A presentation I gave at the Sports Coach Conference in Melbourne in November 1998. Please excuse the early PowerPoint effects! I had with me one of the first digital cameras and a portable performance analysis system.

2. Working to Enhance
Performance
Keith Lyons

3. Introduction
1. Thank you for the invitation to make a
presentation at SportsCOACH ‘98.
2. A sense of awe in being here.
3. An invitation to consider how we can use
digital technology for 21st Century
coaching.

4. Technophobia

8. Digital Technology
Unprecedented
opportunities to use
TECHNOLOGY as a
TOOL to enhance
performance...
As long as such use is
TRANSPARENT and
TIME EFFECTIVE

9. Working with Athletes
Part of a global
community (see Peter
Hamilton, 1997)
States like Victoria are
creating “one of the best
learning environments in the
world” (The Age, 24
November 1998)

10. Working with Athletes
By 2000, Victoria will
have a student:
computer ratio of 5:1.
The Internet will provide
a “fourth medium” for
sports broadcasting.

11. An example of the potential
of digital technology:
image manipulation

12. Educational Technology
Aims to transform learning
throughout life by
harnessing the power of
technology

13. Some Technical Stuff

14. 1. The separate technologies which provide the
telephone, the computer and the television are
now CONVERGING in ways which increase
the educational applications of each.
2. This advance is supported by the additional
benefits of LOWER COSTS, GREATER
POWER and PORTABILITY.

15. 1. CONVERGENCE becomes possible when the
different technologies share systems for encoding
data.
2. DIGITILISATION entails the conversion of
information to manipulable and transferable bits.
3. The application of this technique to word
processing, graphics, audio signals, photography,
film and video has led to an INFORMATION
REVOLUTION.

16. DIGITAL ENCODING improves the reliability of
information
DATA COMPRESSION/DECOMPRESSION
enable more information to be transferred between
two points within a given time.

17. Multimedia
is the mixing of
words, pictures,
motion video,
sound, animation
and photographic
images on a
computer.

19. Implications for Coaching?
(The Practical Stuff!)

20. Accepting Technology as a
Coaching Tool
1. Awareness provides and provokes choice.
2. Ownership facilitates personal change.
3. Digital images offer high quality resources
for player development.
4. Relational databases can help up us map
performance trends.
5. Resources to which we can add value.

21. Some Examples:
Video and Computer

22. Digital Technology in the
Coaching Process
1. Training environment.
2. Preparation for competition.
3. Competition.
4. Analysis of performance data.
5. Dissemination and education.

23. Optimising Performance
1. You have choices about what equipment
you use. (There is remarkable choice).
2. You have a vision of how new
technologies contribute to your coaching
PROCESS.
3. Your own development has a significant
impact on the performance of your
athletes.

24. But ...
1. There is no compulsion to use the
technology!
2. You do not need an enormous budget!
3. You must have a positive use for the
technology and the time to practise with it.
4. Leading edge technology is focused by a
coach’s vision.

25. You are not actually living your life
through your players. You are not
really worried about who gets the credit
so long as they get the results.
And when players feel that that attitude
is at work, they know they have the
right coach.
Alan Jones (1994) National Year of the Coach

26. He or she
who aims for nothing
usually hits it!
Confucius