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

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

An example of this could be the volleys 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 volley skills and, over time, map improvements due to training, etc.

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

The event button in the code window may have other buttons associated with it that describe the event in more detail, in rugby this could be “home start line -> Catch and drive” or “home start line -> Away. the top”. In some software used to analyze matches, the “start line output” would be an “Action” and the associated “Catch and Drive” or “Off Top” would be “Tags”. This terminology varies but the idea is the same. These mistakes are made like “Red card -> Catch and drive” – ​​in rugby, this does not make sense.

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

Once an analyst has tagged all the events in a match, the data can be used to generate reports similar to the tennis report mentioned above. Reports can contain home and away possession percentages, home and away scores, 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 does the label match? 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 to pinpoint praiseworthy moments as well as potential team weaknesses and areas that may need improvement. Helps evaluate game plans, sometimes of both teams in competition to gain competitive advantage.

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