There are a lot of passions out there that have managed to adapt surprisingly well to the current social conditions, the lockdowns, the quarantining and the social distancing. Technology, something we didn’t have the last time a plague crossed the earth, has made life a lot easier. Our hearts go out to those people in the 1920s staring down the cannon that was the influenza pandemic.
Creators can still be seen, heard and read online, cooks can still have their food enjoyed by the masses through deliveries, merchants can still sell things online. If there is a silver lining to this tragic cloud, it has been the rapid adoption of technologies that would have otherwise taken a couple more decades to get where they are. Telecommuting, something that needed to happen, has happened earlier than it otherwise would have, same for online learning, e-commerce, streaming as a primary distribution platform, the list could go on.
Society has continued to function relatively unimpeded thanks to our willingness to adopt technologies to stay sane. We don’t know what the financial ramifications are going to be, this is going to be an interesting decade in that regard, but if we can overcome the initial problems, I am confident we can overcome that to.
As a running coach, technology can also help you overcome social distancing hindering your passion through the technology of a running club app and technology you already have, as do your athletes. It’s really not that difficult, and it is surprising that this didn’t at least catch on somewhat before the pandemic honestly.
Consider the usual challenges you have is a running coach. Everybody is busy, it’s hard to schedule everyone together, even dedicated athlete seeking a career in running or other athletics have so many other responsibilities, being dependent on coming together physically for every training session or all of the instructive ones is a nightmare, and it’s one that you can ditch with this technique. This is why this will remain a popular solution, no matter what the future may bring.
So, what do you need? You just need a running club app, smart watches with biometrics and smart phones. Everyone has a smart phone already, and your athletes are guaranteed to already have at least a basic Bluetooth-enabled smart watch with biometrics, they aren’t even expensive anymore. All you need is a cross-platform app compatible with general Bluetooth protocols, and you can be really creative. All you need to do is get everyone to use the same app, so that data shares properly, and in choosing one, make sure supports both android and iPhone.
So, as a running coach, how do you achieve your goals this way? Well, everyone can train on their own time, choosing their own venue, and remain safely socially-distanced. There watches will track their pulse, speed, steps and everything else, and their smart phones will share it over the running club app. You can set up virtual races without people having to actually race at the same time, can communicate effectively, and with all of these biological statistics, you as a coach can show them where they need to improve, recommend exercises, and keep everybody completely honest.
Honestly, like I said, it’s surprising this didn’t catch on to a degree before, but it’s definitely going to be a big part of athletics in the future, even once social distancing is no longer necessary. Though, I suspect a compulsion to socially-distance ourselves is going to be burned into humanities racial memory for a couple centuries now. Maybe this will make us a little more impersonal, but maybe it’s for the best considering what has recently happened? You decide.
