Wales players will face Ireland in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at Croke Park with the added benefit of a unique piece of performance enhancing technology in their armoury – ArmourBite mouthwear.
Every member of Warren Gatland’s 34-man squad has been fitted with the new gumshields, produced by WRU official kit supplier Under Armour, which are designed to have a very real affect on performance by preventing the automatic teeth clenching the body naturally performs when placed under stress.
The science behind the mouthwear says that when an athlete trains or competes under duress the body’s natural reaction, as part of the ‘fight or flight’ hard-wiring in the brain, is to clench the jaw, compressing the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and triggering the release of excess amounts of performance-sapping hormones (like cortisol) that produce stress, fatigue and distraction.
The Wales players have been fitted with ‘non-contact’ mouthpieces, which sit on the bottom row of teeth and are used during gymn sessions and other non-rugby training, they then have a game-day mouthguard which serves the normal purpose of protecting the teeth but also carries this extra perfromance enhancing quality.
The players are phasing in this new technological advance for matchdays, with gumshields being a particularly personal peice of kit and they have also proved popular and produced positive results already during training sessions.
ArmourBite, the patented technology in UA Performance Mouthwear, was created by Under Armour’s partner Bite Tech, Inc., a US-based company that has spent over 15 years conducting research and science on developing mouthwear products that improve athletic performance all over the world.
The likes of fly-half Stephen Jones, full-back Lee Byrne and prop Paul James have joined a long list of American sporting heroes who have reaped the benefits of this innovative Under Armour Performance Mouthwear powered by ArmourBite™ after wearing the product on matchdays:
“I really like the concept behind the technology and have been wearing the mouthguard in all the Six Nations matches so far. The idea behind them has some real merits and anything that can give you an edge at this level, you’ve got to give it a try and I’m really fascinated by the potential these guards have to enhance performance on the pitch,” said Jones.
“I’ve been using it in place of my normal mouthguard in matches and am getting more and more comfortable with it. The body is obviously under intense pressure, in the scrums in particular for a prop, and it’s in those kinds of moments when the technology is designed to give you an edge. It’s not something you think about during the heat of the battle, but it’s great to know the scientists behind this technology have done that thinking for you,” added James.
