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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.
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00:05Will 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 League's Championship in October
00:46to 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
01:00products that have likely seen it watching golf coverage on the wrists and on the biceps of some
01:05of the best players in the world. So can you just tell us what it's all about, what it does,
01:08and then we'll get stuck into a little bit of the health of golf after this.
01:11Absolutely. So Whoop is designed a high performance wearable that's really designed to measure everything
01:16about your health, your sleep, your recovery, your exercise, stress, fitness. It really gives you,
01:24I think, the most accurate deep dive on the human body and the evolution of the company has been
01:30initially working with the world's best athletes to now working with a really broad range of consumers,
01:36people who are aspirational in all walks of life. And so can you chat about your relationship,
01:42all the relationship between Whoop and Tor and Tor players? I know it kind of, there was a huge
01:47story in COVID-19 where it sort of diagnosed Nick Watney with the illness prior to him actually
01:52testing for it. What's your relationship like with the Tor now and some of the Tor players?
01:57Well, we certainly have a huge percentage of professional golfers that wear Whoop. You'll
02:02notice it on their wrists while they're playing. Sometimes you'll even see it up on their bicep.
02:08How come they're wearing it there?
02:08Some people find it more comfortable there. So like, if you look carefully, you might see
02:14Scotty Scheffler wearing it up there or Rory McIlroy wears it up there from time to time. Justin
02:20Thomas wears it up there. So, you know, we're fortunate to obviously see these world-class
02:25golfers wearing the product. And I think a lot of the reason that the product's been so successful
02:30in golf and particularly professional golf is just all the stresses that go along with the game.
02:36And, and, you know, that's not just playing and exercising. That's also,
02:42you know, travel and jet lag, uh, you know, the, the difficulties of, um,
02:47all the grind outside of just playing like media and interviews and these sorts of things. And so I
02:53think for a lot of guys, Whoop has been a tool to help them understand recovery.
02:57Okay. Above everything else. And has that been the sort of feedback from them for you? Like,
03:03what 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?
03:13Well, it's been fascinating to hear how big it's been, um, just around lifestyle factors.
03:19So, um, a lot of professional golfers will have changed their sleep habits because of Whoop.
03:24Uh, cutting back on alcohol is a huge theme from Whoop because when you wear Whoop and you drink
03:30alcohol, you start to see just the negative effects of even a couple of drinks. I remember
03:35Rory McIlroy telling 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
03:46of
03:48little, I think, nuances that you see in, 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
03:57you see your
03:58bodies run down, it kind of, uh, it 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 that sort of allowed Whoop
04:10to,
04:10to explode? I'm talking golf here specifically. I know you've worked with, with athletes across
04:14sports. Um, but was there a moment in golf that made the product go huge within the tour players?
04:19I think a lot of top pro golfers were wearing it in like 2018, 19. So there's Rory McIlroy,
04:27there was Justin Thomas. Um, there was a bunch of top players and then COVID hit and Nick Watney realized
04:35that he had COVID from wearing the product, uh, because he had tested negative for a COVID test,
04:40but his whoop said he had COVID. And so next thing you know, um, the PGA tour reached out to
04:46us
04:46because they were the first, you know, if you think back in the summer of 2020, PGA tour was
04:50really the first sport to come back. And, uh, and so Jay Monahan called me and, 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, uh, you know, part of the, the bubble, so to speak,
05:07of helping professional golf come back. And so that was kind of an amazing moment for whoop.
05:12And, and obviously that, you know, put whoop on, on all the players at the time. And I think
05:17created a lot of exposure. So since that, and since the sort of popularity of it, you know,
05:22on these brilliant golfers, what have you learned about them and how they perform their best and what
05:28they're doing as 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. I think professional golfers spend a lot of time on their feet, spend a lot of time hitting
05:42balls, spend 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. Uh, and so whoop, I think gives them permission
05:55to focus on rest, you know, really thinking about the wind down in the evening, you know,
06:01taking a bath, taking a long shower, maybe meditating or breath work, finding the right
06:08supplements to help with that if needed. Uh, it's, it's a tool that again, focuses on recovery above a
06:16lot of other, um, products and that score zero to a hundred percent red, yellow, green, I think gives
06:22people a, a guiding factor. The other thing of course is just travel. Like these guys really
06:28travel a lot. They're in and out of different time zones. It's a total grind and whoop helps them.
06:35I think figure out what are little things I can do to improve my jet lag or to improve how
06:40I handle
06:41differences in time zones. And again, that could be hydration. That could be nutrition, but there's just
06:46a lot of things going on outside of when they're actually playing golf that affect their performance.
06:53And I think there's a lot of that that we don't as viewers acknowledge, do we? We watch them Thursday
06:56to Sunday, they rock up and play an event. You don't think about all that's going on in between.
07:00So would you say that whether we was a catalyst for this or perhaps golfers were trending in this
07:05direction anyway, they'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,
07:13the guys look so much fitter today than they were 20 years ago. But I think that the average fan,
07:21both for golf, but really all of professional sports underestimates just how much time goes
07:27into being a professional golfer. It's so much work. When you're not playing, you're recovering,
07:37you're focused on your nutrition, you're drinking water, you're thinking about performance,
07:42even though you're not performing. And there's a cost that comes with that. You know, it's a big
07:47sacrifice, I think, to be a professional athlete. It's not just when you see the athlete, you know,
07:54playing for four hours.
07:56And it sounds like McElroy's have to sacrifice a bit of red wine drinking every now and again,
07:59maybe you can do that later in his life. So for the sort of the average goal for that,
08:03I think myself included, maybe you want to get up early, get to the range, grind before you play golf
08:08to
08:09play your best. However, having listened to a lot of your podcasts and other interviews you've done,
08:14sleep. Sleep is really important. For the average golfer watching this,
08:18is that does the preparation for a good round the next day actually start the night before?
08:22I think absolutely. I mean, look, let's talk about how you can improve your sleep quickly.
08:26Sure.
08:28So generally speaking, you want to try to go to bed and wake up at the same time. That's called
08:33sleep
08:33consistency. That naturally improves your physiology. You also really want to be in a
08:39good 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
08:52to pack
08:52like a sleep mask or earplugs because, you know, that often when you're staying in a hotel, there's
08:59all these little lights and stuff in the room. Those can affect your sleep. You want to try to be
09:05really well hydrated. So drinking as much water, say three, four hours before bed, but trying not to
09:11drink water an hour before bed, because that might wake you up. You want to try to avoid eating within
09:16three hours of bedtime. You know, it just, the, the, the data shows that if you eat within three
09:22hours of bedtime, that will actually disrupt your sleep. Uh, caffeine's an interesting one. It's
09:29highly personal, but for the most part, if you drink caffeine after 2 PM, that's going to be affecting
09:34your sleep in the evening that far afterwards. Yes. That's not good for me. I like my coffee.
09:39Well, this is the amazing thing about the human body. I mean, you wouldn't believe how many things you do
09:45over the course of a day that could then affect your sleep that night.
09:49Uh, it's been shown that just getting morning sunlight. So waking up in the morning and seeing
09:55the sun in the morning is going to improve your sleep that night, you know, some 15 hours later.
10:02Right. Uh, so it's just, you know, it's fascinating just how the human body works. Meditating in the
10:07morning can affect your sleep later that night and general breath work and mindfulness, meditation,
10:13those things generally all help, uh, with sleep.
10:17So sleep's really important then. And I think we may have just answered this,
10:20but what, what would be one health tip if you could give someone watching now one little nugget
10:24to go away with that would help their health, help their body and help them play better golf
10:30as a circumstance? Well, this isn't popular feedback, but dialing back alcohol consumption,
10:36um, you know, that's one of the biggest things that's going to crush your recovery score on whoop.
10:42But, you know, at the end of the day, I would say you can only really manage what you measure.
10:48So if you want to understand your health, if you want to dial things in, just start by measuring it.
10:53And obviously I have a bias for whoop. Uh, and if you wear whoop, you're going to start to figure
10:58out, okay, well, what is my baseline sleep? What is my resting heart rate? You know, how,
11:03how, uh, how much exercise am I getting or how active am I? And you'll all of a sudden just
11:08see
11:08these numbers and you'll start to get some feedback on it from whoop. And then from there,
11:12you can start to manage it. You can start to tweak it. Interesting.
11:16And 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. Interesting. So
11:25maybe like you said, getting some data down, seeing which one doesn't look great and picking the one
11:29that might just help your health a little bit better and then improve your golf as a circumstance.
11:33And by the way, a lot of this stuff's personal. You know, some people metabolize caffeine very
11:37quickly. They could have caffeine at 4 PM. It won't affect their sleep. Some people,
11:41if they drink caffeine at 11 AM, it's going to affect their sleep. You know, some people,
11:44magnesium, melatonin, supplements like that can really improve their sleep.
11:50Some people, it hurts, right? So everyone's, everyone's also got some personal behaviors that
11:58help them that don't help others. And that goes back to being able to manage what you measure.
12:03Really 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.
12:16I enjoyed watching it. Aside from the obvious with golf, the walking, the sort of mental health
12:21benefits that 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 dates that you
12:29may be able to collect?
12:30Well, I grew up playing golf. I played a lot from the ages of like, say, 10 to 18.
12:35And I got my handicap at one point down to a zero. And then, you know, with work and with
12:42building a
12:42company, it, you know, slowly rose up from there. I think today I'm around a three or a four handicap.
12:49And I will say one of the things I enjoy most about playing golf is that feeling of you need
12:57to hit a
12:57shot and then you need to commit it to a shot. Right. And I think that's a it's a big
13:01theme,
13:02not just in a sport, but but in life, which is you come up with a plan and then you
13:06got to execute
13:07the plan. And, you know, as well as I do, when you're standing over the ball and you're changing the
13:12plan, you're screwed. Right. And so there's this just this feeling of like, what am I trying to do?
13:18OK, let's do it. And that I think I love about golf. And it's it's pretty unique to golf because
13:25you have so much time to think about what you want to do. Right. You can sit there and plot.
13:29I grew up playing a lot of squash. I played squash while I was at Harvard. And that's a sport
13:34where you're
13:34really reacting. Right. You're reacting in real time. So many sports you're like on kind of, you know,
13:40under this pressure cooker. Golf feels like you're under a pressure cooker, but you actually
13:44have some time to think about what you're doing and plot your way around. It's a much more strategic
13:49game, I think, than it gets credit for. And it's a and it's a very mental game because you have
13:54time
13:55to think. So I love that about it. I love the camaraderie of getting to meet people playing golf.
14:01It's unbelievable even just from a business standpoint, how many people I've met that have
14:06ended up being helpful to me and growing as an entrepreneur, growing, growing a technology
14:11business. It's, I think, the one sport that all athletes play, which is a cool concept.
14:19It is, isn't it? And I think this week at the Dunhill Links is a kind of perfect example
14:21of that. We've got cricketers, entrepreneurs, tennis, rowers. They're all here and they're
14:27all pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. You know, yesterday I played with with Gareth Bale. I, you know,
14:31I wasn't going to call him up to go play football, but the fact that we can both go play
14:36the old
14:36course and, you know, stand over our own ball. That's pretty great. And how is your game trending
14:42into this week? So you play the old course, you'll play Carnoustie, you'll play Kings Barnes.
14:46Yeah. How are you feeling? Are you excited? I'm super excited. This is one of my favorite
14:51weeks of the year. The Alfred Dunhill is a spectacular event. It's incredible people. Everyone shows up here
14:58to have a good time. You know, it's very low ego and, you know, very successful people,
15:03very talented golfers. Everyone comes together. And, you know, I think there's just a wonderful
15:10camaraderie and the courses are three of the best courses in the world. The conditions are very
15:16challenging and, you know, it's a real test. So I look forward to it every year. I think it's
15:21spectacular. Right. Last two for me then. What do you want your recovery score to be in the morning?
15:26So you're fresh 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,
15:36which would be a good sign for someone maybe a little jet lagged. And yeah, you know, it's like
15:42you don't want to have any nerves because in a way nerves make you a little sharper. So if my
15:48heart rate's
15:49around 100 beats per minute, I think that would be good. My resting heart rate's about 45 beats per minute.
15:54You know, if my heart rate's at 130 or 140, that's probably a sign I'm freaking out.
15:59That'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.
16:07And so we would show people's heart rates on the first tee. And they got amped up. I mean,
16:13I remember Rory's heart rate was like 130 beats per minute on the first tee.
16:17That's like doing sort of semi strenuous exercise. And he's, you know, one of the best
16:22to ever do it. So 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 in light and viewers at home to how
16:39these athletes are performing? Is there anything in the works?
16:41Yeah. You know, we're going to continue to do these data stories and integrations where we show,
16:46you know, maybe the stress of the last hole in a playoff or, you know, show someone's heart rate
16:52in real time. Just understanding like the strain of the overall activity is interesting. You know,
16:59the strain of a four or five hour golf round might be the same as, you know, a 45 minute
17:05CrossFit
17:05workout, you know, depending on how stressful it was. So, you know, for me, I get the highest
17:10strain scores from playing golf are at this tournament because the conditions are tough
17:16and it's intense. Like, you know, you want to play well and, you know, all of it just makes
17:21for a terrific event. Well, we're looking forward to it. We'll appreciate your time and your insights.
17:25Thank you very much. Good luck this week. We'll be following closely.
17:28Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.
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