With his ability to fire people up and get them motivated, Steve Jobs has been likened to a great football coach. And now to bring things full circle, a real football coach (or “soccer” to you American readers!) is using Jobs’ creation, the iPad, to help coach his players.
The coach in question is Gary Neville, who a new report claims has distributed iPads to the Valencia football team to teach them strategies on the pitch, while covering up for his lack of fluency in Spanish.
“He has given an iPad to each player to help them follow training and different actions during games,” Neville’s assistant Miguel Ángel Angulo says. “He is doing better than I expected. I thought the language barrier would be more of a problem … It won’t take long before we can demonstrate the style of football that we want.”
Valencia recently failed to get to the Champions League knockout stage after losing at home to Lyon and then drawing with Eibar. It is hoped that the iPad can help turn things around.
“What he is looking for is that the players understand as quickly as possible what he wants,” Angulo says.
This is far from the first time iPads have been used in a coaching capacity. No matter what sport you’re playing, chances are there is a great app to help develop tactics. iPads are also increasingly found on the sidelines of sports games, used as playbook replacements.
It’s pretty great to see how they can help overcome language barriers, too. Who needs to talk the same verbal language when you both speak fluent Apple?
Source: Guardian
