It’s no secret that I love my job as a teacher and football coach. I am blessed each day to work in the classroom, on the field, and in the weight room with some amazing kids. Watching them grow and develop is the single biggest honor I have had in my life. As a teacher, one of my passions is finding ways to incorporate technology into my classroom to expand my students’ learning environment. I apply the same philosophy to my football coaching career. Previously, I wrote about how our program used Google Apps for Education to automate our off-season strength program (Bigger, Faster, Stronger, Googlier.) Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss how football coaches use technology in their programs with some incredibly successful coaches at a clinic. These discussions pushed me to create this point, which is the first in a series about ways to use technology in coaching.
SkyCoach
Simply put, SkyCoach is the single, most important innovation for high school football in the last decade. SkyCoach is an affordable, user-friendly, sideline instant replay system. While other systems have hit the market recently, we chose SkyCoach because of it’s ease of use and the fact that we had most of the equipment needed to run the system already in our program. Our SkyCoach system uses 2 iPhones; one for filming from the press box and another paired with a 32 in flat screen television on the sideline. While there are other SkyCoach options involving iPads used in a similar manner to how the NFL uses the Microsoft Surface tablets, we chose the iPhone/TV option so that we did not have to purchase 2 iPads. Multiple coaches on our staff already have iPhones. Purchasing one 32 in TV was far more cost effective than purchasing multiple iPads. There are also options if you don’t have internet access or want to use your existing video cameras.
Regardless of which option works best for you, SkyCoach is an extremely user-friendly and efficient system to use. Much like using an actual video camera, the SkyCoach app uses a one button record function. Once recorded, video clips are uploaded to cloud-based storage. On the sideline, our coaches use the SkyCoach app on an iPhone paired with a television to view these clips with players. The iPhone acts as a remote for cycling through the recorded plays as well as slowing down and speeding them up. Our players now instantly head for the sideline when coming off the field.
SkyCoach allows us to put our players in the very best possible position to succeed by giving them instant visual feedback to correct mistakes or adjust our responsibilities. Prior to SkyCoach, during each game, our staff was having countless “teachable moment conversations” with players as they came off the field.
Regardless of which option works best for you, SkyCoach is an extremely user-friendly and efficient system to use. Much like using an actual video camera, the SkyCoach app uses a one button record function. Once recorded, video clips are uploaded to cloud-based storage. On the sideline, our coaches use the SkyCoach app on an iPhone paired with a television to view these clips with players. The iPhone acts as a remote for cycling through the recorded plays as well as slowing down and speeding them up. Our players now instantly head for the sideline when coming off the field.
SkyCoach allows us to put our players in the very best possible position to succeed by giving them instant visual feedback to correct mistakes or adjust our responsibilities. Prior to SkyCoach, during each game, our staff was having countless “teachable moment conversations” with players as they came off the field.
“What did you see?”;
“What did the read key do?” or
“When you see X, you need to get your eyes to Y."
“What did the read key do?” or
“When you see X, you need to get your eyes to Y."
This teaching process was often complicated by the fact that the play being discussed happened 5 or 6 plays before the coach and player had the opportunity to talk. SkyCoach allows our coaches to provide video feedback to our players during these conversations. Additionally, the sideline replay allows our players to see how the whole picture fits together. By showing a player how his actions affected the responsibilities of the other 10 players around him, our players develop accountability for their actions.
A great football coach is a great teacher. Great teachers use whatever tools are available to help their students grow and develop. SkyCoach is the most valuable tool we have found to help our players succeed during the game.
A great football coach is a great teacher. Great teachers use whatever tools are available to help their students grow and develop. SkyCoach is the most valuable tool we have found to help our players succeed during the game.
Google Classroom
Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a small coaching clinic hosted by Lee Summit Head Football Coach Eric Thomas. In addition to being an incredibly talented football coach, Coach Thomas is an extremely organized leader. He shared an idea so simple that I'm ashamed to admit that i hadn't thought of it: create a Google Classroom class for our football team. As a Google Apps for Education School, transitioning to using Google Classroom would be very easy for our football program.
For those not familiar, Google Classroom is a web-based application that allows teachers to integrate Google Apps, Gmail, and Calendar into virtual classrooms. Google Classroom allows the teacher to group students into classes, distribute materials, interact/communicate online, and stay organized. Personally, I have just started using Google Classroom in my Biology 1 Honors class and love it. While I have only take a small step into what Google Classroom offers, I can already see the implications for our football program.
At the most basic level, Google Classroom would allow our coaches to more easily organize and share the various documents that pass through our football program. From scouting reports to physical forms to camp forms, Google Classroom would allow our staff to effectively distribute every piece of paper that our players need. It would also allow us to share links to videos for our players to review.
I know this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of using Google Classroom. I could easily see Google Classroom being used to manage points and participation for the accountability teams the many teams employ during the off-season. These accountability teams usually involve upperclassmen drafting teams to compete in a variety of off-season conditioning tests, activities, and events.
A HUGE thank you goes out to Coach Eric Thomas for sharing how his program uses Google Apps. I can’t wait to dive into more ways to use technology to become better coaches. What are some of the interesting ways that you use technology?
Next up: There’s a Coaching App for That! where I will highlight 3 apps that I use on a daily basis.
-Adam
For those not familiar, Google Classroom is a web-based application that allows teachers to integrate Google Apps, Gmail, and Calendar into virtual classrooms. Google Classroom allows the teacher to group students into classes, distribute materials, interact/communicate online, and stay organized. Personally, I have just started using Google Classroom in my Biology 1 Honors class and love it. While I have only take a small step into what Google Classroom offers, I can already see the implications for our football program.
At the most basic level, Google Classroom would allow our coaches to more easily organize and share the various documents that pass through our football program. From scouting reports to physical forms to camp forms, Google Classroom would allow our staff to effectively distribute every piece of paper that our players need. It would also allow us to share links to videos for our players to review.
I know this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of using Google Classroom. I could easily see Google Classroom being used to manage points and participation for the accountability teams the many teams employ during the off-season. These accountability teams usually involve upperclassmen drafting teams to compete in a variety of off-season conditioning tests, activities, and events.
A HUGE thank you goes out to Coach Eric Thomas for sharing how his program uses Google Apps. I can’t wait to dive into more ways to use technology to become better coaches. What are some of the interesting ways that you use technology?
Next up: There’s a Coaching App for That! where I will highlight 3 apps that I use on a daily basis.
-Adam