9781422286784

During training camp, when a player was told, “Coach wants to see you. And bring your play- book,” he knew that he was being cut. The team wanted its book back. Today, a coach can erase the playbook from a player’s iPad with the click of a button. Dozens of teams now provide tablets to their players that can be updated instantly over a network. Instead of photocopying dozens of sheets of paper, teams now distribute new plays or strategies to every player at once. In summer 2012, for example, the Wash- ington Redskins, passed out 125 iPads to their players, coaches, and staff members. The system has proved to be a winner with all concerned. “The players and coaches love the iPads. They can roam around, go from one meeting to another, and study the play- book and watch game video,” Washington’s director of information technology, Asheesh Kinra, told BizTech.com. It’s not just football, either. More than half of the teams in the National Hockey League use iPads regularly, even during games, ac- cording to SI.com. Coaches use them during timeouts and between periods to diagram plays or review action with players. One app is called iBench, which can help organize team videos. Other apps or programs let coaches draw on the screen to diagram new plays or formations .

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

formation in sports, the way a team lines up on the field telestrate “draw” on a computer screen to diagram something

stem in sports: technology

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