This season we have ramped up our use of technology to give our teams and coaching staff the best possible support when training and during game day. We caught up with our Knock On Effect NSW Cup Analyst, Pat Gough, to find out what tech is being used and how it will impact our teams. To support Pat and expand our tech footprint across the Club in 2022, we have added two new Analysts, Oscar Green and Brooke Mugridge, to assist in supporting our Junior Reps and Women’s programs.
All our training sessions, from Junior Reps up to NSW Cup, are now filmed using a drone for opposed sessions and normal video cameras for smaller drills. This footage is uploaded to our own Hudl pages, which is the video sharing platform NSWRL use for all competitions. This allows all our coaches to access the footage, cut it up and forward the clips on to their team for review and discussions. Club Coach & NSW Cup Head Coach, Jason Taylor, stated “The use of this tech means we can really raise the level of individual player and group feedback. The players can also watch the vision themselves, which can only help when it comes to improving performance.”. Our Strength & Conditioning staff are also using TeamBuildr this season which is an app that enhances gym programming and training. Via the app, players are sent the programs to their phones where they can also access technique improvement demonstrations. These programs can then be implemented as a Club or remotely when needed.
On NSW Cup gameday, we film a second angle from the coaches box which produces a wider angle compared to the normal video footage. “We have found this to be far more useful from a coaching perspective as we can better view player and ball movement which can often be missed in close camera footage” Pat commented. This footage goes straight into a laptop on a delay in the coaches box, with the ability to replay any part of the game and send messages down from the box to the on-field trainers to provide instant feedback to the players. The benefit of this is that the game can be tweaked in real time which can have a big impact on the final result.
