The digital coach
Dec 31, 2002 21:03:26 GMT -5
Post by rocky on Dec 31, 2002 21:03:26 GMT -5
Can this be the ultimate replacement for MThead?
Local boy scores in digital hockey
By JIM REYNO
The Daily News
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
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In the hockey world, Derek MacKinnon is a player. Not in the athletic sense, but in the business sense.
“Coming from Pictou County and a somewhat small town, it’s quite interesting to sit across the table from Harry Sinden and have to say, ‘I need $125,000 US, Harry.’ After hearing that, he’s a bit of a — Harry Sinden,” MacKinnon said yesterday.
“You certainly have to take a deep swallow before you do those things. But it’s also a small company that’s emerging, so you have to keep that in your head, that business is dependent on you doing this.”<br>
MacKinnon works for Ottawa-based The Hockey System, a six-person company that has brought digital technology to coaching.
“It’s like chapters on a DVD player, but 500 events throughout the game rather than just 12 tracks,” said MacKinnon, a native of Lismore.
“It’s all about saving the coach time, so that he can sit there and coach. He doesn’t have to go through two hours of video to get a little bit of information.”<br>
For example, if a coach is interested in how a centre does on faceoffs in the offensive zone, it’s easily and quickly available on disc. No more whirring VCRs. No more rewind … fast forward … OK, stop it right there.
MacKinnon, 29, is using The Hockey System’s technology as Germany’s video coach at the world junior hockey championship.
He has a business degree from St. Francis Xavier University, and says before he got involved with The Hockey System, he had “no computer experience whatsoever.”<br>
MacKinnon, who moved to Ottawa about five years ago, became intrigued when he saw The Hockey System sign. He decided to apply, and apply again. He was hired after three months of “unrelenting pestering.”<br>
But despite his techno-career, MacKinnon says he’s always been a people person.
“From the age of 12, I could pick out people’s faces,” he said. “(NHL) exhibition games here at the Metro Centre, I’d walk around the concourse looking at general managers and players and recognizing faces …<br>
“I’ve been able to see people and know people, and do the initial cold call, I guess you’d call it, and then you go in and show them our product.”<br>
The Hockey System has 11 NHL clients — Montreal, Toronto, Boston, the New York Rangers and Islanders, Nashville, Columbus, Los Angeles, Colorado, Dallas and Florida. Depending on which package a team orders, MacKinnon said the service costs $150,000 US and up.
It also offers an Internet pre-scouting service, where teams can download video of an opponent’s previous game.
MacKinnon said he got a glimpse of the future of the industry when he made a presentation to Phoenix general manager Mich-ael Barnett earlier this year.
“Michael was able to see the bigger picture of things,” MacKinnon said. “He didn’t just see this as a game analyzer. He saw it in terms of looking at prospects, keeping a list of all their prospects in the system, all the prospects they may want to go after, possible trading of players …”
“For me, that was the most compelling thing.”<br>
jreyno@hfxnews.ca
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