For coaches and athletes in the sports world, recording and re-watching game and practice footage is commonplace. From shaky hand-held cameras on the top of the bleachers, to cameras mounted on poles–coaches are always trying to get the best vantage point.
For Coach Dabo Swinney of Clemson College’s football team, drones are the future of the sports recording world.
Swinney recently began recording practices using a UAV mounted with a camera to get a new perspective.
The greatest benefit to Swinney and his players is the unique vantage point UAV’s give them. “You can get right on top of things and see how they develop,” Swinney says, according to thestate.com.
Drone video footage allows coaches to see details like footwork, hand placement, and blocking patterns that typically go unnoticed when recorded from a lateral standpoint.
Utilizing UAVs to record practices and games is a growing trend among colleges.
Coaches like Butch Jones of Tennessee, Jim Mora of UCLA, and Mike Riley of Oregon State have all experimented with this technology to get an edge on the field.
In the future we could see drone use move into the big-time. NBC’s ProFootball Talk reports that the National Football League Network will use drones to record Inside Training Camp.
Presently, the NFL still uses cablecam devices, which consist of cameras strung on cables stretching across the field. Filming with drones would be a less-expensive option and offer an improved viewing for fans and coaches alike.
In the 2014 Sochi Olympics, viewers had drones to thank for the incredible vantage points of the athletes.
Aerial videographer Ryan Baker said, “The market for drones, right now, is in extreme sports due to the angles available for more attractive shots,” at a panel discussion at South by Southwest.
While drone-use in the sports world currently remains on the small scale, it will either surge or be squashed pending legislation on consumer drones by the FAA.