End of Season Review Complete … or Is It??
So you’ve arrived to the end of the season, you’ve done your end of season players/performance review, started to put plans in place for pre-season, probably lined up your coaching team, begun your player recruitment and now it is time to take a well earned break! Before you go it might be a good idea to have a quick review of your rugby team’s video and performance analysis efforts for the year and see if you got the best out of that vital area in your overall teams performance on the pitch.
A couple of key questions to ask:
1. Were we as effective as we wanted?
2. Was our communication clear and effective?
3. What did we learn?
4. Did we get a good return on our investment?
And probably most importantly
5. What are we going to change for next year?
As you answer these questions its worth having a look at the metrics you tracked:
1. Were they all relevant to how you wanted to play?
2. Did they drive improvement?
3. Were there too many data points?
4. Was there too few?
5. Did we have the right data at the right time?
A key factor we need to consider is also timing. How long does it take to get the information into the right hands, i.e.coaches, team managers and most importantly players for it to be effective?
The longer it takes to get the data the less effective it is going to be, that’s a given. The sooner you can get the hard facts into the right hands the less chance there is of cognitive bias slipping in.
When looking at timing we should also consider season timing, did you start your performance analysis too late?
Would it be useful to record games and provide a deeper set of analysis in preseason or earlier in the season when the learnings can be digested with ease big modifications made for the season ahead.
One of the big issues we face with video analysis in season is that it is ultimately quite reactive, so we need to ensure the data points are correct from week to week, so we fix what needs to be fixed. Wouldn’t it be nicer to be more proactive about things?
That leads to the next question, are the performance analysts on the same page as the coaches and athletes? Are they all talking the same lingo or is there a chink in the chain?
Did the club get any upside for our video analysis efforts? Did they get nice try reels, highlight videos and other social type assets that can help engage the wider club and attract sponsors?
Do we have the right people capturing the match day video and providing the analysis? If the camera person gets a bit too involved in the game, then maybe they are suited to a different role for the upcoming season.
How about the tools we used? Was our camera setup appropriate for our needs? Did we use a single camera setup, do we need to move to a dual camera setup? Are we getting high enough to see the detail we want to see? Does the software we are using fit our needs, does it offer enough scope to spread the analysis load, does it promote effective communication, is it streamlined to get to the nitty gritty fast and with minimal effort?
Are we building assets that can be used later in the season, digested through the club so that everyone benefits? For example, do our u20s or u18s teams get to see what good looks like?
There are at least another 20 more questions that you could ask to help shape things for the season to come, but just pick out a couple of key elements that will have maximum impact and you will no doubt be on course for a dramatic uplift the effectiveness of your video and performance analysis efforts in the coming season.
If you fancy an external review of your current setup, feel free to give us a call and we would be more than happy to help.
