Video analysis is utilised more and more in sports all around the world. It’s importance is growing on all levels of competition, from youth, amateur to professional level, and is used in both team sports as well as individual sports. There are many reasons why coaches are relying on this powerful tool in their approach, as well as many benefits for the coaches and players involved. Here we will list the three main reasons that make video analysis such an essential tool today.
1) Visualization
It is quite obvious that video is a visual media. This is a factor that needs not to be underestimated. Humans rely on their sight a lot. Most of the information, as well as the highest quality of information, enters the brain through our eyesight. This is especially important for the athletes, their perception and their individual development, not so much for the coach. Because the athletes are the coach’s tools on the pitch, they are the ones putting the coach’s ideas into practice.
In today’s fast-paced environment, the player’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Showing them visually enhanced information with video analysis technology is much more effective. Explaining the coach’s ideas or pointing out individual errors using videos is more potent than abstract explanations that use words only. Not to mention raw statistical data presented in tables!
For example, here is a situation that will work better with video analysis than with just using words. If you want to explain to your youth team football player that he shouldn’t just passively wait for the ball to arrive at his feet, you can let him watch a clip that highlights his position and how it could be improved. That way, the youth player will see how to open himself up and actively come towards the ball. This way the effect on his behaviour on the pitch will be much greater.
2) Simplicity
This next point really ties into the first. Video analysis is simple. With the help of programs like our Once Video Analyser PRO, professional analysis with graphics like on the TV is possible by using only a few clicks. No complicated technical knowledge is needed anymore to produce great sports video analysis.
Shorter videos with individual analysis can be exported easily and shared to online storage and the links shared directly to players via messengers like WhatsApp. This way every player, in addition to the team analysis presented to the whole team by the main coach, can also receive an individualized clip especially tailored to his needs by the assistant coach or video analyst (for example).
For example, if you use the Once Video Analyser PRO and have a 90 minute fully analysed football game opened in the drawing mode, but you don’t want all of it, you can just filter the actions by type. Let’s say you just want a short clip of your goalkeeper’s mistakes. You can just filter the actions by type on the right side with the check mark symbol and only select the actions named “GK mistakes”. Then select export with drawings, and once exported you can send it to your goalkeeper or watch it together with him.
3) Individual approach
Continuing from the previous point, an individual approach is very important in today’s sporting world. That goes for all sports types, not just individual sports like tennis or boxing.
After all, a team is made up by individuals, therefore every player contributes individually to the team’s performance on the pitch. Of course, the coach will communicate with the team as a whole the majority of the time, but the wisest and most skilled coaches will put in the effort and set aside the time to pull players aside separately and instruct them in one-on-one conversations. The same should be happening with video analysis too.
One way this can be done is by having an online database of video analysis, where you can create separate folders with individualized clips which can be accessed through links which are sent out only to the specific players.
There are many reasons one could come up with to support the usage of video analysis to enhance sports performance. These are just the three basic ones which should be convincing enough for every coach, club or manager.
If you are reading this and haven’t tried video analysis yet or are not satisfied with your results so far, visit once.de to download a free trial of the PRO version of our Once Video Analyser – the simple-to-use tool for professional video analysis with graphics like on television. We’re offering video call tutorials free-of-charge as well. Simply contact us at info@once.de to schedule a call where we will show you all the features of our program and answer any questions you might have.
