New Algorithm for Performance Analysis in Sport
Posted by David Keefe on Mon, Mar 21, 2011 @ 09:24 AM
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!