Pulse Jam

TIPs - ECU Pirates

For our Technology in Practice (TIPs) series this week, we thought the rapidly rising sports program at East Carolina University would be a great resource to see how do college sports programs really use technology. 

We spoke with Assistant Director, Malcom Gray, to get the Pirate's viewpoint (after all today is Speak Like A Pirate Day) and wish their football team the best against NC State this weekend.

What's the most important technology application you currently use?

There are too many applications out there that we use to just name one, but the most important two are email and web based applications. In the media relations field, getting your message out to media outlets and public (i.e.-fans) in a fast and accurate way has become the norm. So obviously email and our website (ECUPirates.com) helps in that capacity. 

How has technology changed player training, development and recruiting over the last few years?

I think video has changed the most over the last 3-5 years. In recruiting, coaches can evaluate potential student-athletes from their office and home. For player training, video breakdown of practice and games helps in the evaluation and teaching of student-athletes, as well as game planning.

On the premise of "if you can measure it, you can manage it"  what areas are most important to measure?

I think for most media relations departments it is web traffic, especially when we come up with new interactive platforms. This is the so called “life line” that fans have with their favorite teams, whether its college of professional. Page impressions allow us to gauge what is being viewed the most and we can then relay that information to our marketing departments to help in advertising and promotions.

What would you like to see improved within the next 12 months?

Without a doubt enhancements in our audio and video streaming. Just being able to put a better product out there for our fans to use that can’t make games, would help drive up traffic.

If there is one piece of technology you could get rid of, what would it be?

There is so much technology out there that helps with our jobs that I can’t see getting rid of anything. I would however like to change the page limit to media guides. Right now the NCAA has regulated it to 208 pages. It’s quite difficult for some institutions to cram 300-plus pages of information into a 208-page formatted media guide. There has been lots of talk around the athletic world of doing away with printed media guides and create them electronically, but then you run into a problem with the coaches who like to use them as a recruiting tool due to the fact that not every recruit would be able to view them electronically.

TIPs: USF Bulls

As we continue our Technology in Practice (TIPs) series, this week we spoke with the University of South Florida sports program to see how they use technology to gain a competitive edge.  We wish their football team all the best against Kansas tonight. 

Chris Freet, Assistant Athletic Director at USF, was kind enough to answer a few of our questions as we learn how sports programs, coaches and recruiters really use sports technology.  We look forward to hearing from more of you!

What's the most important technology application you currently use?

Anything and everything related to the web.  Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop and our web content manager Titan through our web provider JumpTV.

How has technology changed player training, development and recruiting over the last few years?

Video has changed it more than anything.  The ease of watching video on the web has been beneficial in recruiting and helping fans who cannot attend events. The breakdown of video has done tremendous things for all of our sports. Every team tapes practice and games, creates cutups and uses it for analysis and daily teaching instruction with their teams.

On the premise of "if you can measure it, you can manage it"  what areas are most important to measure?

Web traffic without a doubt.  It ties into marketing and our ability to sell our multimedia rights.  Whether it simply be page impressions or video views, or something as specific as average time per page view and capturing email addresses.  All of it allows us to market to browsers that have sought out our product, regardless if they are a casual fan, avid fan or someone that wants to check out the competition.

What would you like to see improved within the next 12 months?

A few things….The ease of streaming video.  Our platform is very finicky.  A better understanding of how you could control a social networking platform within the contexts of a college athletics web site.  There are lots of parameters that have an influence…but most have to do with negative voices flooding the system and altering the messages we are trying to put out.

If there is one piece of technology you could get rid of, what would it be?  

It is not technology anymore, but printed media guides.  If we had the infrastructure and a guarantee that the student-athletes we are recruiting have web access, we would move it all to an online format.  Right now we don’t have the expertise in house, plus the fear that one key recruit wouldn’t see a media guide online is enough to convince coaches that we need to continue printing media guides.

College Football & TIPs

Continuing our series on how and what technology is being used by our readers, we spoke with Katrina McCormack, Assistant Athletic Director of Florida Atlantic University.

Before we hear from her, did you know that live sports is making the leap from TV screens to the mobile phone?

That's right, Mobile ESPN will offer a lineup of live college football games broadcast to mobile phones. This season fans can watch up to 25 complete games per month, about 100 for the season, in real-time on their mobile phones.

The games will broadcast to ESPN mobile phones with help from third-party provider The Feedroom, which helps to deliver video content on a layer that's part of Sprint's 3G network.

Now, let's hear from the Owls at Florida Atlantic University

What's the most important technology your sports program uses?
Internet based applications

How has technology changed player training / development / recruiting over the last few years?
Text messaging and the quality of video is better than ever

What would you like to see improved within the next 12 months?
More money put into video and technology

TIPs - Technology In Practice

Today, we are launching a new feature series on how various sports folks use technology.  It's Technology In Practice or TIPs - get it?  So, it's our attempt at pun, but with all seriousness, this will be an interesting and insightful weekly series on the multiple applications of technology within various sports.  As NCAA football kicks off (get it - we're working at this pun thing), we've spoken to a couple of leading football programs, USC and Arizona, on how they use technology within their programs.  The PAC 10 kicks off this series and I look forward to hearing from the other programs.

ARIZONA - Tom Duddleston, Director of Media Relations

Pulse Jam:  What's the most important application you currently use?

At the moment the statistics programs -- in-game entry with post-game reports and season cumulative features -- are important for the weekly, yearly and historical tracking of competition.

We're using a hand-held video camera -- palm size -- to create post-event interview features that are readily posted on web sites. We have 'real' video equipment and personnel using same, but these pocket-size cams give us a swift option for in-your-face reports. Those are 'sports information' related issues. Probably more critical are recruiting databases, academic tracking systems and relatively simple technology to record the student-athlete population's progress toward goals.

Pulse Jam:  How has technology changed player training / development / recruiting over the last few years?

Technology's impact on player training/development isn't as critical as personally tailored efforts in these projects. You can't get stronger, faster or better because of technology. We have some sport-motion based technology that can put a student-athlete in virtual reality situations for subsequent review, but it's a bit cumbersome. You can simply videotape a player's technique, golf swing, baseball or softball swing, gymnastics' skills, swimming stroke, etc., and get just as important data to review. As for recruiting, there's no question today's high school student is more keenly aware of instant video/text/etc. and impressionable toward cutting edge representations of your program.

Pulse Jam:  On the premise of "if you can measure it, you can manage it"  what areas are most important to measure?

Progress toward graduation. If anyone thinks college athletics has a more intrinsically important concept to endorse, they're stupid. Proving to recruits and current student-athletes the efficacy and depth of your services toward their education is a huge mover in success.

That being said, the performance-enhancement and medical services people use simple measurements to track individual and team progress in player development. A team full of healthy, strong and quick individuals is a better team.

Pulse Jam:  What would you like to see improved within the next 12 months?
I'd like to see a piece of technology actually reduce the workload. Every new system brings more expectations and more demands, and the requirement for more training and more operators. This isn't a complaint, but techies probably get the drift.


USC - Chris Carlisle, Strength and Conditioning Coach

Pulse Jam:  What's the most important application you currently use?
Two things that we do use are the XLR8 timing system from SPARQ with our movement training.  In the weight room we use Tendo units to measure power outputs with our athletes.

Pulse Jam:  What's the most important application you currently use?
I don't think technology has had anything to do with player training, development or recruiting.  Our weight room is small and very "old school".  Platforms, racks, free weights and hammer machines.  The key to  player development and recruiting is winning.  When you get great athletes and manage their development you have the chance to win more often.

Pulse Jam:  On the premise of "if you can measure it, you can manage it"  what areas are most important to measure?
The requisite work that is done during the training period is the important part.  If I have an athlete that, after 8 weeks of training, can rep 475 on a bench for four or hit 308 with great technique for a set of three in the power clean I know they are strong enough to play at the highest level.  If testing benches / squats or power cleans were that important then why one rep maximums carried on at the NFL level.  After two - three years in a solid college program the athlete is closer to an NFL athlete then to a high school athlete. 

It's not about the maximum lift, it's about the work that went into gaining that number that is important.  We have developed a system that tells us how strong we need to be to play at the highest level.  We have developed these numbers in our own laboratory (field/weight room) so we know how much time we need to spend on movement (80% of our total training time) and how much time we need to spend in the weight room (20%).  In the end of the day our athletes are strong enough to compete at the highest level while being more athletic then they were when the started the program.

Pulse Jam:  What would you like to see improved within the next 12 months?
As with almost all strength coaches I need more space to train my athletes.