Candace Parker and Gatorade are looking to improve the performance and hydration of young athletes, by giving a first-hand experience to the Gx Sweat Patch and App. CP3 provided a demo and allowed the top-ranked girls and boys basketball programs of Chicago’s Whitney Young High School to receive first-hand experience with the new technology.
The Gx Sweat Patch is a first-to-market wearable that unlocks athletes’ unique sweat profiles to inform their personalized hydration strategies that can help drive performance. This technology was previously only available to the pros – the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) has conducted “sweat testing” for decades – but now, it’s available to everyone with an iPhone. The Gx Sweat Patch connects to the free Gx app so you can see your results, along with science-backed insights and recommendations from GSSI that are customized to you. Think of it like having a personal sports scientist in your pocket.
Speaking with The Source, Candace Parker spoke to the importance of rising athletes taking advantage of the Gx Sweat Patch and what’s next after her championship-winning season.
The Source: What are you doing today with Gatorade?
Candace Parker: Gatorade and I, surprised the girls and boys basketball team at Whitney Young High School. It’s really cool just to talk with them. They’re starting their season. So we were just talking about competitive advantage and how you can better yourself as an athlete. I think so many athletes are about getting better at shooting and getting better at dribbling and all that stuff. And they ignore the nutrition side of things and the hydration side. So we actually were able to talk to them about the GX sweat patch. I have one right here and how the pros have been basically taken advantage of this for years because you know, you kind of evaluate the sweats, see what you need, and get your sweat profile. Then you can kinda like talk about the hydration and what you need to add to your regimen for peak performance.
So I think it’s an advantage that the pros have had for years and now because of Gatorade, you’re able to have access at the grassroots and everybody has access. If I were in school, I would definitely utilize this, because I was trying to do everything the pros were doing. So I just encourage them to take advantage of all the things that they have out there that can help them be better.
When you were coming up where you were going through the high school circuit, what things did you do to ensure your hydration? And was there someone around to give you that type of information?
It was just drinking Gatorade, drinking some water, and making sure you’re hydrated. There was no concrete fact. I have a 12-year-old at home, I know we’re entering into the generation of why, and how do you know? So it’s cool to be able to be like, well, I know because of this app, I just downloaded it. You’re not getting enough hydration. It’s really cool to be able to see where technology is now.
When you first were introduced to the Gx sweat patch, what was your initial reaction to both the actual technology, but also in the information that is conveyed to you?
I think it’s more so I was blown away by the access because like I said, pros have had access to something like this. But to be able to have access as an athlete coming up at junior high or as a mom that wants to train for a marathon, it’s just cool. You download an app and you’d be able to get all the information.
We’re moving into different pieces of technologies and trends that are helping out the next generation of basketball stars. What other ones have you seen come about or things that you would like to see them focus more on and their development?
It’s so important to focus on skills, but I think it’s also your body because your body is your business. When you decide to be a professional athlete or whatever you’re working towards, your body has to be able to perform at full capacity. So things like hydration and increasing stamina. I think is super advantageous for young people because pros do it all the time. We want to know what our heart rate is. We want to know how many calories we burn throughout the game. I think we’re at that level now where we can know that, but there’s deeper things like the sweat patch that can help.
You mentioned paying attention to your body and we know earlier in this championship season, you had a couple of injuries but you moved on and won a championship. Now that you hit the off-season, how are you planning to adjust and keep ready?
I’ve learned a lot about how to handle offseasons because for so long, I never had an off-season. It was just like, play, play, play, play, play all year round. It was just like the beginning of the season in the middle of the season or the end of the season. That was the stage I was in. I never had a break. So to be able to now understand how to handle it, I need this to really rest and rejuvenate and get everything that I need taken care of. Go see doctors and make sure that I’m healthy, but also just not stopping. I think as you get older, you realize the importance of staying in a little bit of shape of making sure that you’re lean, and making sure that you’re bettering your physique and your staying tone. I think those are the things I’m doing right now. And then come January, you start slowly building up.
In addition to speaking toward the Gx sweat patch, when speaking to the Whitney Young teams, what type of questions were you asked?
I think a lot of it’s really interesting because I think I have spoken to a lot of teams and I’ll get a couple of questions as I got today, but a lot of it is I’ll get a DM or I’ll get a text later on about how like they were embarrassed to ask. So a lot of the questions were about the patch and what does it mean to be able to play in Chicago and to win a championship? How is my off-season look like? What message would I give to my high school self? So they were all really good questions. And, you know, I think it’s important to continue to answer those questions because I remember going to camps and asking the basketball people that I looked up to questions and I remember whatever they said. So I think it’s really cool to be able to talk to the next generation cause, they definitely inspired me as well.
We’ll probably see you on TNT some more and you’ve mentioned making sure you give your body proper rest. What else do you have set for now through the early part of the spring?
It is about giving my body rest, but it’s about not stopping. So I am working out, I am lifting, I am doing cardio. I’m doing yoga. So just trying to stay in as good shape. I probably won’t touch a ball until December, January, just because you have five months still until the season starts at that point. So you don’t want to, especially at 35, go overboard, but I still sometimes will just go turn on a game because I think the mental aspect of basketball is so important as well.
You have the Sparks championship and you have the Sky championship, you won them both at different junctures of your life. One is the first-time ship, the other one being the homecoming, which one hit your heart more, or was it a different feeling in both?
You know, I only have one child, but I can imagine that like the two championships are like having two children. Like you love them the same, but it strikes different emotions. The personalities are different and that’s kind of how it was with these championships. Like to win at home was something I can’t even describe and to win in the fashion. The season we had and then the first championship, I mean, there’s nothing like it, to beat the team we did. So I think they’re different and I love different parts of each of them.
