Things can take an unexpected turn. In life as well as in the Philips Stadion. The partnership between PSV and TU/e started high up in one of the business lounges some years ago. General Manager of PSV Toon Gerbrands and TU/e Chairman of the Executive Board Jan Mengelers decided it was about time that sporting ambitions and scientific knowledge joined forces successfully. Strength through unity.

The Dutch football champion wants to continue their success and therefore welcomes every possible bit of innovation. The club is in luck, because there are more than enough smart partners in the Brainport region. Mathias Funk, Assistant Professor in the Future Everyday group of the department of Industrial Design, and PSV performance manager Luc van Agt head up the partnership. Funk: “Our faculty is an interesting partner for PSV because our research leads to applications that can be used in practice.”

Writing backwards

Funk: “We needed to build up the player’s stress first, without crossing ethical lines. That’s not so easy. We gave them a game console with a difficult football game, but interestingly enough, that made them very relaxed. Then we switched to standard methods such as writing or drawing backwards. The brain needs to correct every movement your hand makes. The moment we detected stress, a test subject was allowed to enter the MindRoom.”

Data was collected with baseline measures and subsequent stress tests in the test setup. Funk: “The human body is not a machine. Everyone reacts differently to stress, and it’s difficult to capture that in general terms. So how do you calculate the hardware parameters and the curve that indicates how much your pulse varies? That’s the point where it becomes interesting to us. Because building a bridge between humans and machines is exactly what Industrial Design tries to do.”

Tapping into knowledge

PSV also expects to make progress in this field of research. Van Agt: “We are located in the middle of a highly technological region and we work together with prominent partners so that we can learn from each other. Fontys (IT and Sports Faculty), St. Anna hospital (sports medicine and healthcare), Mental Health and Addiction Care Eindhoven, and sleep expertise center Kempenhaege are our partners in the search for innovations that help improve our players. For instance, we developed an advanced tracking system with a number of variants that enable us to follow our players on the pitch, and to measure and analyze their performances.”

Van Agt sees progression but is not satisfied yet. “There is so much knowledge in this region, but how do we successfully tap into it? We want to improve and intensify our partnership with TU/e. Unfortunately, our schedules do not match. Our summer break coincides with the exam period at universities. And internships pose a problem as well. We need to coordinate this and find a different format. We prefer not to have an educational project that involves a full professor because he or she needs to spend too much time on finances and teaching. We have more faith in student projects with an interdisciplinary approach. We’ve noticed that this really works.”

PSV does not only wish to improve their players, they also have plans for their own stadium. The club strives to accomplish a simultaneous growth of sustainability, fan experience and even the grass on the pitch. Van Agt: “FieldLab was set up for our own advantage, but with the underlying idea that it would have a region-wide purpose.”

Of course, the obvious question arises: how much does it cost? “I hope to sell the first devices by the end of the year, and I believe the early adopters will pay between 150 and 200 euros for it. Should the Powerstone become a success, I will be able to get the price down by scaling up,” Van Groen says. He has high expectations. “Stress reduction is booming. We have to process so much information in our 24-hour economy. People often feel the need to pause for a moment but don’t know how to do this.”

Modern ideas

PSV’s youth players will take part in user tests during the coming months. Van Agt: “We know that stress has a negative influence on a player’s performance. We want to remove that obstacle. The Powerstone can help with that. Players learn how to recognize stress and they can train to reduce it. After they become used to it, they no longer need the device to reduce their stress level on the pitch.”

He believes the conservative word of football is skeptical when it comes to these kinds of modern ideas. Van Agt also expresses a reservation. “Perhaps it can help improve a player’s qualities and performance. But it’s also a fact that we would never be where we are today without an innovation such as this. In the past, you could test cyclists and distance runners on a home trainer or treadmill in a lab. That wasn’t possible for other sports, such as football. The gap between the lab and the pitch has been bridged thanks to technology. You see ever more scientific influences, such as data analysis, in the world of sports. Both worlds have slowly converged, but you need to understand each other’s language.”