labs - GAME READY? - ThermoTek, Inc. Check out our analysis here: https://lnkd.in/eJJU8Ud9 #Upside #CoolingTherapy

This week we had the honor to interview again Dr Ronald Dick, associate professor of sports marketing at Duquesne University in the school of business. Ron also worked for 20 years in sports, including 15 years in the NBA with the Sixers and the Nets, and then five years in the NCAA. We discussed the Favorites to win the NHL/NBA/MLS titles, the MLB Spring Training, the Yankees, Aaron Rodgers, March Madness, and of course Leo Messi:) Check it out: https://lnkd.in/eQs-wieh #Upside #NBA #NFL #NHL #MLS #LeoMessi

The departure of NCAA coaches from smaller teams, particularly in sports like volleyball, has become an increasing concern. Many coaches are leaving due to inadequate funding, including low salaries, limited resources for training and competition, and lack of investment in sports technology. This exodus threatens the stability and competitiveness of small NCAA programs. In this analysis we explored the trends, challenges, and recommendations for addressing this issue. Take a look: https://lnkd.in/erfY6tzs #Upside #NCAA #sportstech

Today we are announcing 3 new speakers at our 2025 Upside US Summit: (1) Simon Sokol is a Vice President at Relay Ventures, where he utilizes his expertise in finance and technology to find high potential investment opportunities and assist in their growth towards a liquidity event. (2) Dr Len Zaichkowsky, PhD, is a world-class expert in biofeedback, psychophysiology, and cognitive fitness, specializing in the application of neuroscience and psychology to elite sports performance. With decades of experience as a professor, researcher, and consultant, he has worked with top professional teams across the NHL (Penguins, Canucks), NBA (Warriors), European soccer (Real Madrid), NFL, and Olympic levels, the Spanish men national soccer team, integrating cognitive training and psychophysiological techniques to enhance focus, resilience, and decision-making under pressure. A pioneer in sport psychology and human performance, Dr. Zaichkowsky has authored influential books, including?The Playmaker’s Advantage, and continues to shape the future of cognitive fitness in sports and beyond (3) Gordon Waddington, PhD, is a Professor of Sports Medicine Research at the Australian Institute of Sport and Professor of Physiotherapy?at the University of Canberra.?Gordon is a neuroscientist and physiotherapist with 30 years of research in elite sport.?He is an expert in the fields of proprioception and sensorimotor control, founder of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise at UC and co-founder and CSO at Prism Neuro. Simon will be speaking on the sports tech investment panel on ROI while Len will be moderating and Gordon will be speaking on our rehab panel the science of comebacks. We will host this panel on October 23, 2025, at our 2025 Annual Upside sports tech summit at a world's class sports venue in Sunrise FL. You will have a chance to meet 300 sports tech execs, 50+ top teams (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, MLB, NCAA, Premier league..), 30 exhibitors, 15+ top VCs/family offices. We will have 10 panel discussions, 2 keynotes and 1 hr speed dating session with teams. We already have 30 top speakers confirmed for only 50 speaking slots so the speaking slots will be gone soon. We are also talking to nearly 40 vendors for only 30 booths so they will go quickly. So if you want to exhibit, sponsor or speak at our summit,?please PM me. thank you. Stay tuned! You don't want to miss our summit! I would like to give a big thank you to Gordon, Simon and Len for being part of our summit. And we want to thank our sponsors namely Kinmetrix, ActivBody, Inc., Prism Neuro, Quantum Movement, OxiWear, Summus Laser, Box Altitude, ThermoHuman, Valor, Precision Sports Technology, and Davinci Wearables for supporting us and helping us make this event possible. If you would like to attend, sponsor, exhibit or speak at our summit please PM me. You can also visit our site at: https://lnkd.in/eYSmVcCN #Upside #sportstech