How Tracking Technology Is Affecting Major Sports Today
How Tracking Technology Is Affecting Major Sports Today
When it comes to most of the sports we play across the world today, the ways that we play have pretty much settled down and become constant in the last hundred years or so. With that in mind, is the evolution of sports like American Football, hockey, or even soccer over? Not at all, in fact a new era might be on its way sooner than any of us could imagine, thanks to technological changes around us.
Technology and sports.
Some of us think that sports should be free and natural of technological changes and aspects, but let's face it- our culture is one that is deeply rooted in technological progress, and that will bleed into all aspects of life, including our sports culture.
So how can technology change a sport? Let's take a look at Soccer as an example. Recently, a brand new technology was officially put in place to help combat horrible referee calls. With FIFA approval, the new technology will help determine just some of these calls. Will it prevent all bad calls? No, not at all, nor does it track all goals and make all decisions.
With the new technology, a referee is still very much needed, but the two major tracking technologies can affect ghost goals, were the ball passes the goal line but than jumps straight out again. In many cases, referees won't count this as a goal unless they can directly see it from their point of few... with the new software tracking, it would help determine whether this goals should count or not, case by case. At the moment, the two leading tracking technologies are HawkEye and GoalREF. The first of these has been in use in tennis for a long time already, actually. The HawkEye system tracks the ball using cameras on pitch's goalposts to make sure it passed the line.
As for GoalREF?
This thing uses low magnetic field around the goals to create a radio shield. If a ball passes through this shield, the field changes and a system alerts the referee.
That's just a small example of how tracking systems are being used to improve games such as Soccer and Tennis. While it's hard to call for sure, it seems that most technological adaptions in sports will probably have less to do with changing the games themselves, and instead with changing the way rulings are made. As tracking technologies continue to evolve, the need for the referee might still be there, but more as a computer-nerd like figure that monitors the systems and makes special calls in the event something manually needs to be said about the game.
Some sports purists probably hate the idea of computers and technology getting involved in their favorite sports, but if it prevents cheating, bad calls and other exploitations of the rules of various games? Sounds like a win-win in the long run. Tracking might only be found in Tennis and Soccer right now, but it's only a matter of time until similar systems make their way into all our favorite sports including American Football.
A big thanks to Elite Kicking and their Football Kicking Coach, Shane Andrus, for the resources and information provided in the creation of this article.
When it comes to most of the sports we play across the world today, the ways that we play have pretty much settled down and become constant in the last hundred years or so. With that in mind, is the evolution of sports like American Football, hockey, or even soccer over? Not at all, in fact a new era might be on its way sooner than any of us could imagine, thanks to technological changes around us.
Technology and sports.
Some of us think that sports should be free and natural of technological changes and aspects, but let's face it- our culture is one that is deeply rooted in technological progress, and that will bleed into all aspects of life, including our sports culture.
With the new technology, a referee is still very much needed, but the two major tracking technologies can affect ghost goals, were the ball passes the goal line but than jumps straight out again. In many cases, referees won't count this as a goal unless they can directly see it from their point of few... with the new software tracking, it would help determine whether this goals should count or not, case by case. At the moment, the two leading tracking technologies are HawkEye and GoalREF. The first of these has been in use in tennis for a long time already, actually. The HawkEye system tracks the ball using cameras on pitch's goalposts to make sure it passed the line.
As for GoalREF?
This thing uses low magnetic field around the goals to create a radio shield. If a ball passes through this shield, the field changes and a system alerts the referee.
That's just a small example of how tracking systems are being used to improve games such as Soccer and Tennis. While it's hard to call for sure, it seems that most technological adaptions in sports will probably have less to do with changing the games themselves, and instead with changing the way rulings are made. As tracking technologies continue to evolve, the need for the referee might still be there, but more as a computer-nerd like figure that monitors the systems and makes special calls in the event something manually needs to be said about the game.
Some sports purists probably hate the idea of computers and technology getting involved in their favorite sports, but if it prevents cheating, bad calls and other exploitations of the rules of various games? Sounds like a win-win in the long run. Tracking might only be found in Tennis and Soccer right now, but it's only a matter of time until similar systems make their way into all our favorite sports including American Football.
A big thanks to Elite Kicking and their Football Kicking Coach, Shane Andrus, for the resources and information provided in the creation of this article.
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