By Nora Terrado
July 1, 2010

It’s no surprise that information technology has deeply permeated the world of sports with athletes, fans, and sports management experts alike acknowledging its critical importance.

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the only NBA mentor of Filipino lineage, embraced information technology early in his career as an assistant coach for the team. According to NBA.com, Spoelstra, whose mother is Filipino, helped design a statistical database and scouting software for the franchise that is used to evaluate team productivity and individual player productivity and identify emerging trends the team and its opponents display.

Dr. T.J. Rosandich, vice president of the United States Sports Academy, writing in Sport Journal, acknowledged the importance of information technology in today’s sports administration. He said that the computer “is the piece of equipment that allows the sports administrator to maximize the return on scarce resources whether this is people, facilities and equipment or finances.”

“In turn, it is also perhaps the single most important tool to the sports administrator to extend the reach of sport and recreational programming to as many potential participants as possible,” Rosandich wrote.

In athletic meets supported with computer technology, a sports administrator can quickly and easily obtain information about the schedule of events, roster and profile of participating athletes, and names of officials leveraging an robust database and data mining software. This information is useful in handling the day-to-day operations of a sporting event.

Likewise, sport-specific technological equipment is critical in all aspects of the game from training to officiation to performance evaluation. In swimming, competition pools are now equipped with touch pads that are attached to the timer to determine the exact time of a swimmer. Software and hardware are on hand to instantaneously produce printouts of race results.

Local volleyball leagues are now aided with a system called Volleyball Information Systems or VIS. This device records tracks and records the performance statistics of every player, which can be useful in scouting the opposition. The system was developed by the International Volleyball Federation to evaluate an individual player’s skill level.

In officiating, more and more sports are warming up to the use of video technology, particularly slow motion capture and instant replay, to enable referees and umpires to make accurate calls. Video analysis is also being used in golf. For example, data can be used to analyze a golfer’s swing using information about shot release speed, angle, height and phase durations.

The technology for managing sports competitions is now available in the Philippines. The software technology has given the country the capacity to host international competitions that are aligned with the global standards. Meanwhile, information technology is also being applied training regimen, according to a study by Dario Liebermann, Larry Katz, Mike D. Hughes, Roger M. Bartlett, Jim McClements and Ian M. Franks entitled “Advances in the application of information technology to sport performance.”

“Information derived from this type of computer-aided system can be used for several purposes: immediate feedback; development of a database; indication of areas requiring performance improvement; evaluation; and as a mechanism for selective searching through a video recording of the game,” the study showed.

Such was the case with a device called “Saskatchewan Sprint Start Apparatus” developed by the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. According to the study, the device was used to obtain information on reaction time, the resultant reaction force on the starting block and the linear speed of the athlete in the direction of the sprint. The information is very useful since a millisecond is precious to a sprinter.

A system in Finland called Sport Shooter Trainer System has helped shooters and archers.

A laser beam is attached to the rifle or arrow, which will then hit a laser-sensitive grid. The shooters and archers can immediately correct their posture while aiming during training.

An eye movement recorder is being used by Canadian football teams for training goalkeepers. A series of tests are conducted to determine a goalkeeper’s gaze control after every penalty kick. Following this training, the goalkeepers’ ability to predict the direction of a penalty kick increased from 46% to 75%.

Despite impressive advances in sports technology, the Philippines still lacks the technology resources necessary to improve our athletes’ performance. Filipino athletes rely on their natural abilities while sports officials admit that the absence of scientific and high-tech training for Filipino athletes is one of the reasons why the Philippines generally struggle in international competitions.

It would be a good idea for the country to invest in technology to support our athletes who proudly carry our flag in global athletic meets.

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