One of the biggest changes in society over the last 10, 20 or even 30 years has been the rapid advance in technology, especially with respect to the internet and electronic communication. No longer do we have stress trying to find information in a hurry, as Google allows us to acquire what we need in just a matter of seconds. And as far as communication goes, long gone are the days of “snail mail,” or phone chains replaced by lightening quick email and text messaging. These advances have helped us as a society, and they have helped coaches and players in many ways, too.
Technology has made major changes in virtually every part of our lives. In the world of sports, technology has affected just about every aspect of viewing, playing, coaching, refereeing, and working within sports.For coaches, their jobs have been greatly impacted from virtually every angle as a result. Fortunately, the impact has been positive, creating a more comprehensive view for training a better understanding of safety, complete communication, broad video coverage, and inclusive data analytics. Social media often takes a bad rap when anyone abuses Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. Still, most people use these tools responsibly, and also benefit by using many of the other advances in technology to build better relationships, communicate more effectively, and learn new information from just a few quick keystrokes. If I relate it directly to my start in coaching back in the early 90s, the whole notion of team news or notifications relied on phone calls via landlines, while now apps such as teamsnap allow for real time connectivity between coach and athletes (or between athletes themselves) to get out all kinds of information. I also had to rely on a stack of manuals or VHS tapes to find information about how best to plan out training sessions on specific themes....and forget about any type of easy video analysis. These are just small examples on how the advances in technology affected me personally but the truth of the matter is that technology like with pretty much all facets of society has impact how coaches run training sessions, coach games and interact with athletes. Coaches can now quickly communicate with their players through email, text messaging, and other electronic ways. Long gone are the chaotic days of trying to inform all your players that practice has been cancelled, or game times have changed, as one quick electronic message can do the trick. Coaches are better able to communicate with everyone in their team at a moment’s notice which can aid in a variety of different ways from training to practices to meetings to games. With better communication comes more accurate expectations, faster results, safer decision making, and winning outcomes. With added technology comes added communication. This includes social media communication with teams or players with their friends and family. Coaches and athletes can really benefit from all the fantastic sport skills information that is widely available on the internet – including You Tube clips. While it may not be feasible for a kid to attend a sports camp across the country, there’s a good chance that coach already has some great (free) information on the internet. Additional technology advances have helped coaches with teaching tools such as advanced telestrators with the sue of tools like Ipads for example and better computer graphics for illustrating that perfect play! Every practice, training, and game now has the ability to be recorded. Recordings can be used for something as simple as the live streaming of games or webcasts to ensuring safety, while some are for coaches and players to dissect their performance and their opponent’s performances. Coaches can watch each player’s form, decision making, mistakes, and big wins to see what needs work and what works well. Technology has offered a mirrored look back that makes coaches able to show players a reference for what they need from them that has revolutionized training. Coaching players is more than just teaching technique and making strategic decisions – it’s making all of the best decisions for the team as a whole and video technology has made a real change in how coaches are able to accomplish that. Many sports and leagues have video sharing rules which allow all the teams within a given league to have almost instantaneous to even team's game, allowing for a significant level of pre-scouting as teams prepare for a game. In my last few years coaching at the university level, the video sharing platform came with a significant level of game breakdown, so not only could we watch our upcoming opponents' games but also watch clips broken down into different modes, attacking, defending, set pieces. goals, etc. Technology in sports has made data collection and statistics into an extremely important and inclusive aspect that is important to fans, players, and coaches alike and this can be either via advances statistic softwares, which often can be shared quite easily through different platforms to wearable technology allowed for tracking of bio-med data in real time during practices and games. Sports statistics may seem overwhelming and dense to many, but with technology it’s extremely cohesive. With data analytics coaches know all about each of their players as well as their opponents. Coaches know how each player will most likely play, their average weaknesses with each team, and how they are most likely to perform in certain weather. This enables conversations about sustaining performance, how to get better, and why there may be data similarities in certain situations. In terms of sports science data, items such as smart helmets for NFL and NHL players are examples of wearable technology that is utilized on the field – or the ice. These helmets are vital to safety due to the problems with concussions and brain injury plaguing these sports. Not only does the helmet itself provide protection, but they also have sensors and magnets to detect and disperse force. There are also a multitudes of monitors that can be worn in competition providing coaching staffs with data such as heart rates, average speeds, accelerations, distances covered during games and so much more. Athletes and coaches are able to see how hard the athlete is working, where they are in terms of their physical goals, and which workouts are most beneficial for them. By tracking and measuring performance, coaches have better insight into their players. Football players, soccer players, swimmers, and any other type of athlete benefits from this type of technology to measure their athletic progress. Like a machine, athletes are now able to look at a dashboard that shows how their engine is running, and coaches are like their mechanics. Technology is taking a lot of guesswork out of training for both coaches and athletes. All the advances in technology and social media not only assist coaches with managing their teams and the actual coaching of the sport, but can also be a very useful team for the promotion and awareness of teams and sport. Message boards, team websites and page and chat forums are a great place to quickly learn about new leagues forming, tournaments, camps, and clinics. Coaches and players can quickly access various websites to learn about all the important places to be in order to continue to improve their athletic skills. Leagues can share real time information about scores and highlights that serve to increase visibility of their competitions. Athletes looking to get recruited for travel teams or university now have a much easier time getting seen. Kids today do not have to wait to be noticed by college coaches are there are countless ways to “get your name out there” through You Tube and other recruiting websites. Of course, you still have to be a talented player in order to earn a college athletic scholarship, but these new tools make it a lot easier for college coaches to quickly see how much potential a player has to take his or her game to the next level. As with anything in life, technology can be used for good things, but can also be dangerous if used irresponsibly. For example, when kids (or coaches) post lewd or questionable information to their Facebook or Twitter account, it can lead to catastrophic consequences. On the other hand, when technology is used appropriately it can lead to faster information acquisition, better skill building, and new relationships that might not have ever happened without electronic communication. Do your part as a coach by using technology responsibly, and help teach your players the many ways in which they use these new advances to improve their game and have more fun playing as a result! Coaching is stressful no matter which level you’re coaching, which sport you’re coaching, or how long you’ve been coaching. In order to combat the difficulties of coaching, technology is there to make the job easier, safer, and broader. Coaches can train players better, keep players safer, communicate more effectively, trust video technology, and utilize data analytics to understand their team fully. Technology has affected coaching in many different small ways and all of those small changes have come together to create a completely different coaching culture benefiting coaches and their players. All that being said thought, in the end, coaching comes done to the coaching and how he or she is able to interact with the athletes and coach during training sessions and games. All the technology in the world will never compensate for coaches who aren't passionate about their roles and don't know how to teach their sport. Regardless of all the advancements, it still comes down to the human being who is doing the coaching. Now, if technology could do something to help with the aching feet, stiff knees and sore back that can come with hours of being out on the field... that I would look forward to .....
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|