How Technology Has Impacted Coaching? Let’s See

Technology has made major changes in virtually every part of our lives. Technology has a significant impact on virtually every aspect of sports, including playing, coaching, officiating, and working in the industry.

The result has had a significant negative impact on coaches’ jobs from almost every angle.

Fortunately, the impact has been positive, leading to a more thorough understanding of safety training, complete communication, extensive video coverage, and inclusive data analytics.

How Technology Has Impacted Coaching?

Here are the answers about How Technology Has Impacted Coaching:

Training

Athletes now receive much more thorough training thanks to wearable technology.

Athletes and coaches can monitor an athlete’s level of effort, progress toward their physical objectives, and the best workouts for them. Coaches are able to learn more about their players by tracking and evaluating performance. Athletes of all sports, including football and soccer players, swimmers, and others, can measure their athletic development with the help of this technology.

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. For coaches and athletes alike, technology has greatly reduced the amount of guesswork in training.

Safety

Safety has always been a concern among athletes utilizing their bodies in such extreme ways and technology is making safety easier to keep an eye on.

Another example of wearable technology used on the field or ice is smart helmets worn by NFL and NHL players. Because concussions and brain injuries are a problem in these sports, these helmets are essential for safety. In addition to offering protection by themselves, helmets also have sensors and magnets that can sense and distribute force.

With all the information gained by wearable technology, coaches are able to make more informed decisions for each player’s safety.

Communication

Communication frequently develops quickly in tandem with technological advancements. This is also true for sports, where advanced communications are made possible by social media, sensor helmets, and earpiece technology. Through social media, teams and athletes can interact with their fans, wearable technology has improved the level of safety communication between athletes and medical professionals, and earpiece technology enables coaches to speak with their players directly.

In order to keep track of practice, games, meetings, and training sessions, coaches now communicate with every member of their team in an easy and direct manner. Accurate expectations, risk-free choices, successful outcomes, and quicker outcomes have all been produced by the more effective communication techniques.

Video Technology

Now, it is possible to record every practice session, training session, and official game. There is no doubt that fans can watch game reruns on television. Some are nevertheless for safety. Then, coaches and players create their own recordings so they can assess their team’s performance, research rival teams, and plan their strategy against the opposition.

Coaches can watch their player’s current form, mistakes, crucial decision making, and evolution to decide on what improvements need to be made.

Technology is now the most significant reference for a coach, it has single-handedly revolutionized training, and the way coaches prepare. Making the more comprehensive choice that benefits the team as a whole is what coaching a team is all about, and video technology has significantly changed this. Coaching a team is more than just making strategic decisions and teaching technique.

Data Analytics

As data collection and statistics have advanced, technology in sports has advanced significantly. Data is crucial and provides inclusive aspects of a team successive or demise for coaches, players, and fans alike.

The majority can typically be overwhelmed by sports statistics and data, but with technology, it has become increasingly coherent. Coaches can better understand the specifics of each player and the opposition by using data analytics. Coaches can predict a player’s performance, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and even predict how they will fare under various weather conditions. This raises questions about maintaining performance, how to get better, and the reasons why there might be data similarities in particular circumstances.

Regardless of the level or sport you are coaching, managing a team is a very stressful job. With the help of technology, coaching has become safer, easier, and more inclusive. When coaches use technology, deliver better training, and use data to better understand their team, keeping players safe is much more effective.

Ways to Help Tech Coaches Maximize Their Role

• Push in for model lessons

Teaching time is revered. I changed to providing model lesson days in buildings rather than showing up to share a few tidbits of knowledge before school or during prep. In order to find out what will be actively taught that week, I take the time to look at the pacing guide or curriculum map or speak with a teacher in that grade level. I then design a lesson with technology integrated within. By doing this, I am teaching the teacher how to teach the lesson to the students while also demonstrating how to use the various pieces of technology. WIN WIN!

Increase the number of classroom visits you make. We have an elementary school in my district with eight sections for each grade, from K to 5. I had trouble feeling like I was having a big enough impact, so I modified how I conduct my model lessons. I requested to be in the large group instruction room and take four sections of each grade level instead of going to the classrooms. This may sound crazy, but it was amazing! Teachers could observe my extensive use of technology in classroom management as well as how I integrate it into my lessons in a pedagogically sound way.

• Create a resource hub

It’s crucial to provide your district’s teachers with a single point of contact for information, especially if you work in multiple buildings. I created www.fttechtips.com to house my model lessons, trainings, and student tech team updates. As a result, I have a resource to point teachers in the direction of if they claim they missed my newsletter or email. Also, for those who want their PD anytime, anywhere this provides 24-hour access.

• Be mindful of your marketing

When I first started this role, I sent out “Tech Tip Tuesdays”, comprised of weekly tidbits about tech to help teachers. Well, it back-fired… Teachers started telling me, hey I get your tips so often I don’t read them at all… Then, I began to go down to once a month, which was much better, but I was still looking for strategies to get them to put ideas into action.

Now I focus on sending out a newsletter once a quarter with an emphasis on teachers at each school that I can demonstrate integration that is successful. There was a quadrupling in the number of people reading and clicking links. Here’s what I noticed… they want to see what fellow teachers are doing in the district. I deliberately choose to highlight teachers at different stages of their careers so that readers can be confident that veteran and new teachers are balancing district initiatives and technology integration.

• Become a Jack of all trades

In this position, you collaborate with numerous teams and leaders, many of whom count on your knowledge of both curriculum and technology. I work under the supervision of our K–12 curriculum directors, but I also maintain regular communication with our head of IT, the SPED and ELL departments, principals, and instructional coaches. In order to stay current on district initiatives, I attend meetings pertaining to the curriculum, always keeping technology integration top of mind. The work is never done because of this. Teachers will always need assistance with any initiative because technology is only changing quickly, not disappearing.

Summary: How Technology Has Impacted Coaching

No matter what you use, it can be challenging to stay current with all the new technology that seems to be released every day. Technology keeps causing significant changes in virtually every aspect of our daily lives, from new phones, electronics, and apps.

In the world of sports, technology has impacted almost every aspect of playing, watching and coaching. Have these technological developments made coaching jobs simpler or more difficult? You might get a different response depending on who you ask. Though in many ways technology has increased the demands placed on coaches in terms of team management and communication, it has also produced new approaches for maximizing athletes’ training and performance.