Imagine a coach opening software to instantly see not only how fast a swimmer is, but why. Are they overtrained? Is their stroke efficiency dropping? Are they recovering well enough between sessions?
Right now, those answers are mostly guesswork. But Adam Kerpelman, a McIntire Professor and Assistant Director of Student Entrepreneurship with UVA Innovates, is closing in on better ways of getting to the truth.
Kerpelman knows what it feels like to hang on for dear life in the final 50 meters of a race. As a former UVA swimmer, he built his career on grit, instinct, and just enough strategy to survive the pain.
“I swam the 200 the worst possible way,” he says. “As fast as I could and then tried to hold on longer than everyone else.”
Now, years later, Kerpelman is still thinking about performance. But instead of relying on instinct alone, he’s helping UVA Swimming & Diving tap into something far more powerful: data.
“With the data, we can start to connect training to performance in a real way,” he says. “Not just times, but what’s driving those times.”
Kerpelman is leading an effort to build a comprehensive performance platform for the team. The goal is simple in theory but transformative in practice: Take the scattered, underused data already being collected, and turn it into something coaches and athletes can actually use to get faster.
“The reality is, most of it still lives in spreadsheets,” he says. “There’s no real system for turning it into decisions.”
That’s the problem he’s solving.
UVA’s program has already experimented with cutting-edge tools, particularly the innovations introduced by UVA Math Professor Ken Ono. Sensors placed in swimmers’ hands can measure stroke path and force in the water. Accelerometers track stroke rate and body movement. The data is rich, detailed, and full of potential.
But until now, it’s been limited in scope.
“They’ve proven you can measure really interesting things,” Kerpelman explains. “But it’s mostly been focused on the top athletes. The challenge is making it usable for the entire team.”
His solution is to build a centralized platform that integrates everything. Training data. Meet results. Recovery metrics. Even subjective feedback from athletes themselves.
He’s especially focused on recovery, an often overlooked piece of performance. He’s exploring ways to incorporate wearable data, like sleep and readiness metrics, alongside training loads.
“There’s all this information that could help,” he says. “Even something as simple as asking athletes how they feel each day. That data doesn’t exist right now.”
By layering objective metrics with athlete input, the system could give coaches a much clearer picture of when to push and when to pull back. Over time, that could mean fewer injuries, better tapering, and better outcomes when it matters most.
Just as important, the platform is designed to fit into the reality of a swim program.
“The hard part isn’t building the tech,” Kerpelman says. “It’s building it in a way where coaches actually want to use it.”
That means minimizing disruption. No complicated workflows. No extra burden during already packed training schedules. Instead, the system aims to quietly enhance what coaches already do, giving them better information without slowing them down.
For athletes, the impact could be just as meaningful.
Instead of relying purely on feel, swimmers would have access to insights about their own performance. Where they’re improving. Where they’re plateauing. What small adjustments might unlock the next drop in time.
In a sport where hundredths of a second matter, that edge is everything.
And Kerpelman understands that better than most.
“There’s always been a ‘Moneyball’ opportunity in sports like swimming,” he says. “We just haven’t had the tools to do it at scale.”
Now, with advances in data science and AI, those tools are finally within reach. Kerpelman is using them not just to analyze performance, but to rethink how a program operates.
From recruiting to training to competition, everything can be tracked, organized, and optimized.
“It’s a lot for coaches to manage,” he says. “But to me, it’s just a system waiting to be built.”
For UVA Swimming, a program already operating at an elite level, that system could be the next step forward. Not replacing what’s already working, but sharpening it.
In the end, his work isn’t about technology for its own sake. It’s about giving athletes and coaches better tools to chase excellence.
The same goal he had in the water.
Only now, he’s helping an entire team hold on just a little bit longer.
