Letter From the Publisher

The Most Important Advancement in Technology
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In the five years that we’ve been publishing American Football Monthly’s annual Technology issue, we’ve seen many advances in the various software and hardware designed specifically for football. Today’s technology allows coaches to merge diagrams and video together in presentation formats, trade game film over the Internet, introduce DVD options for film quality, track the frame-by-frame movements of the relationship between a quarterback’s throwing arm and hip movement and many other benefits to coaches. However, without question, the single most important advancement in technology that we have witnessed in the last five years is the acceptance and overall use of technology within the coaching community.

Shortly after publishing our first annual technology issue in May 2000, we received many calls from high school, college and pro coaches requesting information on the very basics of technology in coaching. When we talk with coaches today, it is apparent that the general coaching community has a strong understanding of the role and application of technology in their profession – bridging the gap between the technology that is available and the technology that is being accepted and used by the coaching community.

This trend can be attributed to several factors, such as, the lower cost of technology, readily available information on the benefits of technology and the role of the video coordinator as educator of technology on a coaching staff.

Video coordinators, whether full-time or assistant coaches with video responsibilities, play a vital role in the success of a football program due to the large amount of information gained from game and practice film. As our cover story illustrates, UCLA’s Ken Norris, who is considered to be the ‘Godfather’ of this industry, shows us that the history of the position has come a long way from editing 16 mm film with a pair of scissors and athletic tape to capturing the most detailed scouting information using sophisticated editing and computer equipment.

Understanding that many football programs at the high school and college levels do not have full-time video coordinators with expensive equipment at their fingertips, we designed this issue with those programs in mind. With the aid of the Collegiate Sports Video Association (CSVA), this issue provides information directly from some of the top experts in the field discussing topics such as filming games and practices, what coaches look for when watching film, the latest in editing systems, using technology for mental training and other articles discussing technology in football.

Even though as coaches, you have increased your overall use of technology in the profession in the last five years, as new technology is introduced, you will have more options and even more questions. In searching for answers, we suggest contacting the CSVA (www.CSVA.com), college programs’ video coordinators, technology companies, and reading AFM’s archived technology articles on www.AmericanFootballMonthly.com – all of which are very accessible.

As always, if there is anything that we can do to assist you, please do not hesitate to contact us at 561-355-5068. Thank you.

Respectfully, Travis H. Davis Publisher American Football Monthly American Basketball Quarterly

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