As a high school coach, I know the world of athletics has become incredibly competitive. In order to succeed, young athletes have to be willing to put in much more time than the allotted practice hours for a week. ShotTracker has developed a wearable device that assists basketball players to get workouts and track progress. Let’s take a look.
The ShotTracker consists of three parts. The wrist sensor is worn by the athlete on their shooting arm in a wristband or sleeve. The sensor has a 6-axis motion sensor and is rechargeable with an eight our battery life. The charging station is designed to house the wrist sensor and net sensor at once, charging both devices simultaneously. Once a shot goes up, it sends a signal to the weather proof net sensor. The net sensor sports three month battery life and attaches to the back of the net a few inches under the net. It will automatically go to sleep and awaken with a shot. Once all of this happens, the results of the shot are sent to the app which can be analyzed by both the coach and athlete.
We are currently in basketball season, so I was able to use the ShotTracker with our team. Installing the net sensor is quite simple. Pull the pin on the top to open it, then simply clamp it on the back of the net with the words facing upright. The shot sensor goes in the supplied sweatband and is placed on the shooting hand.
Once the player has everything set up, the iPhone app will take you through a five shot training from the free throw line. I am assuming this helps calibrate the system. After the training is done, the athlete can choose from different workouts and drills or simply shoot around and track their shots. Since we have a lot of girls in the gym at once, we used it for the shoot around before practices. The only thing I did not care for was that one person had to shoot at a time. If other shots were being made, the numbers were affected on the application. The device is still great to use if you have the space to use one shooter at a time or if they are shooting on their own in the off-season.
The players liked the device and said it did not affect their shot wearing the sensor. While shooting around is usually pretty relaxing, the athletes said they tended to concentrate more on their shots trying to make sure their percentages were high. I guess knowing your coach has an exact number of shots and makes as well as time spent shooting makes them more aware of the outcome.
The ShotTracker is a great training device for the off-season. Being able to assign athletes workouts and get feedback on how they performed is a great tool for coaches as well as players. The device makes shooting take on an almost video game like competitive feel. This fuels the usual player competitive nature and creates a more realistic pressure when shooting alone. The app can give ideas to players who would usually just stand around and shoot to be more productive in how they approach solo practicing. I am planning on using the ShotTracker with my two young sons so they can have some feedback on how their shooting in our driveway is progressing. Taking the counting and recording aspect from a shooting workout allows players to concentrate more on the shots and where they are shooting from. Coaches can also keep tabs on their players using the coach’s app by sending workouts and receiving results. This is a wonderful tool for coaches and players who are determined to improve their shots. The complete system begins at $149.99 and each piece can also be bought separately.
ShotTracker is available on the companies website with complete packages beginning at $149.99
Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample
What I like: Ability of coaches and players to formulate shooting workouts and easily track them. Much easier than a player counting and writing down their own results.
What could be improved: The ShotTracker device is difficult to use with a gym full of players unless there is a separate basket to utilize.
