Football of today is game of short passes, even if it is packaged as the spread attack, west coast offence or run-pass option.
Fox Sports college football’s lead expert and Colorado’s finest, Joel Klatt said “The only way that you can successfully the modern style of offense is if the quarterback is looking at the right defender because there is a very specific read and it happens right away, if your quarterback has not trained his eyes to know exactly where to look and exactly when to look there, then you can’t run that.”
Reinforcing instructions of where and when a quarter back should be looking was always troubling, and Precision Sports Devices’ new technology of sensor called QBit hopes to get rid of this problem.
Qbit is to be worn on head by Quarterbacks to judge their head movement and positioning horizontally, which is divided into four quadrants. Specially, to make sure if Quarterback is facing far right, right of center, left of center or far left. The accompanied app allows trainers to instruct schemes and plays from the given playbook with head positioning as wished so quarterbacks could practice in opposition to scripted plays or receive feedback in real-time.
Makers of Qbit are hoping that this wearable can help quarterbacks with basic fundamentals like learning to avoid staring down their intended receiver and also more developed ideas at higher levels. This possibility encouraged Klatt to become a business partner and football tactics consultant with the team.
“You’re training the quarterback how to, first, identify the defense, hold the secondary and then get to the movement key or the progression,” Klatt said. “You can put this on the 10-year-old and surely it would help him learn how to look off a wide receiver, but it also is going to help the college kid or even an NFL quarterback in the development of teaching and coaching an offensive system.
“It’s because of that depth and width that I think this is a pretty revolutionary and vital project.”
This concept came from Dave Churchman, an armchair Quarterback. He has been working for a number of companies including New Balance, Russel Athletic, Puma, Adidas and Keen Footwear. He calls himself a college football junkie.
“I’ve never taken a snap in my life,” Churchman said, “but I don’t think you have to be an All-American to recognize bad quarterback play.”
Churchman is a graduate from University of Colorado and resides in the area and knows alma mater’s College Football Hall of famer coach, Bill McCartney. He guided Buffaloes to a part of national title glory in 1990. Churchman presented McCartney with the idea and received approval and encouragement for its promise of helping young quarterbacks to understand a discipline that is not very easy to learn. And McCartney then referred Churchman to Joel Klatt who has immense experience of the game.
“It’s a skill, the ability to use your eyes and to train your eyes,” Klatt said. “It’s obviously a big part of playing quarterback. Part of the problem, pre- the QBit, is that you have to take your quarterback’s word for where his eyes are.”
Production of Qbit has not started yet though Churchman has signed a manufacturer and expects the testing of prototypes to be held next month at University of Colorado. Some features are yet to be finalized for example if any tactical or audible cautioning should be provided or not if the player is facing the wrong direction. But hopefully the distribution for this product will be started before July next year.
“There are a million wearables out there, but 99.9 percent of them are trackers, not trainers,” Churchman said “It’s not complicated, but it’s cutting-edge.”
