I recently read an article in the Evening Standard regarding Kolasinac of Arsenal FC, claiming that Unai Emery’s use of video has made him a better player – which is of course, is great news.
Kolasinac says –
“On the video, he’ll point out to you what you need to improve and how you can deal with situations better.”
“That helps you reduce mistakes, not just in my position, but all over the pitch.”
For us here at AnalysisPro, this is music to our ears. Topflight players claiming that video analysis is reducing mistakes and overall improving performance. We know it does, but it’s still great to hear it from a player!
Unai Emery, the three-time Europa League Winner, uses Nacsport, which is described by the evening standard as a tool:
“designed to help produce tailored video content aimed at giving players specific breakdowns of their individual performances.”
This is a fair description of the software, but it got me thinking about how different levels, sports / clubs and their staff use the software, and in particular, about the TEAM and INDIVIDUAL video analysis ‘styles’.
There are no rules on how a manager of any sport / club uses video analysis, from capturing the footage, to the level of functionality required from the software. One style certainly doesn’t fit all. Whether they focus on the team or their individuals (or both) and also the resources they have available – both human and financial.
You can tailor the video content to specific team or individual clips that you want to share and also to the level of players in your team.
Funnily enough, the article quoted Sevilla Winger Joaquin:
“Emery put on so many videos, I ran out of popcorn!”
That made us smile!
Overall, club managers and Analysts in any sport will utilise analysis software to suit their own style and resource.
Watch this video from Rugby League’s Castleford Tigers, showing how performance analysis is used in their environment:
Let’s explore some workflows and styles that could suit different environments…
Nacsport allows you to review and share the clip from an interactive Dashboard, a Matrix, Presentation window or simply by using your timeline of codes. This suits both stats focused and video focused users to review their clips. You could also use the live streaming tool or Coach Station for instant review of the video clips during in a live scenario, great for higher end workflows and making an impact during a game.
You can present your clips and data from your computer to the team in a meeting room, or export your clips to share as an MP4 file or even better, upload them online for access anywhere on any device using an online platform. Players can even now see the matrix from their own computers, iPads, Phones and watch clips whenever they want. These sharing workflows suit teams with varying amounts of contact time.
You could give the clips more impact and highlight your key coaching points by adding spotlights, arrows, text boxes and more with KlipDraw – just like they do on the TV!
These are mainly examples of workflows for after you have done your analysis, so your video analysis style will of course orientate around your own input, which should ultimately be driven by what the coach wants to see.
So how could your inputs differ?
The words ‘TEAM’ or ‘INDI’ are commonplace nicknames for a template style, whether it has a team focus an individual player focus. Take a look at some examples:
TEAM – Assess your overall team performance based on the KPI’s that the Coach wants to see. You could look at the stats and then review the video behind the stats.
For example:
Football – How much time are we spending in their half? How many crosses are we putting in?
Rugby – What is our success rates on set piece? How many phases are we building within our possessions?
INDI – Breakdown the performance of each and every player, look at who is doing what and the impact they have on the game. Stats can give a performance overview of each player and the video behind the stats can reveal the true story.
For example:
Football – Is the midfielder passing the ball successfully? Is the striker hitting the target? Is the defender winning the aerial ball?
Rugby – What is the tackle success rate across our team? Who has the most carries in a game? Who is being effective at the ruck?
Both TEAM and INDIVIDUAL video analysis styles give vital information to make decisions based on 100% objective information. Decisions for in game, but also decisions for player development and training.
Resources also have a huge bearing on what video analysis style you can introduce. Luckily we have fifferent versions of Nacsport to suit different budgets, all enabling live and post-event analysis.
Some real life context (names changed)
Ralph is a coach without an analyst .
He owns a Nacsport Basic Plus licence. He films the games and uses the footage post-event. He looks at key Team KPI’s and sometimes the individuals.
He has an Avermedia device and a Tag&view licence for live coding, should he have the Human resource available.
Sam is coach with an Analyst.
With her Scout Plus licence, her analyst live codes their own and the opposition’s Team KPI’s. In every game (home and away), they review the stats during the game with the live streaming tool. They code all of the individuals post event.
Tom has a full Analysis department.
They have multiple licences including a Nacsport Elite. Each analyst will be live coding different parts of the game, both TEAM and some INDI, getting every stat possible for live review with Coach Station fed straight to the bench, including opposition information. They look to analyse live in training also.
So, after reading this, do you want help to make a TEAM or INDI template?
Here are some things to bear in mind –
1. Pencil and paper. This is the first tip and maybe the most important one! A good template is the key to a good analysis. So list down your needs and draw your template with a pencil before creating it in the software. You can modify it as many times as necessary. Remember though, you will still be able to change anything once created or even print the screen and work over an already made template. 2. Colours & Shapes. Different colours for buttons help with easy identification. It is usual to choose different colours to distinguish teams or any other buttons under the same criteria. Also, polygons and freehand buttons ease distinction during registering (these type of buttons are only available from Basic Plus). 3. Sizes. Do not stick to just the default sizes for buttons or templates. Modify both elements to adapt them to your environment. 4. Inactive buttons. Group buttons visually with inactive buttons. For instance, one button for the attacking categories, another one for the defensive ones, and an inactive button for players’ names. You can also change the colour of these to add contrast with the background or template buttons. 5. Chain Of Notation. If you usually register actions with the same click sequence, it will be much more efficient for you to place them in an organised position. For example, if you click like this: “action + player + good or bad + area”, it is logical to place buttons in this order to make registering easier. 6. Pictures rather than words. If you want to locate your buttons on the fly, replace the names of the buttons with images. This is commonly used with players’ faces. 7. Hotkeys. Regular actions can be assigned a hotkey. This is a useful way to save some clicks. You have up to 173 different combinations but just a couple of them can be enough for easier registering. 8. Grid. The grid, along with the options “Adjust button to line” and “Align selected buttons with the reference button” will give you a more ordered template. 9. Excluding Buttons. Do you want to know the possession of your team? Then use the exclusion options on your buttons: “Possession A” and “Possession B”. With this option, as one button is registered, the other one stops registering automatically. Remember that you need to assign both buttons as manual mode. 10. Layers. You can place buttons in different layers. Use the options “Send to front/back” (show the pop up menu by right mouse clicking on the template). This is useful when you do not have much space and buttons are overlaid. It’s also perfect for the Clusters feature.
Or, you can cheat and use some of our samples here 😉
More helpful resources on templates –
Check out the Knowledge Base for more video tutorials on templates.
Or, check out our live online workshop on templates.
Well, where will coding go next!?
Logging on from the comfort of your own home?
….
What if you could pull ANY #YouTube video or #Livestream into your @Nacsport live coding process just by copy & pasting the url? Cool? Just one of the many new features planned for our next #update #performancenalsyis #realupdates #StayTuned pic.twitter.com/AKqX5YpoT1 — Alberto RG. (@albertorg1) July 18, 2019