What field of work are you in and when did you begin using Nacsport?

I am a Personal Trainer and sports coach. 

My work as an analyst is in Field Hockey with Cambridge City Hockey Club Men’s first team, who play in the National League East Conference. I am assistant coach and video analyst to the team - this is my second season with them.

I purchased Nacsport Basic at the beginning of the 2018-19 season then, in January this year, upgraded to Basic Plus for the extra features and added the KlipDraw plugin - to enhance my analysis. 

Do you have experience of any other performance analysis software?

Before starting with Cambridge, I had experience using other products as a free trial or at events, such as Gamebreaker and Hudl. 

While at university, my dissertation was a comparison between badminton and tennis shots, so video analysis had been part of my degree. Looking back on what I completed, Nacsport and KlipDraw would have enhanced my work on that project tenfold.

How did you discover Nacsport?

I stumbled across Nacsport on Twitter back in late 2017 and noticed how many big European clubs use your products. Then I got in touch with Bradley at AnalysisPro and we had what I thought was a 30-minute chat… actually it lasted 2 hours. (Sorry about that Bradley).

Of course, now I realize Bradley just wanted to understand exactly what I needed and he also had a lot to explain about the software’s functionality. He was just making sure I’d end up with the right product for our team - which was highly appreciated.

It was that attention to detail, along with the fact that I could purchase a lifetime license, that were the major reasons I went with Nacsport.

What were your first impressions?

As a coach and analyst, I wanted to see what the program was capable of before buying, so having a free trial was excellent. Then, in a second call, Bradley answered even more of my questions before I purchased my license.

After buying I did encounter a couple of issues, but again, the AnalysisPro support team were brilliant and solved my problems within an hour - so brilliant service from the entire team.

Tell us a little about your analytical processes

With my analysis, I approach things differently week on week. 

At the start of pre-season, I was just clipping relevant things, sending them out to the squad and asking for their feedback on good and bad points. This could be of ourselves or the opposition, so we could build up and idea of what to expect. 

Discussions with the head coach on what he wanted me to look for and show to the squad also determined what I analyzed. 

Weaknesses I noticed were clipped and animated using KlipDraw to show to the players. 

All our analysis is sent via WeTransfer, or shown through Nacsport, at the club on training nights before matches. On game day, we use an iPad to film Short Corner Attack and Defence to adjust our routines on a play by play basis, when watching the footage back. 

During the first few weeks, players needed to adjust to watching back footage during a game. But they soon began to understand why we were doing it and started asking questions. 

At that point it became ‘real’ and the squad began using the resource. In many cases individual clips helped players adapt to certain situations within matches - such a 1v1s with the Goalkeeper. 

It’s not unusual for players to thank me after a game for showing them clips during the match which have helped them correct or improve their play.

I try to keep my clips short and to the point to retain player interest and focus (approx 15-20 seconds per clip maximum). Some players love the feedback and ask for more, others are less interested - but understand why we are doing it as a club. 

During the season we train on Tuesdays and Thursdays, typically playing our matches on a Sunday. I film every Sunday game without fail, then produce clips for training 2 days later.

At Cambridge we have just had investment to put down 3 new pitches and develop a great new facility. Over the summer, the facilities manager intends to erect a high-rise platform to film on. So, from next season all club teams can choose to film their games, and we have had an especially good response to this from the junior section coaches. 

From an analytical perspective things look promising for the club! Currently though, only the elite squads are filmed, including our women's team who also play in the National League East Conference.

I have downloaded some FIH Pro League film, EHL and YouTube clips to show the team at different points during the season. A great benefit with Nacsport is that the software can play pretty much any video file, so we can import more footage to analyze. 

Players love the statistics I gather for the team and with Nacsport Basic Plus I can quickly review a film for certain elements of play, with the registered actions available to review instantly, saving me lots of time with analysis. 

The team at Nacsport and AnalysisPro have been brilliant, offering help, checking on how things are going and the progress of the team.  

With many softwares and video analysis products available, Nacsport offers almost unlimited features at a very competitive price. 

You could go out and spend a fortune on some of the products out there, or you could make a sensible choice, look into Nacsport and their suite of analytical products.