Newsletter 15 : Febuary 2009

Welcome to our first, (albeit abbreviated,) Newsletter for 2009

Firstly, all of us at Sportstec would like to wish everyone a prosperous New Year.  2009 already is looking to be an extremely exciting year for Sportstec and we hope that for you also the year will be a good one.

I would like to apologise for the Newsletter slipping behind our objectives of at least once every 2 months during 2008.  We had a lot of changes during the year and unfortunately the Newsletter suffered.  I am committed to getting this informative Newsletter back on track for you all.

As the year progresses I will be informing you about new products we are currently working on and updates to existing products.

If you would like to share your experience with other customers we would love to write a case study and publish it in our Newsletter.  We believe sharing of this information is a vital part of the education process with our products.  Contact me if you would like to contribute.

Facebook.  Sportstec during 2008 launched Sportstec’s Facebook group.  We are controlling admission to the Group and hoping this will be an informal space where you can discuss with other users any topics you desire. 

To register go to www.facebook.com in Groups enter Sportstec and follow the joining prompts.  The registration will take a couple of days as we ensure only valid users join this group.   I trust you will find it useful.

Again Happy New Year.

Philip Jackson

Managing Director

In this months issue:

Technical Support

It is all too often that we are asked about all the keyboard shortcuts in SportsCode.
While there is a lot of them, sometimes there are ways that could make your workflow easier that are not available by default. So, here might be one way to reduce the steps in your workflow by creating your own shortcuts for SportsCode using features in Mac OS X.

Products

Case Study

Sportstec in the press

We try to monitor wherever and whenever Sportstec or Sportstec products receive press coverage. If you become aware of any coverage which may be of general interest, (especially good news stories,) we'd be delighted to hear from you. Simply send us details of the publication or a copy of the article to info@sportstec.com

Technical Support

1. Open System Preferences by choosing System Preferences... Under the Apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
2. In the hardware section of System Preferences click, on Keyboard & Mouse
3. In the Keyboard & Mouse panel, click on the Keyboard Shortcuts button.
4. Below the list of shortcuts is a PLUS buttonClick on this button to add a new shortcut.
5. A panel will roll out of the top of the window.
6. Click on the All Applications list button and choose SportsCode in the list. This displays all the application in the /Applications folder. If your application resides in another folder, you can point to it by choosing Other.. At the bottom of the list.
7. Type in the exact name of the menu item you want to make the shortcut for in the Menu Title test box. So, to make a new timeline in SportsCode, you choose File > New > Timeline. Simply add Timeline in the text box. Then click in Keyboard Shortcut text box and press the keyboard combination that you want to assign. In this case, I pressed OPTION+COMMAND+N.
8. Now press the Add button. This assigns the new shortcut to SportsCode. To view custom shortcuts, scroll down the list of shortcuts to the bottom and you will find your custom shortcuts Under the Application Keyboard Shortcuts section.
9. Also, you will see the new shortcut in SportsCode under the File > New > Timeline.

Things to remember:

• Check all the menus for the key combination you want to use. If you choose a key combination that already exists in the application, the new shortcut will not work. It does not override the default shortcuts built in the application. This is easily done by clicking through all the drop down menus at the top of the screen.
• Try using COMMAND+OPTION or OPTION+SHIFT plus any character, for most occasions you should not collide with other keyboard combinations.
• You must type in the exact name of the menu item. This includes any punctuation such as “...” Note that in an application all menu items must be unique, so there will be only one.
• Sometimes our users rename their applications, if you setup some specific shortcuts for an application named SportsCode and it is renamed to SportsCode1, the shortcuts may not work because the operating system is looking for SportsCode not SportsCode1.
   

 

Case Study

                                                       

                                            Bolton  Wanderers

 

Matchday Magic

 

It’s Saturday,  2.55pm,  a thunderous cheer erupts around the Reebok Stadium as the crowd applaud their team out of the tunnel.  Matchday is here and it is what every player, manager and supporter lives for and this is no different for Bolton Wanderers’ Analytical Performance Unit.  For this is what the week’s preparation and planning is geared towards, those 90 emotion-jerking minutes out on the green grass in Horwich.  However, despite all the ups and downs of the rollercoaster which is a football match, the analysts here at the Wanderers need to keep a calm, collected and objective head at all times, for they know the information that they pass on to the manager and his coaching staff must be accurate and specific as to aid the team in collecting those vital three points.

One tool that assists with this information delivery process is SportsCode.  A video capture and analysis software designed specifically for the Apple Macintosh computer due to the Mac’s capability to process large video files efficiently.

It’s the job of Bolton’s analysts, Brian, Alex and Lee, to use SportsCode capabilities to the maximum possible benefits and Alex Davies explains how the guys do this.

“SportsCode is such a comprehensive tool that enables us to code key events situated around our game plan to establish whether each individual and the team as a whole have stuck to their roles and responsibilities.”

The video information then derived from this coding process enables the manager and coaching staff to provide visual representation of the key concepts of the manager’s half time team talk.  This may range from how the team is going to negate the opposition’s first half strengths through to the re-emphasis of the match strategy through positive reinforcement.
                                           

                                                            Reebok  Stadium

So, that’s the why, but now for the how !  Head of Analytical Performance at Bolton Wanderers, Brian Prestidge, explains : “Our set-up at the stadium allows us to take a live feed from the television production team (ie. SKY/BBC) directly into the Performance Analysis room adjacent to the dressing room.  The SportsCode software is then used to capture and code the match through a unique and fully customizable button input.  This input will be altered depending upon our match strategy for each specific match.”
 

“As Alex is coding the match, I am logged on to another Mac computer and, through another SportsCode system, I will be reviewing the match as it is happening and comparing this to our pre-match strategy.  Through radio link-up the Managerial team and another member of our Performance Analysis team in the stands, Lee Sargeson, we will communicate in respect to establishing patterns of play that are occurring during the match and liaise as to preparing video clips for the half time team talk.”
Another regular occurrence throughout a match is for Bolton’s first team coach Steve Wigley to make his way through to the Performance Analysis room to observe key instances again to establish what went wrong or right.

Alex explains that “without the use of SportsCode, the instant replay of these key instances for Wigs to observe would be impossible.”

One recent development within the SportsCode product is the ability for multiple camera angles, thus allowing the capability to analyse a wide variety of aspects of team performance. This is where the Wanderers Analytical Performance Unit bring in additional match day support in the shape of Adam “Napolean” Brown.  Adam analyses team shape using behind the goal cameras to establish how each department of the team, defence/midfield/attack, are communicating and positioning themselves as a unit.  Adam emphasizes the importance of this by stating “you get a completely different feel and perspective of a game when looking at the team shape, as opposed to following the ball.  It means that the observations made from this analysis can be combined with the analysis from the feed from the TV company and provides a broader and more objective evaluation of the game.”

The high quality footage captured via the SportsCode system is then available for post match use for video feedback to the manager, coaches, Sports Science staff and the players as a means of evaluating the performance to eradicate future mistakes and build upon strengths from that particular match. This is something we will look at in more depth later in the season.
 

Brian Prestidge
Head of Analytical Performance
Bolton Wanderers

Thought for the Month

"The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare"