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[Music] Yeah, it's been a while since I talked about this. Uh, but that one throw away line in my Twitter bio is not a joke. I am actually a professional ultimate frisbee player. I swear. Actually, I'm playing for four different teams right now. New York Empire, the professional team in New York, the Pride of New York, aka Pony for club. Team USA for World Games, which is essentially the Olympics for sports that aren't yet in the Olympics. and team USA mix for the beach world championships later this year and all at the same time. So, it's kind of like a second full-time job at this point. So, I do think it's worth doing an entire separate video just explaining the sport and what it is and how much it means to me and how it's even possible to play for four different teams at the same time. But one of the most common questions that I get because of this job is what's the overlap like? Is there any tech in ultimate frisbee? Do these worlds combine ever at all? And I'll tell you right now, there is some overlap. You might have seen me in some pictures or highlights wearing an Apple Watch. I feel like I never take that thing off. There's also plenty of gimmicks that I've tried that I don't necessarily use anymore, like grippy socks for more traction or insoles in your cleats that are supposed to make you jump higher. So, this is just answering the question once and for all. This is the sports tech that I actually use. So, let's start with the watch. Yes, I wear an Apple Watch Ultra 2 while I play and while I train. Fun fact, and a lot of you have actually picked this up already. I wear it usually on my right wrist, which is backwards allegedly, uh, but while I live and while I train, and then I switch it to my left wrist while I play because I don't like the feeling of throwing with something on my right arm. Now, I have tried other fitness bands. I've tried the latest Whoop especially, which is way more focused on just the tracking and recovery and fitness stuff. It is just a dedicated band with no display. So, it's easier to wear while sleeping, just a little more purpose-built. But the Apple Watch is obviously a more everyday wearable type thing with a screen to show me notifications and I have it on all day and then when I go train, I can swap the band out and have a silicon band and then it's better for that. So, it's more multi-purpose. I think I've really just ended up liking it more because it it gifies the fitness part a lot. like it makes a big deal out of closing your rings every day, getting your steps in, getting the little trophies for different accomplishments. As silly as it sounds, winning fitness competitions against other friends with Apple Watches is motivating. And if you really like the Whoop stuff, there's actually an app called Athletic that takes the data collected by the watch and delivers a lot of the same info, recovery score, sleep, and strain, and exertion. It is also a subscription, but hey, so is a Whoop. Side note though, there are no group fitness challenges on the Apple Watch. You can one v one somebody in a fitness competition for a week, but there are no group fitness challenges without a third party app. Apple, get on that. Now, you know, as far as calorie counting, I'm not convinced that the Apple Watch is particularly accurate. But the real key for me is that it's inaccurate the same way every time. So, it for sure overounts. Like I don't think a frisbee practice is actually 3,600 calories. I don't even think that's possible. But I at least know that the workload is higher than the practice that reads only as 2,800 calories. So for me, for tracking, it's the Apple Watch. So for its versatility and gamification, the Apple Watch is sports tech that I actually use. Next up is a piece of tech that if you're an athlete, you might have already heard of, and it's for recovery, and it's the Normatch legs. So the theory is simple. Uh you play a sport or you have a lot of lower body workouts. You do a lot of running or jumping or lifting or landing or sprinting. Then you get these. So these normate are a wearable compression recovery system that helps to increase circulation which reduces inflammation and helps flush the lactic acid out of my legs. It's basically compressing your leg one section at a time and then it deflates and then rolls up again. and it just does it over and over again in a cycle. Sometimes I even put my feet further up like on a towel or pillows or something to help gravity assist the process. But basically after like 45 minutes of this going through over and over, I know I feel great, well recovered after. So between 2 days of a tournament or after a practice when I know I have another one the next day, I trust these a lot. I actually had the previous version which had a separate air compressor and then you had to attach these hoses to each leg to pump the air into them for compression, but this new version is much easier to travel with since the compressor and the batteries and everything are built into each leg and they wirelessly sync to each other. And then there are other versions of this on the Hyper Ice website. They have hips compression and they have arms on there. Depending on what sport you play, you might be interested in some of those other ones. I also realize that these are very expensive, but given how many times I use them, it's just proven to be worth it for me, for sure. Now, there is one other addition to their lineup that I'm slightly less sold on, but uh I've gotten to test them, so I'm going to include it anyway cuz they're interesting. Uh which is these things. This is the collab boot that they made with Nike. So these things, as ridiculous as they look, they have a purpose, which is compression and heat, specifically on the foot. So if you have any foot injuries or even even if you just play a sport where you cut a lot or you wear cleats and your feet hurt, then theoretically this could be interesting. The other thing about these though is when you're wearing the legs, you're basically immobilized. Like you can't go anywhere. Obviously, you're kind of occupied, which is usually fine. I'll be on my phone or my laptop and I can get work done. But if something is across the room, like my water bottle, then I got to stop them. I got to unzip them. I got to start over. That's kind of a bummer. So, the advantage of the shoes theoretically is, well, you just wear them like sneakers and then they're massaging just your feet. But really, that's about it. I mean, the tech is great. Again, they wirelessly sync to each other. You can choose the level of compression and the level of heat. And the highest level, three out of three, actually is too hot. It's kind of ridiculously hot. But this is only really useful when I need help specifically with the midfoot and the Achilles. Like that's where I can feel the bladder fill with air and actually apply real compression and that's where all the heat is happening. So this doesn't do anything for like plantar fascitis or anything around the toes as much as I wish I had something to do that. But if I ever need something around the midfoot or the Achilles, then I know that I can rely on these cuz they do actually do that. And I also have one more product from this company, which is the Hyper Ice knee sleeve, which is very specific. It's literally just a portable battery powered heating or cooling sleeve straight to the knee. It's great to travel with. Again, if you've had knee pain, especially with me, I've had patellar tendinitis. This thing is an MVP. and crazy timing. They actually just came out with this new one that I'm gonna try, which adds compression to the mix. Nice. All right. This one I wasn't expecting to use, but they randomly sent it to the studio one day and it turned out to be really solid. This is a mini massage gun made by Xiaomi. Now, Xiaomi basically makes everything, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they also make a mini massage gun. But yeah, a bunch of companies make almost this exact same thing. You've probably seen them before. Nice little soft tissue massage. Take it with me anywhere. It's great. Very small, very portable. Counts as sports tech, right? Uh and then also speaking of light and small and portable. My workout headphones of choice, which are these. And I love these things. They're basically perfect. These are my Power Beats Pro 2 in the mango color. And honestly, I couldn't make a better set of in-ear buds for working out. They have great sound, great seal in my ear, which is huge. Great battery life. They're lightweight. They have active noise cancellation. The hook is super functional. So, importantly, they actually stay in my ear. I don't know how anyone works out in heavy headphones. I've seen people like jogging around Manhattan with air literally AirPods Max on, which is, you know, more power to you, but I just want whatever I'm wearing when I'm working out to be as light as possible, including my cleats. So, I don't know if this is a sports tech either, but I'm throwing it in there. I have worn the same style of cleat every year I've played Ultimate since 2007, which is basically whatever the lightest weight soccer cleat I can find is. Usually that's Nike's Mercurial Vapor or Superflies. A single pair of cleats never last me more than one season. They kind of break in the same way every time, but actually my favorite pair of all time was this really specific pair that I had in 2019 with that stripe up the back. I was never able to find them again in my size literally one year after they came out. Makes me wish I bought like five pairs of them back when I had them in size 12 and a half. But now, you know, if anyone watching this happens to have a pair that they want to get rid of, hit me up cuz I miss those things. Either way, that's pretty much it. That is the overlap between tech and Ultimate, which is not massive, but I kind of like that about it. I feel like Ultimate Frisbee is my home away from being online all the time and being super immersed in tech. And I think that's really important for me to have. Also, the reason I'm posting this video now is if you're watching this now as it comes out, then that means that I am off to China to compete for Team USA in the World Games for Ultimate Frisbee. So, the World Games, like I said earlier, it's essentially the Olympics for sports not yet in the Olympics. It's every four years. you know, every country that goes sends 14 people. It's very selective, very high level, and uh should be pretty awesome. But I I'll put a link below to hopefully be following the tournament, maybe some broadcasts I can link, so if you want to watch it, you can. And I'm excited about that. And uh I also plan to make a video explaining just what Ultimate Frisbee is because I think that would also be helpful. So yeah, enjoy the summer. Hopefully, you're outside or enjoying a sport you love and found some of this helpful. And uh you know what else the summer is good for? Ridg's summer sweep stakes. You see, every summer channel sponsor Ridge hosts this huge giveaway. And this one's no different. Although this time there are two lucky winners instead of one. So double your chances to win one of the following. 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