We sat down with coach, Simone Anderson, of the newly formed women’s side at the North Fremantle Football Club and talked about how to use technology to streamline training sessions.

Overview

From varied coaching and leadership experiences across a number of codes, I was excited to begin coaching with a side where 90% of the players were new to AFL.

Learning from problems encountered at past football clubs (both on and off the field), we hoped to execute our coaching in a fresh way that would suit the learning styles of all footy players – leading to develop everyone at a club, team, and individual level.

The club wanted to improved on a few key areas include player development, transfer of knowledge, and game day prep.

Existing Challenges

Majority of football clubs explain drills out on the field with a whiteboard in hand. More professional clubs may run through these drills at the beginning of training via basic PowerPoint presentations.

Time wastage problems can easily be attributed to an over OR under explanation of information. The same can be applied to the preparation (or lack thereof) prior to training.

The root of this problem is the transfer of knowledge.

• Poor and hurried execution of information to players.
  • Time spent re-explaining drills and fielding questions.
• Many aspects lost in translation. Layers need to be explained (ie. drill set up, application, terminology used, adaptations).
• Maintenance training for general staff.

Problems faced in the past for AFL training sessions (with both established and emerging football clubs) consistently circle back to the explanations and executions of drills.

With teams of 23 players plus reserves, you will naturally encounter individuals who respond and learn differently to different mediums. Due to contrasting learning styles and limited field time, footy clubs often experience.

Solutions

By utilising key elements of SpaceDraft, we were able to overcome the aforementioned challenges.

The use of pins and the ability to demonstrate player movement allowed us to accurately represent our football drills – and removed any ambiguity.

Being able to use the pins to identify individuals meant each player could “know their role, and play their role.”

If we can transfer our knowledge efficaciously, we can avoid information being lost in translation.

Results

By implementing SpaceDraft out in the field, we were able to target our players with visual, verbal, social, and combination learning styles.

People say being coachable is one of the best qualities to have as a footy player – however being able to coach at everyone’s level is far more valuable.

• Streamlined delivery of information:
  Information shared to all players was able to be executed in different forms simultaneously.
• Targeting different learning styles:
  Display of drills on the field with real time movement, mentions, and detailed information in the script.

Along with the use of in situ mentions for any key notes, as well as the combination of actions and providing in depth detail in the script, being able to share the drills before training creates a virtual locker room session.

Future Plan

By outlining our key goals, we are also able to plan the required execution., in a simple and repeatable fashion for archive purposes and future seasons to come.

As coaches, we hope to utilise pre-made scenes to streamline our own training and game day preparation – this in turn allows us to build on this base. By allowing the players to familiarise themselves with the drills before training means we can field any questions and identify and address them prior to using our limited field time.

With the potential to export SpaceDraft we hope to expand our transfer of knowledge to reach our players who are solitary and logical learners, as well as our extended support staff.