This article was written by Upper Hand CEO Kevin MacCauley and published via New World of Coaching on October 10, 2018.
High school athletics is growing at an exponential rate, reaching nearly eight million participants and increasing in total growth for 29 consecutive years. And with the rise in student loan debt making collegiate scholarships extremely valuable, the pressure on coaches and players to produce results has never been greater.
This makes it imperative for coaches to leverage new, cutting-edge sports technology to further outshine the competition and build player development. Coaches who know how to use today’s most functional tools and resources can improve performance, prevent injury, and maintain optimal health for their athletes. There are three main areas where sports technology can give you a leg up.
New Cutting Edge Sports Technology
Communication Solutions
Sports Technology has become an important part of how many coaches stay in touch with their athletes and parents. The rise of mobile applications and social media has changed communication dramatically, creating the constant need and ability to share information among various channels to successfully manage one’s team. Fortunately, there are new comprehensive solutions readily available that can help coaches save time, so they can focus more on developing and training athletes.
With these new tools, coaches are better able to communicate with team members at a moment’s notice. This can aid in a variety of ways, from training and practices to meetings and games. In addition, with better communication comes more accurate expectations, faster results, and safer decision-making.
Video Technology
Coaching involves more than just teaching fundamentals-it’s about making the best decisions for the team. Video technology is one approach that is truly revolutionizing the concept of coaching. Upper Hand’s advanced video platform, Apex, is a revolutionary video technology solution that makes capturing, organizing, and sharing video fast and easy.
In the past, perfecting technique and fundamentals relied on the mentality of each player and was determined by the coach analyzing all aspects of the sport in real time. Now, thanks to video technology, every practice, training session, and game has the ability to provide new insights on player performance. In fact, there have been a few key sports that have benefitted most from this technology, tennis and football being most popular. You can visit this site to learn more about the technology used in different sports.
As a result, coaches can view players’ form, decision-making, and mistakes to determine areas of improvement, while calculating strategies to enhance performance. This technology also offers a mirrored view that allows coaches to show players a reference to affirm team strategies and decisions.
In addition, since three-and-a-half million young athletes suffer sport injuries each year as a result of poor technique, video technology can help coaches easily capture, edit, organize, and review videos to better study technique and pinpoint areas to help avoid future injuries.
Data Analytics
Various platforms available today have the ability to aggregate and contextualize data to craft a meaningful story about player performance. More notably, data is instantaneous, actionable, and provides comprehensive perspectives on new strategies to enforce player development. Coaches, athletic trainers, and strength coaches can then use this data to garner meaningful performance insights about players in games or practices. Although these innovations can be expensive for coaches to leverage, the marketplace has evolved and now provides many affordable solutions that meet the needs of coaches nationwide.
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