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  • Bradley Grice

Bowls Wales choose the Nacsport video analysis software

We are delighted to announce that Bowls Wales have chosen the Nacsport video analysis software to enhance their performance analysis processes across their teams.


Modernising the game

Very much at the beginning of their video analysis journey, they have several ideas on how the software can be implemented to develop teams and individuals throughout the organisation.

First of all, let’s hear from the Bowls Wales Management team on why they chose to enhance their performance analysis setup.

The use of technology and the modernisation of the sport is something we are incredibly excited to explore. The use of performance analysis is seen across a range of sports for their performance and development programmes and we are excited to start replicating this across Bowls.
We are thrilled with the partnership established with AnalysisPro through our Performance Group, to utilise their Nacsport software across bowls. This partnership is only a starting point for us and we hope that it will continue to grow, along with the benefits it will provide for the sport to create a more professional approach to performance and the development of players.
The use of Nacsport for Bowls will save a huge amount of time in data collection and enable purposeful use of the data! It will also encourage the use of video as a coaching tool to build evidence on how a player performed and give opportunity for enhanced coaching and feedback. Bowls Wales – Sophie Hancocks, General Manager



Performance analysis has been an ongoing discussion and demand over the last 18 months for Bowls in Wales. This partnership with AnalysisPro that has been established, to utilise the Nacsport software, will help our selectors and team managers to analyse players for international duties and world championships.
It will assist us in our player development and overall contribute to improved performance across all our squads. The Welsh Ladies Indoor Bowls Association (WLIBA) – Cath Harvey, Secretary for WLIBA



Performance analysis is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the development of elite level players in all sports and bowls is no exception. The Welsh Indoor Bowls Association (WIBA) is delighted and excited to be entering into this new partnership with AnalysisPro, through Bowls Wales, which will allow us to use the Nacsport Scout Plus software.
Initially, our focus will be on player assessment and evaluation for the selection of our Under 18’s, Under 25’s and Senior Men’s International teams, where the system will help us capture and evaluate player performance at trials and practice sessions and support the selection process. Moving forward, we will look to extend our use the software to include video capture and analysis to support player development during coaching and development sessions.
Whilst bowls is an amateur sport, our partnership with the AnalysisPro team will allow us to adopt a more professional approach to supporting the development of players, which we just can’t do at the moment. The Welsh Indoor Bowls Association (WIBA) – Steve Jackson, Director of Bowls

It’s great to hear this belief in video analysis, we completely agree and are delighted to welcome all of the Bowls Wales teams on board!

Now, let’s explore their initial ideas.


The Nacsport software and Tag&view apps will be used to build stats for a numeric overview of how the player bowled, giving statistical evidence on how the player performed. This will replace the usual pen and paper method and allow the assessor to score every bowl from the iPad.


When using video, coaches can also give feedback by clipping key moments from a video to share back with the players of course. The ability to export a clip from the Nacsport presentation and export as an MP4 file to drop into WhatsApp could be an invaluable process to encourage players to reflect on their performance. Of course, we strongly recommend using an online platform like Sharimg for an enhanced version of this process!

The Tag&view iPad apps

Specific criteria can be tagged live on an iPad by an assessor as the bowler’s play. For example, a predefined 1-5 scoring system of every bowl, or more descriptive information on each bowl or both!


This template was created in the Nacsport software and exported to fit on an iPad using Nacsport Tag&view.



In this scenario, the assessor will simply press the bowler in play followed by the score they are giving.


Each player will eventually have 1 score for each End. The app will create a data matrix of the scoring of each player, which can be checked live as you are tagging, and by the end of the match each player will have 21 scores.


Bowls Wales will eventually combine this numerical data collection with more useful descriptive information on the bowl too.

They would choose between these options:

  1. Tag the event without a video

  2. Tag the event whilst filming with the iPad camera

  3. Tag the event knowing that the event is being filmed on a separate device, so the data can be synced up with the timeline in Nacsport later.


Using the Tag&view data in Nacsport

Once the data is collected, it’s time to transfer it onto the PC and open a timeline. Just like when using the app, the software will show a data matrix of the scores of each player, but from here they will export it out of Nacsport into Microsoft Excel.



A cleverly constructed Excel sheet (we built this basic output for the team to explore and develop further themselves) will give a running total of the scores of the event and can be built up over time and further manipulated based on the questions the team wants to ask of the data.



This is a massive time saver and a very effective way to keep scores on all players, evidencing their performance.


Although useful, the matrix and these Excel workflows are not the only way to work with the data. The built in interactive statistical Dashboards in Nacsport give a customised way to present data from within the software. The more descriptive information on the bowl will come into play here, like different shot types which can be analysed and easily presented to the player as the video will simply play by clicking on the stat in the Dashboard!


With Nacsport, you can customise your buttons template to show key performance indicators of your choice and create your own harmonious balance between quantitative and qualitative data! Another example would be something like this:



Furthermore, key clips and/or sharing clips of best practice will then be populated into an independent presentation window, allowing the coach to add notes and even quick drawings to easily export and then send to the players.


As mentioned, this is the beginning of the Bowls Wales video analysis journey but already it seems there are highly effective workflows being formed. We will update you in the future on how the workflows evolve!





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