Virtual reality: Western Pa. coaching clinics move to web

Health officials are trying to stop the spread. Burrell football coach Shawn Liotta still is teaching teams how to run it.

Liotta refers to the football offense, not the coronavirus, when he addresses a captive audience via his laptop computer.

The coronavirus’ spread, though, has not stopped coaches like Liotta from preaching and educating in a virtual way. He and his counterparts have shifted their clinics solely online. Many have held the attention of viewers who want all of this shelter-in-place protocol to be over just as much as their instructors.

Social media use has kept preparations, even for phantom seasons, plugging along, just not in a physical, up-close-and-personal way.

“The vibe of the online clinic is different because you can’t directly interact with your audience, which is something I really enjoy,” Liotta said. “But it has been a neat deal to be able to help coaches learn in this new virtual learning format.”

Aaron Smetanka also has shifted to a webcam for a football clinic. The coach at Saint Vincent and his staff have produced three weeks worth of the SVC Football Virtual Coaches Clinic.

The Zoom-guided clinic goes live at 3 p.m. each Wednesday and has guest spots from college and high school coaches.

“This has been a great time exchanging offensive, defensive and special teams schemes weekly,” Smetanka said. “Also, it is a great way to stay in contact with high school and college coaches. We have had FBS, FCS and high school coaches from 13 different states in our first two weeks.”

Looking forward to starting our first week of the @SVC_Football Virtual Coaches Clinic tomorrow! Coaches from Florida, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have registered. Contact Coach Garrett Clawson to register before 3PM.@ShawnLiotta #RiseTogether pic.twitter.com/TVcWqucrfJ

— Aaron Smetanka (@CoachSmetanka) April 22, 2020

Despite the month-plus shutdown, the show must go on for instructors who make money from the videos as a side business or use the clinics and seminars as an offseason teaching tool for which they don’t want to lose momentum — or a head count.

Denny Little, the head softball coach at Penn-Trafford and a hitting coach at Seton Hill, offers virtual hitting lessons. His program, which normally would offer face-to-face instruction, includes a 45-minute screen meeting that is used to evaluate swings and initiate personalized feedback and drills.

He uses FaceTime, Google Meets and Zoom for the lessons. Little, a former Pitt baseball player, also has done instruction with baseball players.

Rather than demonstrating a swing in person, Little works within the limitations of a 14-inch screen.

“Putting things together so they can review it before the lesson really helps,” Little said of his students. “Also, seeing their video and being able to freeze it and have some teaching points is pretty cool.”

Liotta is the author of, “No Huddle, No Mercy,” a well-selling book that delves into ways to implement a no-huddle, spread offense like the one he runs at Burrell and has used at other coaching stops.

He offers coaches a chance to “turbo-charge” their offenses. Liotta said there have been clinics where he has had up to 600 people tuned in.

Liotta also uses another web platform called “CoachTube” to upload information. More than 2,500 have booked courses with him via that format.

“We’ve enjoyed conducting clinics with coaches around the world the past two months online,” Liotta said. “I’ve probably done over 20 of them live on my offensive system for various companies, colleges and coaching organizations. And you never know who is tuned in. After a recent one I did on our passing game, Nick Rolovich, the head coach at Washington State, gave me a shout out on Twitter that he enjoyed the clinic, which was really cool to see.”

FREE Course- 2 hours of content, written playbook material, cutups, sample of No Huddle No Mercy Book...My way of saying thank you to the 2,500 coaches who have booked my courses on @thecoachtube https://t.co/yOHYdYWkEI

— Shawn Liotta (@ShawnLiotta) April 27, 2020

Had a great time tonight doing a clinic session for the @AFAEC_FBA hope you enjoyed and picked up some info. I wish you all the best and honored to be a resource to help you grow the game of Football internationally. Thank you @CoachMPatterson for inviting me tonight. #PlayFast https://t.co/OIWUQAk3aZ

— Shawn Liotta (@ShawnLiotta) May 1, 2020

For the sports-starved athletes and coaches who long for a return to action, the online clinics allow them to stay sharp mentally in case a sport like football returns in coming months.

Penn-Trafford assistant boys basketball coach Nick Ionadi does personalized training sessions throughout the year. He also has remained active with workouts virtually, but that is not a new concept to him.

His format rival’s Little’s in its basics.

“I run online training in conjunction with my standard training anyway, but right now I’m doing a free Google classroom,” Ionadi said. “I have about 50-some kids in there. It is workouts and teaching points, and then I break down their video for them for those who send it.

“The online classroom keeps growing every day. It’s fun, and the kids are still working hard.”

Footwork on perimeter-fill catch & shoot or coming off high ball screen. Turn inside foot to rim. Body naturally pivots. Allows quick release & generates power. No wasted motion. Access to quick drive & both sides of floor. Adjust hands to poor passes w/out affecting movement. pic.twitter.com/83hTsGeIGL

— Nick Ionadi (@NickIonadi) May 3, 2020

Webcams are shining brightly in the Liotta household. The coach’s daughter, Lily, is enjoying the experience of online schooling during the pandemic.

“She really looks forward to the video calls with her teachers and classmates because she misses that interaction,” Shawn Liotta said. “I believe coaches are the same way. It’s good to get on there and communicate and interact with others during this time of social distancing.”

The web-only approach to coaching clinics is not all positive.

“The drawbacks are that the coaches can’t see our campus and facilities as they would if our clinic was at Saint Vincent College,” Smetanka said.

Little, who guided Penn-Trafford to a PIAA Class 5A title last season, said in-person interaction always will trump the online equivalent.

“Nothing can replace live lessons,” he said. “The interaction and seeing the swing live is where my students and I thrive. With that being said, this way of doing instructing can augment live instruction when we are able to get back to it. In other words, I will use both methods when we get back to being able to meet.”

Hours of coaches talking about X’s and O’s need to be applied properly, Shawn Liotta noted.

“I think a negative could be that there is just so much coaching information out there being consumed on these virtual clinics,” Liotta said. “As a coach, you want to make sure the information you are learning is applicable to your philosophy and fits the personnel of your team before you go and try to implement 100 new concepts you learned.”

And while the peer-to-peers form of networking has its advantages, nothing beats the real thing.

“The actual mechanics of the clinic presentation, video, etc., are exactly the same,” Liotta said. “But I like the other way better — I’m a people person.”

In another online-only move, Liotta said he is going to begin sharing virtual installation videos with his Burrell players next month through Hudl as he builds toward the pending fall season.

Like many college and high school teams, Saint Vincent also has been holding virtual team meetings to keep everyone on the same page.

“We wanted to keep our schedule as close as possible to the one that was in place if we were still on campus,” he said. “We could not have our spring practice schedule as usual, but we understood that every school was in the same situation.

“We still can remain positive and prepare mentally for the upcoming season, which the players have done by staying connected during these uncertain times.”