Top 5 Ways High School Football Is Using AI
Artificial intelligence is changing more than classrooms, phones and workplaces. It’s also beginning to change the way football teams prepare, practice and study the game.
And that technology isn’t limited to the NFL and major college programs.
High school football teams have access to tools that can automate game filming, speed up film breakdown and turn large amounts of performance data into information coaches and players can actually use. Platforms such as Hudl now offer AI-powered technology specifically for football programs ranging from the youth and high school levels through college and the pros.
Here are five ways AI is making its way into high school football.
1. Breaking Down Game Film
Film study has always been an important part of football. The difference is how quickly technology can now help teams organize what they’re watching.
Instead of coaches manually sorting every snap, modern video-analysis tools can help organize footage, tag plays and produce reports that make it easier to identify important moments and tendencies.
High school coaches discussing the future of football film with Hudl specifically identified film labeling and report creation as areas where AI could save coaches significant time.
That doesn’t eliminate film study. It can give coaches more time to focus on what the film actually means — and how to teach it to their players.
2. Finding Patterns and Tendencies
Football produces a lot of information.
What happens when the offense lines up a certain way? Does a team tend to run in a particular situation? Which players perform better in certain assignments?
AI and advanced analytics can help sort through large amounts of data and identify patterns that might otherwise take coaches hours to find manually.
Coaches are also exploring how these tools can help with self-scouting, identifying tendencies within their own teams and individual position groups.
The technology can find the pattern. Coaches still have to decide what to do with it.
3. Automatically Recording Games
Sometimes AI is working before anyone even starts analyzing the game.
AI-powered cameras can automatically follow the action on the football field, record games and practices and upload the footage for teams to review. Hudl, for example, markets its Focus technology to high school programs and says its cameras can track and record football games without requiring someone to manually operate the camera.
That means one of the most basic jobs surrounding film study — actually capturing the film — can now be largely automated.
4. Tracking Player Performance
Football technology isn’t limited to video.
Wearable devices can collect information about how athletes move and train. Depending on the system, teams can measure things such as speed, distance, acceleration and overall workload.
Some athlete-monitoring platforms use machine-learning and AI-based algorithms to turn that information into insights coaches can use. Catapult, for example, offers athlete-monitoring technology for high school athletes as well as higher levels of competition.
Instead of simply knowing that an athlete completed a workout, coaches can have more information about what that workout actually demanded physically.
5. Giving Players More Personalized Feedback
Perhaps one of AI’s most interesting possibilities is making football instruction more individualized.
A linebacker, quarterback and offensive lineman don’t need to study exactly the same things.
High school coaches interviewed by Hudl discussed using AI to identify insights for specific position groups and quickly direct the right video clips and information to those players. A defensive back could receive clips relevant to coverage, while an offensive lineman could focus on an entirely different set of plays.
That could make film study less about watching an entire game again and more about showing each athlete the moments most relevant to what they’re learning.
Technology Is Changing — But Coaching Still Matters
AI can process information quickly, organize video and help uncover patterns. It can’t replace the relationships, communication and teaching that happen between coaches and young athletes.
In many cases, the biggest benefit of AI may simply be time.
If technology handles some of the repetitive work behind filming, sorting and analyzing information, coaches can spend more of their time doing what technology can’t: teaching the game and working directly with their players.
For young football players growing up today, learning the game may increasingly mean learning alongside some very new technology.