🧠👾 Virtual Reality & Robotics: the future of football training

Dartmouth College is taking an entirely different approach towards football training. What used to be a scene of players tackling with each other during practice was replaced by a black, robotic tackling dummy. This fast and heavy dummy was intended for one primary function: to simulate and to teach tackling fundamentals without causing unnecessary injuries to players.  This dummy is remote-controlled by a coach in the field.

Over the years, player injuries resulting to concussions are  common happenings whenever players tackle with one another during practice. Such injuries can have an adverse effect on the team, such as having a player sidelined if not totally missed when the real game comes. Over the first few years since live tackling has been eliminated and the robotic dummy tackling system implemented, team injuries and concussion rates has been reduced by a huge percentage. 

Another step the head coaches at Dartmouth took was to integrate virtual reality into their football training program. Players can now conveniently train in a small area with a set of VR goggles, where he would have a 360-degree view of the playing field and be able to practice like the real thing. 

Along with these tech innovations, Dartmouth recruited a woman, first of its kind in Division 1 college football, to be part of its coaching team.