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Empowering Coaches: New AI Assistant Can Help With Soccer Training

Written by: Molly-Anna MaQuirl | Posted: 01-02-2024

Empowering Coaches: New AI Assistant Can Help With Soccer Training

This is an AI-generated image created with Midjourney by Molly-Anna MaQuirl

Artificial Intelligence has captured the world’s attention like few other technology developments. You’d have to cast your mind back to the early days of the internet, or perhaps even the mass production and development of mobile phones, to understand how monumental AI will become in our society. 

Like the internet, no industry will bypass this revolution, and those who are actively against its existence will find themselves falling behind or at a disadvantage - with sectors as diverse as healthcare to finance and investment companies using AI to improve their strategies. In many sectors, ignoring AI news would be akin to not having a social media presence for your business.

While sports might not be the first industry that springs to mind when you think of potential, big AI changes are on the horizon—billions of dollars of investment are piling into AI-based sporting innovations. Many industry analysts believe that AI soccer coaching will permeate all layers within the next decade, generating more headlines and discussion across the entire soccer fraternity in the US.

Positives Of AI Soccer Coaching

Technology in sport isn’t a particularly new development—in fact, the first recorded use of technology, the photo finish, emerged over 130 years ago. Since then, technology has evolved to such a degree that video-assisted referees and sophisticated graphic technology tools are used in every televised soccer game.

Many players now take to the field with equipment that measures every vital element of their health and performance in a bid to get that extra half-percentile, which could ultimately be the difference between winning and losing a game at the elite level.

Freeing Up the Diary

AI soccer coaching has a handful of significant positives. Many coaches currently use AI to dissect key data and statistics about their team and the opposition and use it as a seminal base to develop match-winning coaching plans.

From this angle - the most obvious positive is that it removes any potential bias, dealing solely with the facts and stats. As AI becomes more intelligent, it can digest more complex and larger pools of data, suggesting complex coaching plans and ideas that professionals can use as a springboard to develop their coaching strategy. Doing so also frees up more time for the professionals to focus on the human element of coaching, leaving the number crunching and data collection to technology.

Downsides To Consider

While many treat this type of AI news with optimism, there’s also a healthy amount of cautious optimism, too - and rightly so. Technology in sports will move the industry forward and change it forever. Still, given that more of the technical statistical analysis will be performed almost exclusively by AI in the near future, there have been concerns that the natural, human approach to observing talent and strategy could suffer as a result.

It’s not just in soccer; many other sports rely heavily on gut instinct and coaching prowess that isn’t visible to the naked eye. In many ways, it’s the main reason professional coaches get paid the big bucks, and armchair critics shout from afar - unable to understand the intricacies involved in soccer coaching.

The AI Assistant Ceiling?

AI soccer coaching will enhance aspects but mustn’t detach too much emotion or instinct from the game. This is a significant driving force behind what makes top-level soccer so enthralling to watch. Increasing levels of automation and machine-driven strategy will remove a lot of this—and it’s about finding a balance to ensure that the sport doesn’t suffer.

Although many AI news outlets discuss its potential to become sentient and eliminate millions of jobs, it still lacks any sort of personable skill or ability to tackle emotional nuances.

It won’t be able to conjure up strategies that revolve around a player’s emotional state or have the nuance or people skills that a top coach has. Even if it can observe and dissect millions of gigabytes of data within a few seconds, it still has a long way to go before it can truly understand the human condition and how this manifests itself on the soccer pitch.

Final Say

If you’ve been keeping up to date with AI news, you’ll know that the positives and negatives of the technology have resulted in fierce debate in technology circles and beyond. However, the challenges AI soccer coaching brings to the table are broadly similar to AI in other sports - whether it’s football, basketball, combat sports, or any other globally popular elite sport requiring high-level coaching. 

Ultimately, it’ll hinge on whether AI can be developed up to a stage where it can understand emotional nuances within the game and between teams. Suppose it can build character analysis of opposition players and coaches while weighing up a whole host of human elements that have so far alluded the technology. In that case, it’d be no exaggeration to say that trillions of dollars worth of investment could pour into AI-specific sporting technology.

Explore More News

Empowering Coaches: New AI Assistant Can Help With Soccer Training

Written by: Molly-Anna MaQuirl | Posted: 01-02-2024

Empowering Coaches: New AI Assistant Can Help With Soccer Training

This is an AI-generated image created with Midjourney by Molly-Anna MaQuirl

Artificial Intelligence has captured the world’s attention like few other technology developments. You’d have to cast your mind back to the early days of the internet, or perhaps even the mass production and development of mobile phones, to understand how monumental AI will become in our society. 

Like the internet, no industry will bypass this revolution, and those who are actively against its existence will find themselves falling behind or at a disadvantage - with sectors as diverse as healthcare to finance and investment companies using AI to improve their strategies. In many sectors, ignoring AI news would be akin to not having a social media presence for your business.

While sports might not be the first industry that springs to mind when you think of potential, big AI changes are on the horizon—billions of dollars of investment are piling into AI-based sporting innovations. Many industry analysts believe that AI soccer coaching will permeate all layers within the next decade, generating more headlines and discussion across the entire soccer fraternity in the US.

Positives Of AI Soccer Coaching

Technology in sport isn’t a particularly new development—in fact, the first recorded use of technology, the photo finish, emerged over 130 years ago. Since then, technology has evolved to such a degree that video-assisted referees and sophisticated graphic technology tools are used in every televised soccer game.

Many players now take to the field with equipment that measures every vital element of their health and performance in a bid to get that extra half-percentile, which could ultimately be the difference between winning and losing a game at the elite level.

Freeing Up the Diary

AI soccer coaching has a handful of significant positives. Many coaches currently use AI to dissect key data and statistics about their team and the opposition and use it as a seminal base to develop match-winning coaching plans.

From this angle - the most obvious positive is that it removes any potential bias, dealing solely with the facts and stats. As AI becomes more intelligent, it can digest more complex and larger pools of data, suggesting complex coaching plans and ideas that professionals can use as a springboard to develop their coaching strategy. Doing so also frees up more time for the professionals to focus on the human element of coaching, leaving the number crunching and data collection to technology.

Downsides To Consider

While many treat this type of AI news with optimism, there’s also a healthy amount of cautious optimism, too - and rightly so. Technology in sports will move the industry forward and change it forever. Still, given that more of the technical statistical analysis will be performed almost exclusively by AI in the near future, there have been concerns that the natural, human approach to observing talent and strategy could suffer as a result.

It’s not just in soccer; many other sports rely heavily on gut instinct and coaching prowess that isn’t visible to the naked eye. In many ways, it’s the main reason professional coaches get paid the big bucks, and armchair critics shout from afar - unable to understand the intricacies involved in soccer coaching.

The AI Assistant Ceiling?

AI soccer coaching will enhance aspects but mustn’t detach too much emotion or instinct from the game. This is a significant driving force behind what makes top-level soccer so enthralling to watch. Increasing levels of automation and machine-driven strategy will remove a lot of this—and it’s about finding a balance to ensure that the sport doesn’t suffer.

Although many AI news outlets discuss its potential to become sentient and eliminate millions of jobs, it still lacks any sort of personable skill or ability to tackle emotional nuances.

It won’t be able to conjure up strategies that revolve around a player’s emotional state or have the nuance or people skills that a top coach has. Even if it can observe and dissect millions of gigabytes of data within a few seconds, it still has a long way to go before it can truly understand the human condition and how this manifests itself on the soccer pitch.

Final Say

If you’ve been keeping up to date with AI news, you’ll know that the positives and negatives of the technology have resulted in fierce debate in technology circles and beyond. However, the challenges AI soccer coaching brings to the table are broadly similar to AI in other sports - whether it’s football, basketball, combat sports, or any other globally popular elite sport requiring high-level coaching. 

Ultimately, it’ll hinge on whether AI can be developed up to a stage where it can understand emotional nuances within the game and between teams. Suppose it can build character analysis of opposition players and coaches while weighing up a whole host of human elements that have so far alluded the technology. In that case, it’d be no exaggeration to say that trillions of dollars worth of investment could pour into AI-specific sporting technology.