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Tech-savvy Wanderers have scored a big hit with Ian Evatt and his squad by developing their own mobile training app.
The Bolton boss says players are responding well to new software, which has been installed on personal phones and tablets, which supplies clips and match footage to review performances and help prepare for games.
Led by technical performance director Chris Markham, the app will eventually be expanded to give players and coaching staff more information on training data, conditioning and opposition to review at their own leisure.
And Evatt reckons the response from the team has been encouraging.
“The lads love it, they love the tactical and analytical detail,” he said.
“It is the way the world has moved, the game is changing and players love learning. I love to teach, too.
“It is useful because it gives players somewhere to log stuff like wellness forms, post-training forms, and then to see their individual playing clips and the matchdays back on the wider angle. Learning visually is just as important to listening to me and what I say, vocally.
“It is a huge help to us, and it is the way the game is moving. Chris has been a great help to us on that front.”
Evatt will continue to gather his players at the start of the week for a video session, talking through the highs and lows of the Saturday performance.
But he hopes by breaking down chunks of the game at the weekend and giving players the ability to evaluate them in their own time, there will be a better understanding of the tactical and technical improvements he is looking to make.
“We will still have meetings on a Monday but what the app does is give players a chance to watch back and reflect by themselves,” he said. “They are not coming into the meeting blind, they understand what we are looking to work on, what they did right, what they did wrong.
“Watching those clips back on a Sunday is important, I think. Self-analysis is the most important part of football, looking at the man in the mirror and understanding how you can improve and push on.
“Then when they come in to listen to me, Peter and the coaching staff on a Monday they have a grip on what we are looking for and how we have seen the game, they are not going in blind.
“None of it is personal, it is a tool for improvement and making every single individual better.”
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