With the continued emphasis on technology in the athletic departments of many colleges and universities as well as professional sports teams, high speed, integrated HD Wi-Fi and network solutions drive more than fan engagement. The solutions are as important at the collegiate and professional level for the athletic departments as the athletes themselves.
Engineering Support for Today’s Coaches and Athletes
Recruitment
For today’s coaches – whether at the collegiate or professional sports level – Wi-Fi and technology assisted performance evaluation is particularly powerful in the highly competitive world of recruitment. Technology upgrades such as video walls with player pictures and video highlights can provide a competitive edge in helping to land a much sought-after recruit. Recruits evaluate the technologies available at the collegiate and professional level from performance evaluation and training to newer, modern scoreboards and sound systems.
Technology in Action – Athletic Performance
Coaches utilize technology to film practice footage that showcases athletic performance. Utilizing wearable video cameras and drones enable new vantage points for player action. In tandem, with access to greater Wi-Fi connectivity, coaches and athletes can review this unique video footage from practices on mobile devices and tablets to analyze athletes’ performance and make meaningful improvements. This allows coaches to see even marginal gains in the performance of an athlete.
For example, for collegiate swimming programs, the unique Wi-Fi application to underwater and above water cameras enable coaches to evaluate the form and cadence of a swimmer’s stroke in real time, viewing live video on an iPad. Student swimmers pop up, discuss exactly what’s happening underwater and kick off to apply what they learned, barely missing a stroke. Coaches can eliminate the guess-work involved in understanding what might keep a good swimmer from being a great one.
Data Analytics for Athletic Performance
Knowing whether an athlete is improving or not comes down to data With all the technological implementations engineers can design and implement, teams and coaches can further evaluate performance through data analytics. Data analytics provides coaches and teams with the ability to assess better training programs in areas that may require further team and individualized training. For example, in basketball, it might be a player’s movement when in possession of the ball. For a team, it could entail passing or number of total collisions.
Applying unique Wi-Fi applications and other technologies help provide athletes and coaches with improvements to performance, and continue to change the game.