What is sports video analytics?

Sports video analysis or “tagging” is a way of marking events in a videotaped sports activity. Examples of events could be line-outs, scrums, goals, fouls, red or yellow cards, tennis serves, volleys, in fact any event in any sport.

Events are recorded on a timeline that shows the exact points in the match video that the events occurred, the timeline also shows how long each event lasted.

An example of this could be the volleyballs that occur in a tennis match. The analyst could see how long the volleys lasted and generate reports on which player won the most volleys. This information could be used to determine the strength or weakness of each player’s volleying abilities and over time improve the map due to training etc.

Events are tagged using a code window. When an event occurs in a match, the analyst clicks a button in the code window that represents the event. If a “home lineup” occurs in a rugby match, the analyst would click the “home lineup” button in the code window.

The code window event button may have other buttons associated with it that describe the event in more detail, in rugby this could be “home lineout -> Catch and drive” or “home lineout -> Off the top.” In some programs used to analyze matches, the “Local line-out” would be an “Action” and the associated “Catch & drive” or “Off top” would be “Tags”. This terminology varies but the idea is the same. This prevents mistakes like “Red Card -> Catch and Drive”; in rugby this doesn’t make sense.

Code windows are typically created by analysts tagging a match; some code windows are very basic and others can be incredibly detailed. There is no set code window that analysts use for any given sport, although some programs used to analyze or tag games provide default code windows to get you started.

Once an analyst has tagged all the events in a match, the data can be used to generate reports similar to the aforementioned tennis report. Reports can contain home and away possession percentages, home and away scoring, home and away penalties, etc. The reports would be relevant to the sport being analyzed and can be as detailed as the analyst wants them to be.

So why tag matches? Sports video analytics provides measurable performance gains as well as easy-to-understand visual feedback for coaches, players, and athletes. Analysis is a very effective way of pinpointing praiseworthy moments, as well as potential team weaknesses and areas that may need improvement. It helps to evaluate the game plans, sometimes of both competing teams to gain a competitive advantage.

Sports video analysis is now considered a crucial part of coaching and coaching across a wide range of sports, including football, rugby, hockey, cricket, baseball, soccer, etc., not just for athletes and teams. elite, but also for universities, colleges, private schools. and grassroots sports clubs.