Apple
Video analysis in sport has come a long way from the days when coaches would laboriously code events in shorthand using a pen and paper before painstakingly rewinding and fast-forwarding VHS tapes of dubious quality in poorly lit rooms.
Elite organisations now have armies of performance analysts and sports scientists with access to vast amounts of data from sophisticated tracking systems and wearable devices, advanced software to make sense of it, and video footage of virtually every single sporting event on Earth.
What’s more, cloud technologies and advanced mobile devices mean that anywhere on the planet can be a review room, so long as it has an internet connection.
National Football League (NFL) coaches have used data and video footage to fine tune their plays for decades, a practice that has been enhanced by the ability to view near real-time images and statistical insights using the Sideline Viewing System on dedicated Microsoft Surface tablets since 2013.
It’s a significant upgrade from when the NFL distributed black and white bird’s-eye views of formations via fax machine. However, video analysis on the sideline is still forbidden by the NFL’s strict rules about the unauthorised use of technology.
The NCAA now allows teams to use iPads on the sidelines and in the stands (Image credit: Apple)
The Surface tablets cannot access the internet and are configured and managed by the NFL, which locks the devices away before and after the match. The league takes its rules so seriously that it even went as far as to fine New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas US$30,000 back in 2018 for pulling a phone out from goal post padding for celebration purposes.
So, it has been left to the college game – and Microsoft’s rival Apple – to bring on-pitch video analysis to American football.
Since the start of the 2024 season, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has permitted teams to have up to 18 active tablets for use on the sideline, within the coaching booth and inside the locker room.
Three conferences, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Big Ten Conference, have agreed deals with Apple to use iPads to review in-game video from live broadcasters and team-appointed videographers in the end zone and the sideline.
Prior to adoption, the concerns among teams were twofold. They wanted the tablets to be viewable in various weather conditions, especially bright sunlight, and sought assurances that footage could be clipped, packaged and tagged quickly enough to make a difference in any given match.
The first requirement was satisfied by the iPad Pro’s nano-texture glass display, which promises to maintain image quality and contrast in various conditions and uses ambient light scattering to reduce glare. Going with Apple also meant that most players were familiar with the operating system, which meant there was no technical barrier to adoption.
“They grew up with these things in their hands,” said Alex Mirabal, the University of Miami’s offensive line coach.
College football players can review video footage at the side of the pitch and take these learnings onto the field (Image credit: Apple)
The second challenge was solved by each conference’s software provider. In the SEC, each team has independent videographers who film the end zone and sideline, with other angles offered by the live broadcaster. A data analyst tags the play, and sports analytics firm Catapult packages up video clips fast enough so they can be used the next time the team takes to the field.
Meanwhile, the ACC and Big Ten work with DVSport, which provides a technician to log the game, with the home team providing the additional shots.
Coaches and players say the iPads will help improve playing standards by allowing both teams to correct issues during a game, while also aiding player development – something that will be of obvious benefit to those looking to be drafted to the NFL.
“Before, there were a lot of things that we couldn’t see until after the game, so it’s great to have that coaching on the sideline,” said Fernando Mendoza, University of California, Berkeley quarterback.
“When you’re on the field, football is the same football. But when you’re off the field, now you can go with the coaches, make adjustments, get coached up, and then go back in the game, which has helped young players’ development a lot.”
The introduction of iPads to college football sidelines isn’t just the latest phase of sport’s digitisation on the pitch, but also of Apple’s growing interest in sport more generally. With investments in Major League Soccer (MLS) broadcast rights, sponsorship of the Super Bowl halftime show, and the launch of a new sports app, it is now also getting involved with performance.
Ironically, when the NFL started using Surface tablets a decade ago, they were erroneously described by commentators as ‘iPads’ or an ‘iPad-like device’. Now, Apple is finally involved in the dugout.
For all the ways that tech is transforming sport, there are some things it can’t replicate.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has some way to go before its insights can dull the talents of a mercurial genius with a ball at his feet, while immersive experiences still can’t match the atmosphere of sitting in the stands with thousands of fellow supporters.
Major league Baseball (MLB) was earlier than most to recognise the value of data analytics and live streaming, but tradition is just as important as innovation in America’s Pastime. After all, baseball was originally promoted as a sport native to America, unlike the various football codes that migrated across the Atlantic, and as a way of reinforcing the rural origins of the United States during the great urbanisation of the late 1800s.
Mud from the Delaware river is rubbed into every single baseball used in the major leagues (Image credit: Getty Images)
While there is definitely some artistic licence and mythmaking involved here, there is one part of modern, digital MLB that is firmly analogue. ‘Magic mud’ is rubbed into every single one of the nearly 300,000 balls pitched each season to make them less slippery for fielders. This mud comes from just one supplier, Jim Bintliff, who harvests the substance from a secret riverbank in New Jersey and ships it to MLB teams.
As The New York Times put it: ‘Major League Baseball – a multibillion-dollar enterprise applying science and analytics to nearly every aspect of the game – ultimately depends on some geographically specific muck collected by a retiree with a grey ponytail, blurry arm tattoos and a flat-edged shovel.’
For all its emphasis on tradition, MLB has attempted to create a synthetic alternative. But despite the best efforts of various chemists and engineers, the league has failed to come up with a satisfactory product.
Now, after more than a century, a group of researchers have managed to scientifically quantify what makes the magic mud so special. The study didn’t focus on the composition of the mud, but how and if it works.
The researchers concluded that magic mud is more than just superstition. It has the perfect characteristics to spread and stick to the ball easily and does, in fact, improve grip.
So, will this help MLB find an alternative? The researchers don’t recommend it.
“[The Bintliff] family is doing something that is green and sustainable, and actually is producing an effect that is hard to replicate,” they said.
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