SlamBall Partners With Demotu to Track Player Movement and Prevent Injuries

In SlamBall, where athletes face unique demands from continuous jumping and aerial collisions, shoulder instability and posterior chain weaknesses are among the most prevalent injury concerns. Addressing those risks at scale required a technological solution that could travel with the sport, and Joe Resendez found one in Demotu.

Resendez serves as the Head of Player Health and Performance for SlamBall, bringing a résumé that spans professional basketball's highest levels. He carries 15 years of NBA experience, including stints as Assistant Athletic Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Los Angeles Clippers and as Head Athletic Trainer for the Sacramento Kings. He detailed the SlamBall program in a technical case study published through Simplifaster.

Resendez breaks down how he uses Demotu's motion capture technology to provide an objective tool to address mobility, stability, and movement deficiencies. The core of the system is built around athlete profiling. When profiling athletes, the program considers kinematics, kinetic forces, and internal and external load as a blueprint, with Demotu serving as the tool to tie these elements together and enable a holistic approach to optimizing athlete performance and mitigating injury.

The program's structure runs on a defined rhythm throughout the competitive season. Demotu was used for periodic re-assessments conducted in four-to-six week increments to track progress and adapt programs as needed, with the regular evaluations ensuring athletes were meeting benchmarks and addressing emerging deficiencies.

When the data flagged a problem, the response was individualized rather than generic. Based on assessment data, targeted interventions were developed by prescribing individualized corrective exercises, including a focus on improving hip stability and reducing knee valgus through targeted glute activation and core stability exercises, as well as strengthening exercises, dynamic balance work, and plyometric training to address landing mechanics and ankle dorsiflexion limitations.

In SlamBall specifically, findings guided the program to address controlled body positioning during aerial techniques. That focus on in-air body control is not incidental; it goes to the heart of what makes SlamBall's injury profile distinct from the NBA or XFL environments where Resendez also worked.

Resendez specializes in integrating biomechanics, movement analysis, corrective exercises, and manual therapy techniques to optimize performance and reduce injury risk, with a holistic approach that focuses on enhancing mobility, stability, and sport-specific mechanics to improve athletic output and resilience. The SlamBall program represents that philosophy applied to one of the most physically demanding environments in professional sports, where players absorb landing forces on trampolines before launching back into contact.

By leveraging advanced tools like motion capture, force plates, strength testing, and GPS technology, the program has reshaped how athlete assessments are approached, offering precise insights that optimize performance and mitigate injury risks. For a sport still carving out its place in the professional sports landscape, building that infrastructure now could define how safely and sustainably it grows.