Midland, Michigan (June 11th, 2019) – PlaySight’s Smart sports technology arrived a few months ago at Northwood University, an NCAA Division II program. The Wolverines compete primarily in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), and the coaches have already been using PlaySight this off-season with incoming students and potential recruits.
We caught up with Head Men’s Basketball Coach Jeff Rekeweg about the decision to invest in PlaySight, and how the technology is paying immediate dividends with recruiting.
Why did you decide to invest in PlaySight as a program?
We needed a solution to be able to video our practices (with limited human resources) and were also looking for options for in-game replay.
Why did you choose PlaySight over other video solution providers?
It was the overall functionality of the software and the integration with streaming and ShotTracker.
How did you previously capture video in practice/game before PlaySight?
We very seldom were able to capture video in practice because we would have to sacrifice one of our managers and utilize them on the floor. Games were captured by a student that our SID hired to video. We would often miss a lot of action either because the camera simply was not moved or we missed spacing on one end of court because just the ball was followed.
What role does video play for you as a coach?
Video doesn’t lie! When you can review as a coach and be able to make adjustments from actual actions instead of just memory, or even more important something that we didn’t even see in “real-time” makes the difference in winning and losing. With players, being able to show them instead of just “telling” them both what they need to do better or what they are doing well makes all the difference. Most people are better visual learners than just vocal.
How do you expect PlaySight to impact your program?
The first thing would be player and team development. When we can show guys effort level and technique from both individual workouts and full squad practices it will pick up intensity and focus. The best programs in the country don’t just recruit great players they also do a great job of developing the talent they have. PlaySight will help us develop our players at a very high level.
What impact does PlaySight and video have on recruiting?
One of the major things we talk about with our recruits is on how we are going to work hard to help them achieve their athletic goals for both their college career and after college. Being able to show them the technology that we have invested in to help them develop and how we will use that in their development is powerful.
We had a recruit on campus and as he was being put through a workout (we had it recorded) with my assistant I was able to use the replay function to show his mom, and the recruit later, how he needed to change some things with his footwork. I actually stopped the workout for just a few seconds to show the recruit what I was talking about. It clicked with him right away once he was able to see what he was actually doing on the angle of his drive. He had four other offers and three days after his visit with us he committed. He and his mother were impressed with the commitment to development.
What does it mean to be able to get an NBA pro-level video system at the D2 level?
Simply, it gives us every opportunity to reach our potential. It will raise the level of coaching and execution. We are able to do things now that would take an excessive amount of human resources to do, which isn’t feasible at our level. Every year we have losses that one or two possessions going our way would have made the difference. Most of those plays are about execution.
PlaySight will have a direct and immediate impact on our execution.