His eyes scan the field. A football player runs across the turf, shedding his defender. Coach presses pause and everything freezes.
In order to gain an edge on the competition, Brookline sports teams are increasingly integrating technology into their game plans. Like playing on the field, this requires diligent study and discipline from everyone involved to reap its rewards.
According to sophomore Max Bochman, the football team films each game, which the coaches then upload onto a video sharing website called Hudl. Hudl allows the players to watch the games on their own time and focus on aspects specific to their positions.
The team exchanges a game tape with their opposing team every week in order for both teams to make the proper preparations and adjustments for their next game, Bochman said. During a team film session where they analyzed the Framingham High School game tape, the players noticed a pattern.
“We realized that on a certain formation, they ran the same play every time, so we knew what was coming,” Bochman said.
According to Bochman, the head coach also uses a headset to communicate with an assistant sitting in a coaches’ box on top of the stands. The assistant then relays information instantly down to the coach, because only from a perched position can he see the field in its entirety, allowing him to recognize the formations, coverage patterns, and tendencies of athletes.
Much like the football team, the basketball team relies on game film to get an edge up on the competition. According to senior Miles Morris, the team uses a website called Krossover, which has been key to the team being able to reach the Division I South quarterfinals.
“Krossover is a site we just started using this year where our coach uploads video we take from the game and break it down into every shot. That way you can watch the game piece by piece,” Morris said.
Morris was also appreciative of the work his coaches did to make his own self-analysis more effective.
“They also give shot charts with each possession, which break down the game and allow you to look at the pieces you want to look at without having to look at the complete raw film,” Morris said.
Being able to analyze and synthesize every second of every game has tremendous benefits, according to Morris. He added that team sports such as basketball require seamless execution that can only be supplemented through observation. With every small detail captured, each player can examine their personal tendencies and any habits the team may have.
According to senior indoor track captain Tomás Aramburu, evaluating individual data is not just important in team sports, but also in individual-based sports such as cross country.
Aramburu said the cross country and indoor track teams use a website called Flotrack that organizes and stores every detail from their runs.
“Flotrack is a website that your coach adds you to and it tracks how much you’ve been running each day, how fast you ran, what time you ran, how you felt, the types of shoes you wore that day, if you did some lifting– its basically just a way to keep track of everything you’ve done,” Aramburu said.
Bochman, Morris and Aramburu articulated that technology benefits anyone willing to put time and effort into it. According to Aramburu, any student athlete willing to put in a few minutes every day to enter data or study game tape can benefit.
“If you’re just there to do it for your coach, then its not going to help you, and you won’t be able to look back and understand how your training was at the time,” Aramburu said. “But if you’re committed and care about having an organized system, it is helpful.”
Jacob Steinfeld can be contacted at [email protected].
