Nottingham, 18 December 1998 - Tracksys Ltd, distributors of Noldus Information Technology products in the UK, are pleased to welcome Everton Football Club, a successful English premier league club, to the growing number of people using The Observer Video-Pro for match analysis. Coaches at Everton have always used video as a tool for post-match analysis, however, they have recognized the need to invest in new technology if they are going to keep pace with the competition. The Observer Video-Pro, using digital video files, makes the review of video faster, more accurate and provides much more interactive feedback for players.

After a match, a video of that game is transferred to a computer (via an MPEG card - a process analogous to copying a video tape) and stored on a CD. This means that sports science consultant John Murtough (Liverpool John Moores University), who works full-time at Everton, can review and edit the video on his laptop computer without being tied to a suite of video equipment. With The Observer Video-Pro software he can score the players’ behaviors that the coaches want to see and generate statistics immediately. Finally, ‘highlight files’ are created for the coach to review with the team or individual players. These highlights can be decoded from the laptop via a ‘scan converter’ that will record to a VCR or alternatively the coach can link the laptop to a large TV screen and review the video directly from the computer. "In practice this means that players can get more involved in the coaching process - both players and coaches can request to see particular instances of play or points in the match and, because we are using digital video files, the relevant piece of video is displayed instantaneously", says John Murtough.

Everton is using The Observer Video-Pro for analyzing both youth team and first team matches. Typical information that coaches request include the number of attempts at goal, corners, possession of the ball, how often possession was lost while in a particular area of the pitch or how many times a particular player tackled another player successfully, etc. The type of data needed may vary from match to match and The Observer Video-Pro can be customized on a weekly basis to record an almost infinitely variable number of behaviors. John Murtough says "This is one of the key reasons we were attracted to The Observer Video-Pro. The flexibility of the system means it can easily accommodate changes in coaching focus. Not only can we make tapes for coaches, but also scouts or individual players, depending on their individual priorities. Overall it is by far the best match analysis system we have seen in terms of functionality and cost."  

For more information, please contact the product manager of The Observer.