Testing the "Shuzi" Sports Band

Merseyside Skeptics visit a local rugby club to put the Shuzi Flat Black Sports Bracelet to the test.

Stock footage supplied by:
The Royal Institution & iSaudeBrasil
used under a Creative Commons license

Music by
Kevin MacLeod
used under a Creative Commons license

Sport is big business, with athletes at all levels looking for that little something extra that can boost their performance.

Whether it's protein supplements, energy drinks, coloured tape or special shoes.

Over the last few years, we've seen an explosion in these - sports performance wrist bands.

The manufacturers claim they can match the body's natural vibrations to increase blood flow, resulting in the athlete having better concentration, strength and balance.

But do they actually work? I've come here to a local rugby club, to find out if the manufacturers claims really do add up.

Meet Dave.

Dave is a semi-professional player for a local rugby club, and exactly the sort of person these kind of products are marketed to.

Dave, thanks for joining us. How long have you been a semi-pro player?

Around eight years now.

And how important do you think it is, in your experience, to be at the very top of your game?

You're always looking for something to give you a little bit of an edge.

So when you see products or techniques that claim they can boost your performance, those must interest you?

Yes, always. Always looking out for things like that.

Have you heard of these wrist bands before? Do you know anyone who uses them?

There are a couple of people I know who've worn them in the past. I have heard about them, yeah.

What do you make of them?

I'd like to see a bit more evidence before I make my judgement, I think!

Well, hopefully that's exactly what we're going to get today.

Dave here is a kicker. In training, he practices his kicks over and over again to get them right.

If the claims of these manufacturers are true, then the increase and balance and concentration they can give him should lead to a marked improvement in his kicking ability.

To put this to the test, we bought two identical bands from a manufacturer called Shuzi, costing £60 each.

Shuzi claim a special chip embedded in their wristband will "unclump" the wearer's blood, and "increase blood flow" - leading to better balance and athletic performance.

To see if these claims are true, we've removed the chip from one of our bands and disguised to so our player can't tell which is the real band and which is the control.

So Dave, how about we take fifty kicks with each and we see which one comes out top?

- I'm happy with that.
- Excellent, let's go.

- Hi Alice.
- Hi.

Alice here is studying Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the University of Liverpool.

What have you got here Alice?

These are the two bands we're going to test today. One has been labelled Band X and the other Band Y.

And one of those is our real band and the other is our control? Which is which?

I don't actually know. The bands were prepared a few days ago. They were labelled Band X and Band Y and I haven't been told which is which.

- So you couldn't give our rugby player and clues at all?
- No.

Excellent, well how about we get our player in and we'll start the test?

To be absolutely sure that David hasn't any clues which band he is wearing for each set of kicks, not even if he is wearing Band X or Band Y, he is blindfolded.

After Alice clips the chosen band onto his wrist, she covers it with a sweat band, so David can't see.

- So Dave, how are you feeling?
- Good, fine, yeah. Feel okay.

Can you feel your blood flowing any better?

I can't feel anything different, I just feel normal.

If I had to ask you if you were wearing the real or the control band, which do you think you are wearing?

As I say, I just feel normal, so I guess I would be wearing the control one. I don't feel any different.

Okay, well there's only one way to find out. Let's get out onto the pitch and take some kicks.

(WHISTLE)

(SIGH)

(WHISTLE)

There we go, your first ten kicks. I'm afraid to say you only scored three out of ten. How do you feel about that?

I'd like to get a bit more than that, but I suppose it happens sometimes.

Do you think you know which wristband you were wearing? Did you feel any effects?

I just felt normal, so I wouldn't be able to say yet, either way, really.

Well, there's plenty more kicks to do, so I think we'll send you back to the changing rooms and get you set up with a second band.

- Alright.
- Off you go!

Every ten kicks, Dave is sent back to the changing room to change his band.

This is partly to give him a chance to rest, but mostly because we don't want all fifty kicks for a particular band to happen at the end, when he is most likely to be tired.

Instead, we've had Alice randomly choose which band he wears for each test.

(LONG WHISTLE)

So there we go, one hundred kicks! How are you feeling?

A little bit tired to be honest, but glad it's over.

Do you think you could tell when you were wearing the real band and when you were wearing the control band?

I didn't feel any different from one set of ten to the other, either way, good or bad.

There's only one way to find out and that's to look at the data.

So we'll let you run off and get a shower, and we'll take a look at the stats and find out which band performed best.

Cheers.

So, Alice, you've added everything up. You've done the maths. How did we do?

Our kicker got 48/100 overall.
22/50 for Band X and 26/50 for Band Y.

So pretty close then? Not an awful lot of difference.

We can find out now which is the real band and which is our sham band.

Let's have a look - Band X...

Band X was the sham band.

Which therefore means that Band Y...

... is our real band.

So, four goals difference. Does that mean Shuzi works?

I'm afraid not. With only a difference of four out of the hundred, it's not statistically significant.

It's what you'd expect of random chance.

So you're saying the difference is so small that we can see Shuzi made no difference to our players performance?

- That's correct, yes.
- Thank you very much.

So there we have it. When put to the test, our band failed to live up to the hype.

Is it worth £60? Or is it just another expensive sports fad?