The Corona pandemic called a timeout on our ability to play and practice our favorite sports.

Isolating, social distancing and quarantining trapped athletes and coaches inside, making it impossible for them to train in person and challenged parents to discover a way to safely enable their kids to practice. Limor Pelleg, and her Striv3 (pronounced strive) remote basketball training app, provided the freedom athletes needed.

A torn ACL and the outbreak of Corona left Pelleg at home with a canceled basketball season and nothing to do. While living the remote-life, she saw the need and created Striv3, to give players and coaches the ability to train together while living their own remote-lives.

The goal of Striv3 is “to help coaches consolidate their training materials in one place, to help them scale up their business and to help players train as much as they can without any limitation of geography, time or money,” Pelleg said.

When a player joins Striv3, they choose a coach, and together, via the app, they discuss the player’s needs and goals. The coach then provides the athlete with a personalized practice plan. Using the app, the player records himself practicing and sends the video to the coach for review and feedback based on which the coach can adjust the practice plan.

The app’s built-in artificial intelligence (AI) instructs the player where on the court to place his phone to best record his practice. The coach assesses and provides feedback on the recording using motion capture AI technology that calculates the athlete’s speed, angles and movements. The AI enables the coach to mark-up the videos to give precise feedback and suggestions. Coaches can also create charts showing the player’s progress and as an added incentive for players to improve, coaches can create remote competitions between their players.

Technology helps the world become more safe, helpful, efficient and productive, which is why Pelleg believes that sports and technology are a natural pairing. For example, when watching a professional basketball game, you will see athletes and coaches constantly using iPads to review the most recent plays in preparation for the next play.

Loving the combination of technology and sports was part of the inspiration for Pelleg to create Striv3 in an app format. “I want to use technology to help coaches be better, to allow the player to be his best,” Pelleg said. Apps are a part of our daily routine making it an easily accessible and familiar tool. All the player needs is a basketball and phone.

Currently, Striv3 is only available for basketball coaching as it is what Pelleg knows best. A basketball player since the age of 6, Pelleg represented Israel for seven years on the national 3-on-3 basketball team, received a full ride scholarship to play basketball at the University of Anchorage, Alaska, played in Israel’s Women’s Basketball League for 10 years and is now a coach for the women’s Elitzur Ramla basketball team. But in the future, Pelleg does plan to apply the Striv3 concept to other sports.

The name Striv3, came from Pelleg wanting to inspire coaches and players to strive for greatness. “I want to help them do as much as they can to be great as they can, no matter where they live or what resources they have,” Pelleg said.

March Madness kicked off this week shooting basketball to the front page. Pelleg and Striv3 are giving athletes the ability to practice basketball no matter their level, where they are located or the resources available to them. The future stars of March Madness may now be using Striv3 to improve their game.

If you’d like to join Striv3 as a player or a coach visit https://www.striv3.app/ or you can find it in the Apple AppStore.

Danielle grew up in Teaneck, and made aliyah to Jerusalem following her graduation from Rutgers University. Danielle teaches English at colleges in Jerusalem and has been involved in both formal and informal education for a variety of organizations. Danielle believes that important life skills and lessons are often not ones learned in the classroom, but can be learned from team sports.