I’ve previously done an Olympics app roundup where I talked about some of the apps you can use to track the Olympic Games, and I’ve also talked about Banjo, an app that will give you that up close and personal Olympic feel. What I want to talk about next is an app that coaches are using to help their Olympians perform better. There are a few different apps, but the one I want to specifically mention is called Coach’s Eye. This app is made to record an athletes performance, and then play it back in slow motion to analyze and find any errors.
Coach’s Eye is an app that is developed by a company called TechSmith. TechSmith is based out of Michigan, and my brother-in-law’s brother works for them, which is how I first heard about their apps. They specialize in screen capture and manipulation apps, and have a total of seven different apps they are currently supporting. I have talked about the usage of tablets with some major sports teams such as the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Broncos, but it is pretty neat to see a lot of the individual athletes and coaches embrace mobile technology to help push their sport forward. I was also a little surprised to hear to what extent these mobile devices and apps are being used at the Olympics.
In an article from Reuters, Drew Johansen, the USA Olympic diving coach, said “Every single country uses an iPad on deck and captures the dive as soon as they do it.” With the use of a mobile device, and the supporting apps, I can see how helpful the instant replay and analysis could be. To be able to freeze frame on a section of each dive where maybe the diver’s foot was wrong, and then give the instruction to correct it would be invaluable. A coach can be very specific on what to fix instead of just saying something like “keep your feet together.” Now they can be very specific on exactly what needs to be corrected. With the great variety of different apps available from mobile video libraries capable of holding all of a diver’s dives, to a GPS app that can map a cyclist’s route including speed and other factors, mobile apps are the next great tool in improving Olympic records.
[Reuters]
Not surprised they’re being used like this, although I’m surprised coaches and teams with bigger budgets aren’t using better recording gear and then transferring the video to the iPad… In sports where a millisecond can make all the difference or where athletes are moving at 30 mph, a tablet’s camera is never gonna record the whole range of motion. I guess that would take away from the immediacy of the whole thing tho, but surely it can be automated up to a point… Even streamed from a capture location to the iPad. There was a very interesting report on the last issue of Sports Illustrated about how they’re using activity monitors (under shirts with sown in sensors and a transmit/GPS pod on the back) on every player on some MLS teams. The data is actually fed live to the coaches’ IPad… It requires some IT staff on site to have it all working properly (basically two guys on the sidelines with antennas and laptops) but the breath of info provided is amazing. It gives love heart rates, max speed achieved per player, does on the fly comparisons so the coach knows who’s putting in the most effort or who’s tired, and even does some sort of history comparison so you can see what a player’s capable of vs his current performance… Basically an anti slacker system lol. I think Adidas is behind the whole system, very interesting stuff… Tho probably more valuable for a sport like soccer than say, football or basketball, if someone’s slacking there you’ll notice the missed defensive assignment immediately (or maybe I’m just more ignorant about soccer, a distinct possibility).