Look to a high school, college, or NFL sideline, and you’re guaranteed to see a coach with a headset on. Coaches wear headsets for several reasons, but the main reason is for communication with other coaches.
Football coaches wear headsets on the sidelines to communicate with other coaches. Due to the loud crowd noise, so coaches will need headsets to minimize the crowd noise.
Here’s how the headsets help coaches communicate with each other.
Football Coaches Communication To The Booth
First, and most important, is the communication to the booth. What is the booth? The booth is typically where the announcers announce the game from. It’s the highest point in the stadium, where coaches can get a birds-eye view of the game.
This view helps coaches break down the offensive and defensive scheme from an aerial view. Coaches from the booth can make the necessary adjustments and relay those adjustments to the sideline for the positional coaches.
The booth communication is also incredibly helpful in making far side of the field adjustments. For instance, the away team is typically on the opposite side of the booth ( in high school). Coaches aren’t able to get a clear view of the opposite sideline. A coach in the booth can help troubleshoot any issues on the far side of the field, away from the coaching staff.
Split Communication
Oftentimes, 5-8 coaches will have headsets on at the same time. This could cause a lot of interference and confusion if they’re all talking at once. Thanks to technology, coaches can talk on different frequencies, so their conversations aren’t crossing over.
For example, the offense will typically have its own channel, and the defense will have its own channel. This way, the offensive talk, which is completely irrelevant to a defensive coach, isn’t crossing on to his channel. This way, the coaches can minimize the conversation to specific channels.
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Football Coaches Communication On The Sidelines
100,000 screaming fans fill the stadium, and the sound is deafening. This is often the case on Saturdays for prime-time college football games. As we wrote about here, college football stadiums tend to loud, real loud.
Coaches can’t walk to one another on the sideline and have a normal, soft-speaking conversation. They need headsets to communicate with one another effectively.
This allows coaches to stay at one of the fields and have a conversation with a coordinator or head coach. The headsets are what help coaches stay on track and make the necessary adjustments to the game.
What Kind Of Football Headsets Do Football Coaches Use
Football coaches can be seen wearing professional headsets that are often sold in sets of 4-6. Here are the companies that are leading the way in football coaching headsets:
- Coach Comm
- Portaphone
- HME
- Vokkero
- MULTIVOICE
Each company offers headsets that can connect in full HD audio conference quality. Some actually require no base station, which means no coach has to be stationary to use the headsets.
Can Football Coaches Use Headsets In The Rain?
Yes. It depends on the type of headset they use. Coaches must be able to use their headsets no matter what the weather is. Headsets that are made in 2019 or 2020 will often come as waterproof.
However, headsets that are not waterproof may require the coach to wear a hood in rain games or have their headset wrapped in plastic bags. It’s always good to double-check if the headset is waterproof before purchasing, to ensure nothing breaks or shorts out due to acclimate weather.