How a NWSL coach used ChatGPT to win games – USA Today
A.I. is rapidly becoming a prevalent part of daily life, and it seems that it could extend to sports strategy.
In an appearance on the “Soccerish Podcast,” Laura Harvey — the head coach of the NWSL’s Seattle Reign — revealed that she utilized ChatGPT to help her decide upon defensive tactics.
“One day in the offseason, I was writing things into ChatGPT like, ‘What is Seattle Reign’s identity?’ And it would spurt it out. And I was like ‘I don’t know if that’s true or not,” Harvey said, per Bleacher Report.
“And then I put in, ‘What formation should you play to beat NWSL teams?’ And it spurted out every team in the league and what formation you should play. And for two teams… it went, ‘You should play a back five.’ So I did. No joke, that’s why I did it.”
It seems the A.I.-driven changes have been successful for the Reign. After finishing 13th out of 14 teams in the NWSL last year, Seattle currently sits in fourth place in the league with 38 points and has already qualified for a spot in the playoffs.
In particular, ChatGPT apparently told Harvey to run a “back five” formation against several teams, in which a team focuses on defense by having five players on its defensive line. Harvey said that running that formation was completely new for her.
“I’d never really done a lot of research on it,” she said. “I’d never really, like, invested into how it could be played in the women’s game. I’d only ever really seen it from afar, you know, watching men’s games really.
“It was always sort of talked about as a way to see games out. You know, [you go ahead] and get into a back five and stop people from scoring, was sort of how, like, a back five had been talked about for me.”
A.I. may still have its limitations, but ChatGPT’s suggestions have proven to be helpful as the Reign is in the midst of an impressive turnaround.
