The idea of using video replay as a coaching tool has been around for some time and the man who is credited with introducing the concept of sports video replays was George Retzlaff, who was a Canadian TV producer who first used video playback in 1955 during the coverage of a Canadian hockey game.
Back then, video replays were not exactly instant, it took thirty minutes to process the footage, but it didn’t take long for coaches to see the potential benefits that sports video technology might have as a coaching tool.
Some of the pioneering work on video analyses of athletes’ performance was carried out in the 1960s by the US Olympic teams. It was a Dr. Gideon Ariel, who is credited with being the first person to have used video technology to digitally analyze athletic performance, when he analyzed the movements of members of the US Olympic team
The big leap forwards in video coaching came in the 1970s and the 1980s with the emergence of digital technology. That new technology enabled instant sports video replays, rewinds and fast forwards, freeze frames and video annotation. New technology also made video equipment a lot cheaper, which began to make video coaching technology accessible to small league teams as well as the big pro teams.
Today, of course, endzone camera systems and coaching software applications, such as Hudl, VideoChamp Sports, and Krossover, are available at prices that most teams can afford and advances in software and hardware have meant that sports videos can now be easily shared as well.
As sports video systems like Hudl get more and more sophisticated and endzone video camera systems become more accessible, there is little doubt that any team that does not take advantage of the technology is going to be at a distinct disadvantage on the field of play.
In the coming years, endzone camera systems are going to become the norm at practices and at games, and video analysis of team and individual athlete’s performance is going to get more detailed and in-depth.
Video coaching can only grow from here, both in terms of sophistication and in terms of its accessibility. There will also be new, innovative manufacturers of endzone camera systems and coaching video systems that will be entering the market and giving established suppliers, like Hi pod and Hudl, a run for their money.
Technology like endzone video systems are providing coaches of teams in all kinds of sports with a tool for analyzing the performance of teams that coaches of years gone by could have only dreamed of. Before the age of video, breaking down what went right and what went wrong in game relied on personal memory and perception. With video playback, though, you can see exactly what happened, where players were at the time, and you can use video to highlight both good and bad play, and use it to improve strategy.
In the future, people won’t be asking are endzone cameras the way of the future for sports, they will be asking; how did coaches manage without them. Now is definitely not the time for any team to get left behind in the endzone video revolution that is sweeping across all sports.