Don’t let hi-tech distract: expert

TOP navigator and sports tracking innovator Stan Honey says technology should honour the traditions of the sports it’s used for and not be a distraction.

One of the worlds’s most sought-after navigators, the American will contest the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race on speedy supermaxi LDV Comanche. He has already had two line-honours wins in the race aboard Investec Loyal in 2011 and Comanche in 2015.

Honey has also been successful in other major sailing events but has had an arguably bigger influence on sports in his off-water endeavours.

In 1996 he introduced technology that made ice hockey pucks easier to follow in broadcasts. Two years later, he devised the first-down line used in TV coverage of the NFL.

Other sports have since implemented tracking technology, with new systems often generating scrutiny and criticism. Cricket’s DRS system is one of those, while football in Australia experiences almost weekly issues with the growing influence of the VAR.

“It’s important that the system stay out of the way and not be a distraction,” Honey said.

“In the case of American baseball, we could measure precisely balls and strikes. But there’s a long tradition of the sport of baseball that part of the culture is the battle between the official and the batter and the pitcher.

“That’s the culture of the sport, even though we were tracking the ball accurately, Major League Baseball correctly decided that the game of baseball would stay the same.”