Up My Game Blog

Talent is overrated. This coach has it figured out.

David Keefe — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:18:00 GMT

We are so lucky to work with amazing people. Every coach that we interact with has an amazing story. Some have coached world champions, some have been world champions and some are just trying to make a difference with a kid that might not otherwise get the chance to participate in sport and we have coaches everywhere in between. Most coach kids when they cant afford it and they all work like crazy for their athletes. Not only are they doing all those amazing things they are looking outside the box for tools to help their kids get better faster. David Beard is a new addition to our roster and we would like to take a moment to recognize his efforts. He has an inspiring story.

Was there a specific point in time when I knew I was going to be a coach?

I think the coaching itself started fresh out of High School. Here's the story.. I was one of those athletes that people would have thought of not having any talent and would have never had the chance to go anywhere and for 3-years of High School all I did mostly was ride the bench. My father came across "Intencity" which at the time took care of strength-n-conditioning for the Lakers, Angels, Mighty Ducks and more. Well, my father had a $1,000 to spare and signed my life away for 3-days a week for 8 weeks and I say signed my life away because I didn't think it was going to do much but father believed in me and wanted more for me so he told me that it was what I was going to do and need to get off the bench.

Well, it change my life. I gained weight, came back stronger, faster, and a more determined athlete. Become 1st All League for Center and Pitching, started all games, went to College and had the opportunity to go Semi-Pro.

Coaching started after all this because I wanted to show others how their lives could be changed as well with a little help and belief.

How long have I been a Coach?

In baseball, on and off since after college. About 10 years. Coaching athletes and individuals such as for speed, swimmers, triathletes, other sports and fitness nuts, constantly for 10 years and on going.

Background of the Academy and Athletes..

The academy is like a school for baseball and softball athletes. We have a regular academy program that covers defense and offense up to 5 days a week. We also have pitching and hitting programs. The academy's vision is "Through Deliberate Training Anyone Can Achieve" and our mission to give more opportunities to more athletes so that we can change their lives and it's a program that even a single mother with 4-kids could send their athlete too to help change his/her life.

The athletes.. they are the biggest hearted, most passionate kids that were never given a chance by most merely because they were looked at by the outside. Our athletes are truly Xtraordinary because they train more than many, if not most athletes, that are so called "Talented" and value the focus on the little things that matter in order to create the final masterpiece.

We're not an emotional program that is concerned with winning now and needing to play nothing but games to make our athletes feel good that they are out having fun. We're a rationale program that looks to the future and it is what we are preparing for-- their futures. We sacrifice games to train because we want the highest success rate when it comes to successful athletes and I'm not just talking about being successful in the game, I'm talking about being successful in life which is what great coaches in any game will teach you.

They will lead better and more successful lives.

Ideas that I think other coaches would benefit from..

Seeing things in a better way rather than yours being the right way. This way you’re always progressing your instruction, the drill or your teachings to better the athlete all the time.

Stay the course. Politics get in the way of many kids futures. There many great athletes in many kids and most of them never get the chance because a coach brings in the politics. Consider focusing and basing your judgment on "Effort".

Try something. If it doesn't work, so what. Something we tell the athletes, "Try, try and try again otherwise you may never notice what true greatness lies within".

Experience using video analysis.

I have some experience with various softwares and it has helped a lot in making sure that I don't get comfortable with myself and that I get a second pair of eyes.

Research..

Did a bit of research with what I could find before I came across UpMyGame and know of many different softwares that are available but few were able to be used online for my athletes and only UpMyGame was really affordable with professional tools that could be utilized for professional feedback.

David Beard is an amazing coach and we are glad to work with his team. We are glad to be his choice for baseball video analysis software and will work as hard as he does to make sure our solution saves him time and gets his kids better.

If you have any questions about motion analysis or baseball video analysis specifically please dont hesitate to drop us a line.

Top 3 Reasons Swimmers benefit the most from Video Analysis Software.

David Keefe — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:01:00 GMT

I am sure there are a few people out there that might disagree with this one. Swimming comes up often in the office because they are well represented as customers. I personally believe that all athletes benefit from video and it is unrelated to the sport. Some athletes may respond better than others to video. Test your athletes and see how they do.

The top 3 reasons to use video with swimmers are:

1. The obvious reason is that the most important aspect of the stroke happens under the water where you cant see it. The entry, the pull, and the exit all happen out of the coaches view. A bad entry that creates bubbles and resistance will slow you down. An ineficient pull and you are loosing propulsion. You get the idea. How do coaches see any of these things if they are not using video? You cant. Even if you could see underwater remember of the intricacies of the stroke. Watching the swimming in slow motion is essential to understanding the strike. Please use video.

2. Body position is #2. Water is much more difficult to get through than air so body position is much more important to a swimmer than say a runner. Everytime I think of body position I think of Alain Bernard getting out touched at the wall in the Beijing Olypmics. I couldnt find the slow motion swimming video that showed Bernard looking at Lezak at the wall but that poor body position cost him the gold. Take a look at the head position in your local pool - it isnt pretty. Is missing a gold medal a good enough reason to use video in your training?

3.. Video is an eqaulizer for coaches and athletes. Ever thought the athlete didnt understand what you were trying to tell them? Video is a language everyone understands. By annotating frames of video and shareing with your athletes you ensure that you are on the same page. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is worth a million!

Many of these points are transferrable to other sports and to be quite honest I do not know what sport is best suited for video but I do know it plays one very large aspect of all sports training. If you are not using video now please start and do your athletes a favour. Video is the easiest and most efficent way to get your athletes better.

Search the web for some solutions. Keywords and Companies that are in the business of sports video analysis software include the following:

Dartfish

Silicon Coach

Motion Pro

Video Analysis Software

Sports video Analysis Software

Online video analysis

Video analysis program for sport

Good luck with your search. If you need any further help on the subject please call or ask a question. I am extremely passionate about the use of video in sport and will talk to anyone who will listen. If you have ideas or concerns please drop a line. I am glad to help.

New Algorithm for Performance Analysis in Sport

David Keefe — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:24:00 GMT

There are many solutions for sports software and more specifically for sports video analysis software but up until now no solution has been able report on exactly what terms and what tone coaches use when instructing their athletes. While UpMyGame understands the competitive nature or the business and the need for privacy it is also important to share best practices and ideas around coaching with our customers. We tested an algorithm this week that gives us insight into what terms are used and what tone is used by coaches operating on the UpMyGame platform. With 100% of the coaching sessions created in our sports video analysis software getting stored in the cloud and in one central database it makes if possible for us to do research at the same time as respecting the privacy of our customers. What % of coaching sessions have recurring themes, what cues are coaches using? Are coaches framing their comments in a positive fashion or a negative fashion? These are all questions we are able to answer. Here is the story of what we did.

We decided we needed an algorithm to determine the elements and tone in coaching sessions created on our platform. Our goals include saving coaches time and offering best practices as it relates to motion analysis and performance analysis in sport we wanted to share some insight into what coaches were talking about with their athletes and what tone they used. Was it better to sugar coat your coaching or "diss". What works best? Our first test was done on a random sample set of coaching sessions created this week in the sport of swimming. On review of the sample we note that athletes involved ranged from young age groupers to Olympic Champions and on the coaches ranged from volunteer coaches to National Team coaches with gold medal performance achievements.

There was a tie for first place in terms of mentions or cues, tone, and advice. Both Body Rotation and Elbow Position made up for 14% of the elements mentioned in our sample. When Coaches mentioned these two elements 50% of the time there was a positive tone meaning the coach was complementing or recognizing the performance in a positive manner. 50% of the mentions led to the coach suggesting future improment. That means 50% of the time the coach thought no further improvement was necessary.

Second most discussed element with 12% was Body Position. When discussing body position 100% of the time the tone was positive. This means that when annotating frames associated with Body Position the coach always started with a positive remark about body position.

Pull, Hips, Entry and Kick were all mentioned 5% of the time. Swimmers were doing better at Pull and Kick with 80% of references being positive with a little more work needed in Pull than Kick. Hips and Entry were not done very well by the swimmers this week with only 20% of the mentions being positive with 100% of the time further inprovement was required.

Breathing, Streamline and Head Posture were all mentioned 4% of the time. Head position was referenced positvely 100% of the time while Streamline was reference postively 50% of the time and breathing had no postive references. 50% of the time further improvement was required in Streamline and improvement required 100% of the time in Breathing and interestingly enought Head Posture too.

Drag, Balance, and Core were all mentioned 2% of the time with no postive tone and more improvment needed 100% of the time.

Interesting facts:

3% of time the coach referenced a drill for the athlete to do and 2% of the time the coach asked the athlete to visualize something.

1 time a coach mentioned the Olympics (motivation) and 1 time a coach mentioned youtube!

This alogrithym is not perfect and we will refine it over time. If you have suggestions please let us know.

If this type of data interests you please let us know as we will continue to share with the braoder coaching community. Improving athletes using video analysis is the low hanging fruit in the sports world and it is the fastest and easiest way to improve you athletes technique. If you are coach sitting on the sidelines not using video please get in the game and use video. There are a number of applications ranging from free - Kinovia to very expensive - Dartfish please take a look around at your options and start using something!

Some keywords you might search for when looking for video analysis software are:

Motion analysis software

Performance analysis in sport

Sports video analysis

Easy video analysis software

Performance analysis in sport

Sports video analysis software

Sports software

Good luck and let us know how you make out!

Individual Analysis Sofware or Team Analysis Software?

David Keefe — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:23:00 GMT

Performance analysis in sport seems to have two distinct camps. The first is Team Analysis and is the tactical breakdown of game/practice footage and is used to develop strategy at the team level. The second camp is Technique Analysis and is biomechanical analysis used to develop the fundamental skill associated with the performance.

A basketball coach from the Team Analysis camp reviews video footage with his team (hopefully using some form of video analysis software) and his focus is plays. He shows his team how to get a player open against a certain defense so they can get a shot off and make a basket.

A basketball coach from the Technique Analysis Camp pulls a couple of athletes aside during every practice and rolls video on their shot. Again using some form of motion analysis software Like Darfish, Silicon Coach, Quintic, or UpMyGame they would offer biomechanical advice by annotating the video and giving the athlete some ideas to work. When the athlete gets the chance to perform their jumper in a game situation they make the shot.

Which one is bigger? Team Analysis is bigger. This is because it is easier to perfom and by the time the athlete gets on a team good enough to use video it is assumed they know how to perform their skill. It is easier for a team because you set up one, two, four or five cameras on tripods and you click record. Teams using multiple cameras normally have the budget to pay someone to shoot and edit the video so all the coach needs to do is go over the footage with his team. Moving the camera around for individual players is harder to do. With teams come bigger budgets and a bigger camp.

It is pretty obvious to me that there should only be one camp as tactical and biomechanical analysis are essential to winning and are not independant of one another unless you are in a sport like archery (individual skill). The size discrepenancy between the two camps is quite worrisome. Kids are missing biomechanical training early in their development and only getting exposed tactical video if they are lucky enough or last long enough in the sport. There is only so many ways you can explain to an athlete to get to a point faster on the pitch if he runs with a mechanical deffect.

Coaches please keep in mind that individual technique is the building block of good teams. Trust me, there are a lot of athletes performing at the world and Olympic level with issues that should have been caught and worked on a long time ago.

Win Olympic Gold with Video Analysis Software Only?

David Keefe — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:46:00 GMT

OK this is cool. Ian Thorpe is planning on winning gold medals in London 2012 taking on the likes of Olympic Champ Michael Phelps, Olympic champ Alain Bernard, world champion Cesar Cielo, Commonwealth gold medallist Brent Hayden, and Australia's Eamon Sullivan and how is he going to do it? He is planning on training in Abu Dhabi with little to no face time with Australian head coach Leigh Nugent. Nugent is going to rely upon video technology and the internet to monitor his progress. Granite Stoelwinder says Thorpe is going to require a sub 48.5 second 100M to make the Austrailian team. That is faster than he swam before he retired. It is pretty amazing that Thorpe is going to buck the trend of training groups (think Abu Dhabi) and rely on improving his technique and using video analysis and video analysis software alone to get him swimming faster than he has ever swum before after 4 years off! Thorpe has a lot of gold medals and had a few years to think about how to win some more so he is hard to second guess. I personally like his choice and I hope if he runs into any problems sending those files to his coach he drops us a line. We will hook him up with a very elegant solution that will allow him to archive his own footate and allow ANY of his coaches to annotate the video from anywhere in the world. London 2012 is going to be pretty exciting in the pool.

Have Sports Video Coaching Software?

David Keefe — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:07:00 GMT

Video Analysis Of Sports - Getting The Best Footage Possible

Author: Dudley Tabakin (Dudley is a world class expert in the field of video/motion capture and is a big supporter of video analysis software companies and always willing to share his expertise)

Video analysis of sports performance is often the domain of professional athletes and large companies or research institutions. This analysis is done with expensive 3D video camera equipment and complicated software to ensure high speeds and accuracy. However there are some basic techniques that can be used by any individual to evaluate their own performance and get great results using a simple digital video camera and a little understanding of human biomechanics (the mechanics of human movement). The video camera will require a small cost (we will discuss what makes a good camera in a future posting), but we will supply you with much of the biomechanics understanding for free on this blog.

Reviewing video clips can be a great way to provide coaching feedback to players, as well as a means to emulate one's favorite athletes. Whether you're a professional all-star, high school athlete, or weekend warrior, seeing yourself from a different perspective can help improve your performance and/or minimize your chances of injury.

So in this first posting, we'll start right at the beginning and describe what features make a sports clip suitable for video analysis of an individual, and what you can do to ensure the clips you film will meet those requirements. Future postings will demonstrate the various levels of analysis that can be performed on suitable videos, using a range of available software, from basic free software to detailed 3D analysis.

What makes a good sports clip?
A good sports clip of an individual shows the athlete's full range of motion (ROM) during an action, with the camera positioned such that angles can be accurately calculated (this will be discussed in more detail later). Filming the athlete's ROM can be accomplished by simply zooming out or moving the camera backwards until all the desired features are in the viewer. In general, it's recommended to have the camera as close to the athlete as possible and still capture the entire ROM, as this will make the most use of the camera sensor's resolution. For example, if we were to capture a basketball player dunking the ball we would want to ensure that our camera can see the complete action from take off until the player puts the ball in the net. Our camera would therefore need to see the ground at the take off point as well as some space above the rim of the the net.

Another important factor in obtaining a great sports clip is to make sure that your camera is stationary. There are some motion capture software available that can handle a moving camera, but for now we suggest that the camera is mounted on a tripod and is not moved while the video clip is being filmed. This means that you should ensure the full ROM (described above) can be captured in this one shot.

How you can film useful footage:
Camera placement
In general, most sports clips we watch on tv are best suited for analyzing strategy and teamwork because they provide an overall picture of many or all of the competitors and the playing field. However, when it comes to analyzing an individual's performance or technique, it's not only important to focus the camera on the single athlete, but the angle we film from must also be taken into account. It's best to use "orthogonal angles", meaning the camera is directly in front of, behind, or to the side of the athlete. Golf coverage usually does a nice job of this, providing shots of the golfer either "face-on" or "down-the-line".

Notice how video footage of golf often have the cameras level with the golfer; they're not filmed at an upward or downward angle, meaning it's possible to accurately calculate some angles, if that's what is desired from the analysis.

Background/contrast
Although the above clip is a beautiful view of Tiger's swing, the footage could have been improved by having him wear clothes that were a different color from the background. Black clothing with a black background can make it difficult to accurately evaluate the amount of hip and shoulder rotation - two commonly analyzed characteristics of a golf swing. Not that having a solid black background is a bad thing though; on the contrary, if you can manage to film your athlete with a solid-colored background, you are well on your way to filming some nice footage for analysis.

Lighting
As is true with taking most photos, it's ideal to position the camera and athlete such that the light source (e.g., the sun) is behind the camera and illuminates the athlete. This will provide a crisp view of the athlete, and will allow you to use a more open setting on the camera's aperture.

Now that you're up to speed on the basics of filming great video for analysis, grab your video camera and start practicing!

At http://videosportsanalysis.blogspot.com you can follow regular updates on the Video Analysis of Sports and learn more about how to analyse your on sports performance.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/video-analysis-of-sports-getting-the-best-footage-possible-803229.html

About the Author

Dudley Tabakin is Co-Founder of Sadaka, LLC http://videosportsanalysis.blogspot.com, a motion capture and biomechanics consultancy. Clients include FootJoy, Titleist, Warrior Hockey, Vicon Motion Systems, Innovision Systems Inc. and other Sports and Motion capture and biomechanics software companies.

Looking for Basketball Analysis Software?

David Keefe — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:13:00 GMT

Just had a really nice conversation with basketball coach from South Carolina. He has been "heavily" researching anaysis software for his basketball team and he wanted to talk on the phone before he made a commitment to upmygame online video analysis tools. I was excited to hear his questions and I was also excited to ask some of my own.

His first question was how the videos got in the hands of his athletes and would they be private? I explained that historically 70% of videos getting uploaded are uploaded by a coach (45% for today) and that when the coach uploads the video they enter their athletes email address (first time only) and that their athlete will be sent a link in the mail to take ownership of the video. If it is the athlete's first video they will need to register in the system to take ownership of the video. Any coaching sessions on that athletes video will result in another email notification to the athlete with a link to watch the coaching session. He wanted to know about privacy and I explained that all online video analysis coaching sessions could be made public or private. He also wanted to know a little bit about ecommerce and what types of things coaches were selling. I explained that some coaches sell coaching sessions to athletes that they have never met before and that this service is normally marketed by the individual coach. His final set of questions were about the tools themselves. He wanted to know what tools he would have access to. I explained that a coach could add lines, pencil diagrams, angles, text, audio, spline drawing and rectangles to one frame or multiple frames of the video. He asked if you could follow the trajectory of the ball and I told him you could not do that (I have researched it) but nobody has ever asked for it. I try to keep the application easy but if that was something he couldnt do his job without we could make it happen for him. One thing that I was very happy about wat that the coach understood that he got his own website www.myteam.upmygame.com and that it looked like his team website. This is a very cool feature that we offer and not everyone gets that right away. Coach liked all of my answer and said he would become a new customer.

Now it was my turn to ask some questions. I asked him "What were you looking for when you found upmygame?" He told me he was searching for "basketball analysis software". He told me he found upmygame on the 6th page of google. I was a little surprised that he would find upmygame for the keyword on google at all but it sounded good to me. Then he said "hmmm, maybe I didnt". What we found out was that he had found another basketball coach who uses upmygame software on the 6th page of google and had found us from that site. If you are a basketball coaching looking for online video analysis software and not the old expensive offline video analysis software or the kind that you do the edits offline and then publish online upmygame would like to serve your needs. Please ask away with all your questions and I would be glad to help. Hopefully by telling this story you can some idea about what upmygame does to help coaches do their job and they act like a partner. Our goal is to give you the tools to perform video analysis with your athletes and make it easy and fun to do. We know you dont have much time so we make it quick too!

What are the top 3 sports using Online Video Analysis?

David Keefe — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:15:00 GMT

Got some feedback on the last post. Some of the coaches of sports left off the last list wanted to say that the top coaches in ALL sports use video analysis software. Thank you for reminding me of that. Wish all coaches used more video with their teams and athletes and not just the elite coaches. The goal of UpMyGame is to offer a solution that is easy to use and helps a coach over come any all all barriers to successfully incorporating video analysis into their program.

This might be a bit bold but I am going to argue that UpMyGame has the most coaches and athletes using online tools and is the leader in the online video analysis category. From this position I am able to tell you what sports are leading the way migrating from traditional desktop software to online video analysis. If you think there is any other company in the category that might be able to offer some more data please let me know and I will contact them and recreate the list if needed.

Top Users of Online Video/Motion Analysis

1. Swimming

2. Triathlon (Swim/Bike/Run)

3. Running

Notice a bit of a trend? What other sports would benefit from moving their tools online? Please share your thoughts below. Thanks in advance for you time.

Basketball Coach Struggles with Video Analysis

David Keefe — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:44:00 GMT

Got a new twitter follower recently who is a basketball coach at a leading Canadian University. I am always thrilled when I see a coach who has pieced together a solution for distributing video analysis for their athletes. Coaching is a tough business and it requires a lot of time. Video analysis software has been expensive, hard to use and is time consuming so I applaud all coaches who have been doing it the hard way. UpMyGame is changing that. The UpMyGame solution is built to make the coach's life easy so I am pretty confident that any coach using video could save time and improve their team's performance with our tools. Below is the screen capture I created for that coach. If anyone has feedback about the product as it is detailed in the screen cast or about my screen cast skills all feedback is welcome :)

Olympic Swimmer Explains Video Analysis Capture (The finer points)

David Keefe — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:12:00 GMT

Glenn Mills is an Olympic Swimmer and one of the most well respected and influential coaches in the sport. Glenn has always been a promoter video analysis for his athlete and other coaches. Glenn has shared some of his views on the topic with us.

"I personally have found that by using video as a feedback, or instruction device, has been one of the most successful tools as a coach and teacher. Language, while obviously, the most used tool in human communication, is too complex and too varied from individual to individual, to guarantee a total understanding of what's being explained. Whereas, an image, a video, the visual representation of exactly what you'd like someone to do, or fix, or attempt, combined with language, becomes the translator, or unifier of the message.

I've discovered that beautiful imagery alone, will typically teach and athlete more than an article about how something is supposed to be accomplished. However, imagery and language combined, gives the most complete explanation.

The ability for the average person to have access to video of THEMSELVES, combined with language of an expert, is something that's simply been out of reach for a long time. As a US Olympic Swimmer, I've always had access to it. However, to bring this to the masses, can serve as one of the best tools a learning athlete could get access to.

UpMyGame.com,* in my opinion, is the best, most convenient system I've ever come across"

Glenn Mills

US Olympic Swimmer

Founder, Go Swim Productions, LLC

Webmaster, www.goswim.com

*we couldnt help him giving us a plug but our intention is to convert more people to Glenn's way of thinking about video analysis as a tool to improve performance.

This is a how to video for shooting good swimming video.

Video Analysis, hard work, bronze medal for our own Adrienne Power

David Keefe — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:12:00 GMT

One of our very first "elite" athletes was Adrienne Power. She has a ton of natural ability and the strongest work ethic I have seen. When I first started reviewing her coaching sessions on upmygame.com (with her permission) I was quite surprised that her coaches were able to find faults in her technique! How fast could she be if she fixed these issues? Well this past weekend she won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Upon review of the race footage I think she needs to spend a little more time in front of the camera is she is going to be winning Olympic Gold in 2012. We will be there for you Adrienne, way to go!

Ironman Training and Video Analysis

David Keefe — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:11:00 GMT

UpMyGame athlete Laura Reardon has been doing Triathlon for 2 years. She has competed in 1 world Championship, qualified for another 2 and is attempting her first Ironman November 6th 2010 in Florida - . Using UpMyGame as triathlon training software over the past 2 years Laura has received swim bike and run feedback from Lance Watson - http://www.lifesportcoaching.com/coaching.php, Jonty Skinner (17X Olympic Gold Medal Coach) http://site.athleticintelligenceconsulting.com/About.html, and a few others. We followed Laura on her final long tempo run before Ironman Florida as the support team - we carried the drinks, gels, and clothes as they were dropped on the path. Laura was accompanied by Solomon who is a sub 30 minutes 10K guy. First thing Laura asked after catching her breath (she maintained her sub 3 hour Marathon pace and the run was preceded by a 2.5 hour threshold bike) was "Did you get any video?" We did. Have a peak.

Up My Game Blog

Talent is overrated. This coach has it figured out.

Top 3 Reasons Swimmers benefit the most from Video Analysis Software.

New Algorithm for Performance Analysis in Sport

Individual Analysis Sofware or Team Analysis Software?

Win Olympic Gold with Video Analysis Software Only?

Have Sports Video Coaching Software?

Video Analysis Of Sports - Getting The Best Footage Possible

Looking for Basketball Analysis Software?

What are the top 3 sports using Online Video Analysis?

Top 3 Sports Using Video Analysis Software

Basketball Coach Struggles with Video Analysis

Olympic Swimmer Explains Video Analysis Capture (The finer points)

Video Analysis, hard work, bronze medal for our own Adrienne Power

Ironman Training and Video Analysis