6th February 2018
The initiative has been spearheaded by Football Academy Coach and lecturer James Roach who was one of the first coaches to use a drone.
James explains: “I started using drones last year in training sessions, along with a friend who coaches one of Charlton Athletic’s junior teams. The use of drones is relatively new and they are not commonly used by clubs yet.
“The great thing about the drone is that you can film a game, edit it and then show it to the players. When you show them the video, it really helps them to comprehend a lot more about the game and what happened and why.
“The benefits of its use are really valuable to the Academy players.”
The sports teaching team at the College are very keen to utilise modern/digital technologies wherever possible; they use lots of interactive technology in the classroom, but now they are bringing the technology out onto the sports fields too with their innovative use of the drone.
Henry Sleight, 17, from Dagenham is one of the Football Academy players, he said: “It’s a great opportunity for us as players to see when we make mistakes and how to correct them. It also shows us the things that we do well. We look forward to watching the footage back!”
