Powered by biometric data collected from the Oura Ring, the OWN IT Coaching System provides the Women’s Volleyball team at Utah State University personalized insights and habit recommendations guiding student athletes to achieve improved sleep quality, more efficient recoveries, increases in capacity, and optimized performance.
The coaches and staff responsible for building and overseeing this high-performing program where year-round play, intense work-outs, and a rigorous travel schedule are the norm, have a core approach focused on holistic student athlete health and wellness. Their philosophy is that when athletes are healthier and improve their capacity to take on stress and strain measured by HRV changes and adaptation over time, they will perform at the highest levels not only in their sport, but in all aspects of their lives.
In addition to awareness of biometric readings from the Oura Ring and the digital experience in the OWN IT app, with resources such as sports-science-based education, actionable insights and habit recommendations, OWN IT’s certified sports-science coaches support athletes with 1:1 coaching and group coaching. OWN IT coaches provide data interpretation, insights and habit recommendations that guide student athletes to achieve improved recoveries and optimized performance. To do this, student athletes consent to share their biometric data on sleep and recovery from the Oura Ring to be utilized by an OWN IT-certified coach.
Impact at Utah State
After the first 6 weeks utilizing the OWN IT system, Utah State’s volleyball team experienced an average of a 15.8% increase in heart rate variability (HRV) and a decrease in average resting heart rate of -8.5%. Both are important indicators of improved capacity to take on stress and strain. In addition, athletes spent 55.9% of their total sleep time in restorative sleep stages, 6.9% higher than the 50% guideline considered as a sleep health and recovery best practice. Why this matters – studies show that this amount of time spent in restorative sleep stages such as REM and Slow-wave (SWS) sleep will balance metabolism, strengthen immune system functioning and neutralize the negative effects of stress.
Empowerment, Self-advocacy and Autonomy are Key to Consistent Results
“One of the core values of our program is autonomy,” said Head of Olympic Strength and Conditioning Coach Jimmy Stitz, “and I think that Oura and OWN IT are the complete and ultimate autonomous empowerment and self-advocacy tool for student athletes. The OWN IT Coaching System does an amazing job mirroring the athlete. The system maps out the habits athletes are working on, their adherence to those goals, and the subsequent response their bodies have measured by the Oura Ring. From my experience, the best recovery program isn’t the one that I write up or looks really nice, it’s the one that each athlete is willing to do consistently. This tool helps each athlete determine what works and what doesn’t,” explained Coach Stitz on the importance of empowering and putting athletes in control of their own personalized health and wellness journey.
“We know athletes are with us 2 or 3 hours a day, so having a resource that’s around them all the time has been really impactful to the culture of this group. The timelines of sport and sport performance occur very rapidly, but we shouldn’t feel beholden to make decisions necessarily based on the same timelines of the sport, especially when you’re trying to find ways to build consistent competitive advantage.” emphasized Coach Stitz.
Student Athlete Reflections
Before spring break this year a Junior volleyball team member at Utah State was reviewing performance stats with coaches. “Some of my performance metrics were not as high as I was striving for, but when I began focusing on some new habits through OWN IT, I found my athletic performance increasing dramatically, and after only two weeks with my intentional focus on improved sleep and self-care. From a volleyball standpoint, these new habits helped me so much, I feel like I handle stress and pressure better too, especially in game environments,” commented the athlete on her experience using OWN IT, powered by the biometric data coming from the Oura Ring.
“I’ve been going through some health challenges the past year and this is a great tool for me to help navigate through some of those things, especially my rest and recovery,” commented another participant and student-athlete Utah State. “One habit that really helped me out was ‘not eating 3 hours before bedtime’. I have noticed such a change in terms of my G.I. health, so that’s been huge for me. I was battling really bad flare-ups and I didn’t realize how much it impacted my energy, my mood, and how explosive I can be in practice. I’m so much more aware of my body and its needs, and having this support has helped me get through a tough semester” explained the athlete after her experience using OWN IT and Oura.
Oura and OWN IT Deliver an Improved Approach to Athlete Recovery at Utah State
After winning gold with USA Volleyball at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, Coach Stitz transitioned into a new role as Head of Olympic Strength and Conditioning at Utah State. “When I got to Utah State, the coaching staff agreed that we needed a way to assess how our athletes were recovering and responding to our programming.” Based on his recent experience improving recovery for National Team athletes, Coach Stitz recommended that the Department invest in the best-in-class Oura Ring and the OWN IT Coaching System. “When I explain to athletes why Oura is the best, in my personal opinion, it comes back to form, function and placement. I learned there is no better place to measure biometric readings than on one’s finger. It has to do with the Oura Ring being designed to measure from the palm side of your finger, where the pulse signal is strongest — much stronger than from the wrist (doctors measure your heart rate from your finger for a reason).”
Coach Stitz’s recommendation was reinforced by Chloe Hirst, Associate Head Coach at Utah State. “As someone who is invested in health and nutrition, I understand that sleep is a huge part of this, too. I found the data from my Oura Ring really reaffirmed how important routine and structure are for me and OWN IT has taken it to the next level by providing the ‘what’s next’ guidance through group performance huddles and 1:1 habit coaching.”
After the first 6 weeks of utilizing an Oura Ring in combination with the OWN IT Coaching System, Coach Hirst alongside her team of athletes experienced an average of 15.8% increase in HRV and a decrease in average resting heart rate of -8.5%, both important indicators of holistic health and wellness gains and improved capacity to take on stress and strain in all aspects of their lives.
Athletes and Coaches Build Better Habits with Oura and OWN IT
With Oura and OWN IT, every athlete is guided in a personalized health and wellness journey , helping them to ultimately become their best selves. “We can’t put an entire team on a training program and expect results to be uniform, that’s just not how humans are built. What I like about the OWN IT System is it doesn’t box one into active recovery or passive recovery but is rather a personalized approach to recovery where each player learns what works for them individually. Recovery programs can’t be about rewarding people for behaviors they don’t want to do, and so this is where I think the sweet spot of the OWN IT System is. It’s about athlete empowerment through self-advocacy.” explained Coach Stitz on the importance of a personalized recovery.
“I’m really invested in my health and fitness, and I focus on getting good nutrition and exercise,” commented Coach Hirst, “Before I started this, I was someone who said, caffeine had zero effect on me and wearing an Oura Ring really made me realize how much that diet soda after work really affects the amount of REM sleep I’m getting. Having access to data to challenge or reaffirm my beliefs has been awesome.” After limiting afternoon caffeine, Chloe continued to optimize her environment adding that “adhering to habits like limiting my phone use an hour before bed and removing background noise when falling asleep has been beneficial for sleep quality and has had a positive impact on my mental health and well-being.”
Building for the Future
Ultimately, Coach Stitz had this to say about OWN IT and Oura, “We’re excited to have more informed conversations about holistic health and our athletes have shown an amazing commitment to this process. Having data will help us make better decisions over time, and so far the OWN IT coaching staff have been instrumental in helping us iterate and improve along the way.”
