- 4 minutes ago
Will Ahmed is the CEO of Whoop, a company worth billions of dollars thanks to its cutting-edge fitness wearable chosen by many of the world's top golfers including Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas. It's now the official fitness wearable of the PGA Tour and in this video, Will sat down with Dan Parker to discuss the health benefits of golf, the insights Whoop can offer and the changes golfers can make to their lifestyle that will have a positive impact on their potential to play better golf.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Will Ahmed is the founder and CEO of Whoop, the wearable fitness device with over 125 million
00:10users worldwide. In 2021, the company was valued at $3.6 billion with the likes of Cristiano
00:16Ronaldo, Eli Manning and Patrick Mahomes onboard as investors. At the height of the COVID bubble
00:20on the PGA Tour, Nick Watney's Whoop device detected a spike in his respiratory rate and,
00:25despite his lack of symptoms, went to get tested and was found to be positive.
00:28It shot Whoop into the consciousness of professional golfers and the PGA Tour subsequently procured
00:331,000 Whoop devices for every individual in the bubble. Whoop can now count on the likes of
00:37Roy McIlroy, Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas as regular users. A keen golfer since his college
00:42days, Will joined us ahead of his appearance at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October
00:47to talk about Whoop, the health benefits of golf and share the insights he's gained on the sport
00:51via his work. Will Ahmed, thanks for joining us, really appreciate it. For those who don't know
00:56who are watching, could you just give us, you know, a little bit of heads up on Whoop and your products
01:00that have likely seen it watching golf coverage on the wrists and on the biceps of some of the best
01:05players in the world. So can you just tell us what it's all about, what it does, and then we'll get
01:08stuck into a little bit of the health of golf after this. Absolutely. So Whoop is designed a high
01:13performance wearable that's really designed to measure everything about your health, your sleep,
01:18your recovery, your exercise, stress, fitness. It really gives you, I think, the most accurate
01:25deep dive on the human body. And the evolution of the company has been initially working with
01:31the world's best athletes to now working with a really broad range of consumers, people who are
01:37aspirational in all walks of life. And so can you chat about your relationship or the relationship
01:42between Whoop and Tor and Tor players? I know it kind of, there was a huge story in COVID-19 where
01:49it sort of diagnosed Nick Watney with the illness prior to him actually testing for it. What's your
01:54relationship like with the Tor now and some of the Tor players? Well, we certainly have a huge
01:59percentage of professional golfers that wear Whoop. You'll notice it on their wrists while they're
02:05playing. Sometimes you'll even see it up on their bicep. How come they're wearing it there?
02:09Some people find it more comfortable there. So like if you look carefully, you might see Scotty
02:15Scheffler wearing it up there or Rory McIlroy wears it up there from time to time. Justin Thomas wears
02:20it up there. So, you know, we're fortunate to obviously see these world-class golfers wearing
02:26the product. And I think a lot of the reason that the product's been so successful in golf and
02:31particularly professional golf is just all the stresses that go along with the game. And, and,
02:37you know, that's not just playing and exercising. That's also, you know, travel and jet lag.
02:45You know, the, the difficulties of all the grind outside of just playing like media and interviews
02:51and these sorts of things. And so I think for a lot of guys, Whoop has been a tool to help them
02:56understand recovery above everything else. And has that been the sort of feedback from them for you?
03:02Like what have you been able to learn from these players coming back to you about your product and
03:07about how they use it? How are they using it most effectively for their lives and their lifestyle?
03:12Well, it's been fascinating to hear how big it's been just around lifestyle factors. So a lot of
03:20professional golfers will have changed their sleep habits because of Whoop.
03:23Whoop cutting back on alcohol is a huge theme from Whoop because when you wear Whoop and you drink alcohol,
03:30you start to see just the negative effects of even a couple of drinks. I remember Rory McIlroy
03:36telling me years ago that he was a wine collector. And then unfortunately, because of Whoop,
03:41he's now not drinking his wine because he sees that it makes his recovery low. But those are the types of
03:47little, I think, nuances that you see in the product and in the data where you might otherwise
03:53say, oh, you know, a few drinks, I feel fine today. But when you see it in the data and you see your
03:58bodies run down, it kind of gets to you. And what was the catalyst for that product becoming
04:04so popular on tour and with players? Is there a specific moment you can remember
04:08that sort of allowed Whoop to explode? I'm talking golf here specifically. I know you've worked with
04:13with athletes across sports, but was there a moment in golf that made the product go huge
04:18within the tour players? I think a lot of top pro golfers were wearing it in like 2018-19. So there's
04:26Rory McIlroy, there was Justin Thomas. There was a bunch of top players and then COVID hit and Nick
04:34Watney realized that he had COVID from wearing the product because he had tested negative for
04:39a COVID test. But his whoop said he had COVID. And so next thing you know, the PGA Tour reached
04:45out to us because they were the first, you know, if you think back in the summer of 2020,
04:50PGA Tour was really the first sport to come back. And so Jay Monaghan called me and, you know,
04:56essentially procured a thousand whoop straps, not just for the players, but for all the caddies,
05:01the media members. And whoop became, you know, part of the bubble, so to speak, of helping
05:08professional golf come back. And so that was kind of an amazing moment for whoop. And obviously
05:13that, you know, put whoop on on all the players at the time, and I think created a lot of exposure.
05:19So since that, and since the sort of popularity of it, you know, on these brilliant golfers,
05:24what have you learned about them and how they perform their best and what they're doing
05:29as elite athletes to perform at the highest level week in, week out?
05:33You know, it's interesting. A lot of, a lot of what I hear relates to rest and recovery.
05:38Okay.
05:38I think professional golfers spend a lot of time on their feet, spend a lot of time hitting balls,
05:43spend a lot of time working out, spend a lot of time playing holes. Obviously, the psychological
05:49stress of playing a tournament is actually really high. And so whoop, I think, gives them permission
05:56to focus on rest. You know, really thinking about the wind down in the evening, you know, taking a
06:01bath, taking a long shower, maybe meditating or breath work, finding the right supplements to help
06:09with that if needed. It's a tool that, again, focuses on recovery above a lot of other products. And
06:19that score zero to 100% red, yellow, green, I think gives people a guiding factor. The other thing,
06:25of course, is just travel. Like these guys really travel a lot. They're in and out of different time
06:31zones. It's a total grind. And whoop helps them, I think, figure out what are little things I can do
06:37to improve my jet lag or to improve how I handle differences in time zones. And again, that could be
06:43hydration. That could be nutrition. But there's just a lot of things going on outside of when
06:49they're actually playing golf that affect their performance. And I think there's a lot of that
06:53that we don't, as viewers, acknowledge, do we? We watch them Thursday to Sunday. They rock up and
06:58play an event. You don't think about all that's going on in between. So would you say that
07:02whether whoop was a catalyst for this or perhaps golfers were trending in this direction anyway,
07:05they've become more health focused, you know, let's say in the last 20 years?
07:10Oh, absolutely. I mean, you can tell that just from watching a broadcast. The guys look so much
07:15fitter today than they were 20 years ago. But I think that the average fan, both for golf,
07:22but really all of professional sports, underestimates just how much time goes into
07:27being a professional golfer. You know, it's so much work. You know, when you're not playing,
07:35you're recovering, you're focused on your nutrition, you're drinking water, you're thinking
07:41about performance, even though you're not performing. And there's a cost that comes with
07:46that. You know, it's a big sacrifice, I think, to be a professional athlete. It's not just when
07:51you see the athlete, you know, playing for four hours. And it sounds like McElroy's have to sacrifice
07:57a bit of red wine drinking every now and again. Maybe you can do that later in his life. So for the
08:02sort of the average golfer that I think, myself included, maybe you want to get up early, get
08:06to the range, grind before you play golf to play your best. However, I haven't listened to a lot
08:11of your podcasts and other interviews you've done. Sleep. Sleep is really important. For the
08:16average golfer watching this, does the preparation for a good round the next day actually start the
08:21night before? I think absolutely. I mean, look, let's talk about how you can improve your sleep
08:26quickly. Sure. So generally speaking, you want to try to go to bed and wake up at the same time.
08:32That's called sleep consistency. That naturally improves your physiology. You also really want to
08:39be in a good bedroom environment. So ideally, it's a cold room, good air quality, really dark,
08:47not a lot of noise. And if you're on a golf trip with your buddies, you know, you might want to pack like
08:53a sleep mask or earplugs because, you know, that often when you're staying in a hotel,
08:58there's all these little lights and stuff in the room. Those can affect your sleep.
09:03You want to try to be really well hydrated. So drinking as much water, say three, four hours
09:09before bed, but try not to drink water an hour before bed because that might wake you up.
09:13Interesting. You want to try to avoid eating within three hours of bedtime.
09:18You know, just the data shows that if you eat within three hours of bedtime,
09:23that will actually disrupt your sleep. Caffeine's an interesting one. It's highly personal.
09:30But for the most part, if you drink caffeine after 2pm, that's going to be affecting your sleep
09:35in the evening. That far afterwards? Yes.
09:38That's not good for me. I like my coffee. Well, this is the amazing thing about the human body. I mean,
09:42you wouldn't believe how many things you do over the course of a day that could then affect your
09:48sleep that night. It's been shown that just getting morning sunlight, so waking up in the
09:54morning and seeing the sun in the morning is going to improve your sleep that night, you know,
10:00some 15 hours later, right? So it's just, you know, it's fascinating just how the human body works.
10:06So meditating in the morning can affect your sleep later that night. In general, breath work and
10:12mindfulness, meditation, those things generally all help with sleep.
10:17So sleep's really important then, and I think we may have just answered this, but what would be one
10:21health tip if you could give someone watching now one little nugget to go away with that would
10:27help their health, help their body, and help them play better golf as a circumstance?
10:32Well, this isn't popular feedback, but dialing back alcohol consumption, you know, that's one of
10:38the biggest things that's going to crush your recovery score on WHOOP. But, you know, at the end of
10:44the day, I would say you can only really manage what you measure. So if you want to understand your
10:50health, if you want to dial things in, just start by measuring it. And obviously, I have a bias for
10:55WHOOP. And if you wear WHOOP, you're going to start to figure out, okay, well, what is my baseline sleep?
11:01What is my resting heart rate? You know, how much exercise am I getting? Or how active am I? And
11:07you'll all of a sudden just see these numbers, and you'll start to get some feedback on it from WHOOP.
11:12And then from there, you can start to manage it, you can start to tweak it.
11:15Interesting.
11:15And sometimes it's only, you know, small little things that you just change or you become a little
11:20more aware of. And gosh, you end up feeling so much better a few months later.
11:25Interesting. So maybe like you said, getting some data down, seeing which one doesn't look great,
11:29and picking the one that might just help your health a little bit better, and then improve
11:32your golf as a circumstance. And by the way, a lot of this stuff's personal. You know,
11:35some people metabolize caffeine very quickly, they could have caffeine at 4pm, it won't affect
11:40their sleep. Some people, if they drink caffeine at 11am, it's going to affect their sleep. You know,
11:44some people, magnesium, melatonin, supplements like that can really improve their sleep.
11:49Some people, it hurts, right? So everyone's also got some personal behaviors that help them,
11:59that don't help others. And that goes back to being able to manage what you measure.
12:02Really interesting stuff, I think. And then there are some nuggets there, I think, for everyone.
12:08Back to golf there. You play a lot yourself. I followed you out here on the old course for the
12:12front nine yesterday, playing with Gareth Bale. You held your own there. It's good stuff. I enjoyed
12:16watching it. Aside from the obvious with golf, the walking, the sort of mental health benefits
12:21that could be playing the game, what have you learned otherwise that golf can bring to your
12:25health, to your body, to your mind, from playing yourself, but also from the sort of days that
12:29you've been able to collect? Well, I grew up playing golf. I played a lot from the ages of,
12:33like, say, 10 to 18. And I got my handicap at one point down to a zero. And then, you know,
12:41with work and with building a company, it slowly rose up from there. I think today I'm around
12:46a three or a four handicap. And I will say one of the things I enjoy most about
12:54playing golf is that feeling of you need to hit a shot and then you need to commit it to a shot.
13:00Right. And I think that's a it's a big theme, not just in a sport, but but in life, which is you
13:05come up with a plan and then you got to execute the plan. And you know, as well as I do, when you're
13:10standing over the ball and you're changing the plan, you're screwed. Right. And so there's this just
13:15this feeling of like, what am I trying to do? Okay, let's do it. And that I think I love about
13:21golf. And it's it's pretty unique to golf because you have so much time to think about what you want
13:27to do. Right. You can sit there and plot. I grew up playing a lot of squash. I played squash while
13:32I was at Harvard. And that's a sport where you're really reacting. Right. You're reacting in real time.
13:37So many sports you're like on kind of, you know, under this pressure cooker.
13:41Golf feels like you're under a pressure cooker, but you actually have some time to think about
13:45what you're doing and plot your way around. It's a much more strategic game, I think,
13:50than it gets credit for. And it's a and it's a very mental game because you have time to think.
13:56So I love that about it. I love the camaraderie of getting to meet people playing golf. It's
14:02unbelievable even just from a business standpoint, how many people I've met that have ended up being,
14:06you know, helpful to me and growing as an entrepreneur, growing, growing a technology
14:12business. It's, I think, the one sport that all athletes play, which is a cool concept.
14:18It is, isn't it? And I think this week at the Dunhill Links is a kind of perfect example of that. We've got
14:22cricketers, entrepreneurs, tennis, rowers. They're all here and they're all pretty good.
14:28Yeah. Yeah. You know, yesterday I played with with Gareth Bale. You know, I wasn't going to call
14:32him up to go play football. But the fact that we can both go play the old course and, you know,
14:37stand over our own ball. That's pretty great. And how is your game trending into this week?
14:43So you play the old course, you'll play Carnoustie, you'll play Kings Barns. Yeah. How are you feeling?
14:47Are you excited? I'm super excited. This is one of my favorite weeks of the year. The Alfred Dunhill is
14:53a spectacular event. It's incredible people. Everyone shows up here to have a good time. You know,
15:00it's very low ego and, you know, very successful people, very talented golfers.
15:06Everyone comes together. And, you know, I think there's just a wonderful camaraderie.
15:10And the courses are three of the best courses in the world. The conditions are very challenging.
15:17And, you know, it's a real test. So I look forward to it every year. I think it's spectacular.
15:22Right. Last two for me then. What do you want your recovery score to be in the morning? So you're
15:26fresh firing and what's your heart rate going to be on the first tee, do you reckon?
15:30Well, you know, hopefully my recovery is 99%, which means I'm dialed. You know,
15:35it should be a good sign for someone maybe a little jet lagged. And yeah, you know,
15:42it's like you don't want to have any nerves because in a way nerves make you a little sharper.
15:47So if my heart rate's around 100 beats per minute, I think that would be good. My resting
15:52heart rate's about 45 beats per minute. You know, if my heart rate's at 130 or 140,
15:57that's probably a sign I'm freaking out a little bit. That's working hard.
15:59Yeah. So that won't be good. But we actually did a golf integration with a bunch of players during
16:06the Ryder Cup. Okay. And so we would show people's heart rates on the first tee.
16:11And they got amped up. I mean, I remember Rory's heart rate was like 130 beats per minute on the first tee.
16:18That's like doing sort of semi-strenuous exercise. And he's, you know, one of the best to ever do it.
16:23So it just shows that that moment is a big moment for pros and amateurs alike.
16:30And speaking of that, actually, you know, what's the future within the game? We've seen it on TV
16:35coverage. You know, what are you working towards to perhaps and viewers at home to how these athletes
16:39are performing? Is there anything in the works? Yeah. You know, we're going to continue to do these
16:43data stories and integrations where we show, you know, maybe the stress of the last hole in a
16:50playoff or, you know, show someone's heart rate in real time. Just understanding, like, the strain
16:56of the overall activity is interesting. You know, the strain of a four or five hour golf round might
17:02be the same as, you know, a 45 minute CrossFit workout, you know, depending on how stressful it was.
17:07So, you know, for me, I get the highest strain scores from playing golf are at this tournament.
17:14I bet they are. Because the conditions are tough and it's intense. Like, you know, you want to play
17:18well and, you know, all of it just makes for a terrific event. Well, we're looking forward to it.
17:23Will, appreciate your time and your insights. Thank you very much. Good luck this week. We'll be following
17:27closely. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.
Comments