Senior BFA Honors Thesis project at the University of Notre Dame.
Challenge
Through preliminary research, I found that one of the biggest problems in sports was a disconnect between players and their coaches. Some were getting more personalized feedback while others were left behind and had to figure out issues by themselves. The players who were not receiving the personalized feedback were not able to progress at the same speed as others, thus creating a disconnect on the team and creating a sense of inequality.
Solution
STATtracks is a device that, when combined with its app, creates an environment where every athlete has the ability to advance their levels of play in their respective sports. Through interviews and surveys, I found that coaches and players alike wished for there to be more communication between them. Players wanted to have more personalized feedback as to what they should train, and coaches wished that they had the time to truly help everyone on the team to create a higher-functioning unit. The STATtracks app takes a regular managerial team app and pushes it further than the basics–adding in a section to upload and view statistics. The physical device tracks those statistics and uploads them automatically, thus giving athletes a way to visualize their progress quantitatively. Once the statistics are uploaded, the coaches get the opportunity to give feedback on each workout, thus giving everyone an equal opportunity to advance their levels of play. If a coach is unable to talk to a player during practice or a game, they can use the app to look at the players' statistics from that event, and then comment on them there. Creating this space allows for everyone to have the means necessary to be able to further their abilities and also begins to teach athletes how to coach themselves so that they can be the best player they can be.
APP
Principles
With this app, there are three main ideas. First, to create a space for athletes and their teams where they have everything in one place, thus making it easier to find whatever they need. Second, to allow for individualized and clearer communication from coaches. Lastly, to teach these athletes how to begin to coach themselves. Once athletes get to higher levels they do still have coaches, but they are expected to know how to notice their flaws on their own and fix them by themselves. All of those pieces are combined within STATtracks, and it creates an environment of conversation and learning for all involved.
"I often can't get to everyone at my clinics, and that's why I have multiple assistant coaches helping me. I would love it if there was a way that I could get to everyone and give them all more personalized help."
-Greg Gurenlian, former MLL/PLL
lacrosse player, current coach
lacrosse player, current coach
Once a coach has commented on a player's workout, an automatic message will be sent so that the player knows they have feedback. The messages tab can also be used for direct messages and group messages, as we can see that the coach has communicated with the player other times in the past.
Users can use the calendar to find specific games that they want to see statistics and comments on. Since everything is connected within the app, they can access their statistics through the calendar tab.
Here, a user is going through the calendar to find a game that they want to see statistics and comments on. Since everything is connected on the app, they know that they can find the event in the calendar tab, then go to their statistics from there.
Final Exhibit
