Coaching is an intricate profession all on its own, but throw in a language barrier and it can be incredibly daunting on an entirely different level.
For Gary Neville, the head coach of the football (soccer) team Valencia, it’s something that has been a sort of sour point ever since he took the job. Neville is not fluent in Spanish, a dominant language for the soccer club’s players, so he was tasked with finding a way to break that language barrier and hopefully earn better results on the pitch as a result.
To the rescue is Apple’s iPad. According to the Guardian, Neville has equipped each of the players on Valencia’s squad with Apple’s tablet, which the players will use both in training and during games for a variety of different scenarios. Interestingly enough, the iPads seem to just be a stopgap, as Neville is said to be picking up Spanish relatively quickly.
“He has given an iPad to each player to help them follow training and different actions during games,” his assistant Miguel Ángel Angulo said. “He is doing better than I expected. I thought the language barrier would be more of a problem. Gary has already started to speak a little Spanish and he is improving quickly. There is a good understanding with the players asking him or me what is wanted.“It won’t take long before we can demonstrate the style of football that we want.”
Winning games is essentially the most important part for a head coach, lest they get ousted and replaced by the team’s upper management looking for those wins. If technology, and Apple’s iPads, can help Neville find some more victories, it’ll be purchases well placed.
[via The Guardian]
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