When the Women’s Premier League was on, the Apple Watch (Series 9) was put to test among team members of Gujarat Giants. It proved how the Apple smartwatch can help athletes, especially women. The device helped team members improve their game by keeping track of parameters we may often ignore.

The Apple Watch Series 9 has the best selection of features and apps for the price. Sure, there is alway the upgrade pick, which is the rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 but Series 9 is also a fantastic combination of style, health and fitness features. How did it help the members of Gujarat Giants?

“Currently, my favourite feature is the Breathe app. I am using it more often, especially before the start of the game and also after. It helps me calm down, relax my nerves and mind,” said ace cricketer Sneh Rana.

Sneh Rana believes the Rings feature on the Apple Watch helps to stay on top of her game

The right-arm off break bowler and right-handed batter grew up in a modest household. Coming from an agrarian family, Sneh imbibed the values of hard work and perseverance from an early age. Her foray into international cricket happened in 2014 when she made her debut in both Women’s One Day International and Women’s Twenty20 International matches against Sri Lanka.

Keep on moving

One of the big features of the Apple Watch involve Rings. There is always healthy competition between friends and colleagues to complete the Rings to ensure a certain level of physical activity. It also brings in a bit of fun. “Personally, I have paired the Apple Watch with my trainer, so we ensure we close the Rings and fulfil our targets and also there is some healthy competition between us,” said Sneh, the vice-captain of Gujarat Giants; she also plays for Indian Railways.

Akanksha Satyavanshi, the physiotherapist for Gujarat Giants, believes that with team members wearing the Apple Watch, everyone has become more aware of different health metrics.

“The best part of using the Apple Watch is that it keeps you active. It has made the players more aware about their health and they keep asking questions, which is a good thing. After reading their sleep data, for example, they are asking questions as to how to approach the day,” said Akanksha, who is also physio for the Indian women’s cricket team and National Cricket Academy, Bangalore.

Akanksha played a pivotal role off the field by ensuring all the 18 member squad remained match fit throughout the tournament. The physiotherapist impressed the Board of Control for Cricket in India through her short stint with the Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh (CSCS) and she got a call from the BCCI for the job of assistant physio of India senior women’s team during the New Zealand tour in 2019. She was also part of the women’s U19 world cup winning team.

Quality of sleep

“The few features that I often use are sleep tracking, cycle tracking and mindfulness. There are day-night matches and then there are regular practice sessions. So we need to be on our toes, which means we have to keep track of our sleep. A lot of stress is involved and the Apple Watch helps in the overall journey. With proper tracking of the quality of sleep, it helps us perform better. Even the mindfulness aspect helps a lot. It helps to recollect how we feel at a particular moment,” said Akanksha.

For Sneh, her current favourite feature is the Breathe app. “I am using it more often, especially before the start of the game and also after. It helps me calm down, relax my nerves and mind,” she said.

Apple Watch Series 9 is a more indispensable companion than ever, offering powerful new capabilities to help users with their health, fitness, communications, and safety

Of course, the other top features of the Apple Watch Series 9 involve detecting heart conditions and tracking menstrual cycles more accurately.

“Cycle tracking helps in how we plan our days to move forward according to our body. It is a very powerful feature for women athletes,” said Sneh.

For Akanksha, this is an important feature because it can help plan out routines for each player. “There are plenty of modes on the Apple Watch, like strength training and cycling. All these help to gather enough data to track the fitness of players. Cycle tracking helps us a lot because there are plenty of hormonal changes and temperatures keep fluctuating. We can understand where the cycle is appearing during practice sessions and that way we can discuss matters with the strength and condition coach,” she said.

Being an athlete, there are more than few tumbles involved but the Apple Watch can cope with almost all kinds of physical activities and battery life too is up to scratch.

“It has been quite sturdy and all my players use it. It is sturdy as well as casual and people wear it all the time. I don’t have to keep on thinking about battery life. I keep it on charge at night and then not worry about it,” said Akanksha.

And what is the daily fitness routine for Sneh, especially when she is preparing for a series. She said: “Before a series we work on a balanced diet and fitness routines that our trainer gives us according to our body type and moreover, we focus on recovery.”

At the end of the day, said Akanksha, it’s important to have a device that goes beyond sports. “The Apple Watch is versatile. It’s a mini phone on the wrist and you can operate all the features with a few taps.”