Video Analysis and Remote Coaching

Team coaches or private individual trainers… Help your players with their skills development and game performance.

This is adapted from the SportsCoachBusiness.com article…”Using Video Analysis To Improve Sports Training And Performance”

Video Analysis

Using video analysis is an important tool for showing your athletes exactly what they are doing so they can make adjustments.

It’s also great for positive reinforcement when they do something the right way.

You can explain drills and skills to them and demonstrate something yourself (as a coach) the correct way.

But when you can show them clips of themselves, they can get a deeper understanding, and I think they can make improvements to their skills quicker.

A deeper understanding of how to improve skills

Some coaches film games for review at team practice, which is great for seeing how the players interact and perform together in different situations.

Each player can also look at game film to review their own performance and get a better idea of how they can improve within the team concept.

But just as important is to show athletes recordings of themselves while practicing (doing drills).

It helps them internalize the correct movements and the feelings of success when they are making progress.

That’s why I like to film each player in game-like situations as well as while they are doing simple drills in practice sessions.

Just make sure you get clips of them doing the skills the correct way in addition to some clips of them where they need improvement.

The magic of combining basketball training with video analysis to help teach players

Something magical happens when athletes can see themselves doing things correctly as soon as it happens.

They are still feeling good from your positive feedback, and when you show them a video clip of themselves doing it, it has a much stronger impact than if you only told them “good job”.

The combination of them doing the skills correctly, hearing you compliment them, and then actually seeing themselves do it is very powerful.

You can use your video camera or phone to record clips of your players to show them, but it’s a good idea to also use their phone to record some clips too when you can.

That way, they can review the clips whenever they want.

It helps them to mentally reinforce all the correct movements and skills by watching the clips repeatedly…which they will do if they have the clips on their phone.

A brief history of video analysis in sports

The use of video analysis wasn’t extensive until the 1990’s. And even then it was used mostly by professional and college teams.

More recently, during his career Kobe Bryant talked about his use of video to help him get a competitive advantage.

He not only used video to analyze his own game, but he got videos of some of the all time great NBA players so he could analyze their signature moves and habits.

Going back further, there were certain players who started using video to help their own performance back in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

One of the most famous was MLB Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.

He asked his wife to use their VCR to record all of his at-bats during his games.

This allowed him to analyze his stance, movements, and swing in the batter’s box, as well as how the pitchers would pitch to him.

He claims that this use of video helped him the most in his career. (He is regarded as one of the best hitters of all time).

(There’s a great video of Tony Gwynn explaining the importance of using video and how it helped him at SportsCoachBusiness.com)

“With video, it’s a lot easier to remember.”

– Tony Gwynn, Hall-of-Fame baseball player

Exactly what to record and show your players

For basketball we can use video analysis for almost everything.

For the individual player…shooting, dribbling, rebounding, defense, footwork, mechanics, etc.

For the team…offensive schemes, fast break analysis, correcting defensive breakdowns, crunch time game management, etc.

For your team, it’s best to have someone record at a position where you’ll get to clearly see both the offensive and defensive sides of the court. This is usually at half court about 10 rows up.

Sometimes you might want to have someone record some sequences behind the basket (on both ends) so you can get up close views on your team on the offensive and defensive ends.

For individual players, you’ll have to decide what each of your players needs help with the most and the angles you want to record for each of the drills that’ll help your players.

And for the team game, it’ll just be a matter of recording the games.

As an example, when I am teaching free throw shooting to individual players, I’ll set up the camera in these angles:

Directly in front – helps me see alignment of the shooter’s body, how they keep their head straight, their follow through, etc.

Side view – shows their up and down motion (which should be mostly leg power), the angle of their follow through, etc.

Back view – shows similar things as the front view but at another angle

All these together give me a better understanding of what the player is doing correctly and what they need work on.
I not only like to show them normal speed, but also slow-motion so they can get a better look.

An example of what to record for video analysis

Here are snapshot pics from an example video I recorded a few years ago to show players what to look for with great free throw shooting technique.

NOTE: I didn’t have a top notch HD camera or fancy editing equipment, and you don’t need those either. Just as long as you can get some basic angles and good samples for your athletes to see, you can help them. Most phones and devices today have everything you need for taking great video.

If you are experienced with editing, you can take photo snapshots from the videos and use simple graphics to show athletes how they look in terms of their mechanics. (The following pics are samples I did like this).

Video Analysis samples – Snapshot pictures taken from video clips to show the shooter’s perfect alignment on the shot (from Back view video)

You can do this for almost any skill or drill, and you might want to use the same angles. For example, on dribbling:

Front view – to show head position (are the eyes up and not looking down at the floor or ball?)

Side view – to show stance (is the player on the balls of the feet, and not flat-footed or on the heels?)

Back view – to get another angle for a more complete analysis

Just remember, you only need 3 things...

All you need for video analysis is:

a phone or a basic video camera.

And a decent tripod that will hold the camera or phone in position while you coach your team or conduct your sessions.

The most important thing to remember is to find out what your specific players need help with and then decide which angles will capture the game footage or player movements the best for you to show them what they are doing correctly and what they need more work on.

Once you start using this type of video analysis in your coaching or skills training, you and your players will start to notice improvements quicker.

It’s a great tool to not only help your players with their skills development and performance…in addition, you’ll be someone they look up to for providing a more thorough training experience.

Are you looking for a reliable, proven way to integrate video analysis and remote coaching into your basketball program or training business?

You’re in luck.

There is an app that is perfect for incorporating video analysis into your coaching, whether you want to do it for your team, or use it in individual training sessions.

It’s called CoachNow (CoachNow.io).

With CoachNow, you can create a “Space” for each of your players. Think of each athlete’s Space as a private training area for you and the athlete to be able to interact with each other.

It’s sort of a “private Facebook” for you and your players to interact.

This allows for an enhanced training experience for you and your players.

If you have a private training business, this is great for having a separate training portal for each of your training clients.

And if you are a coach using it for your team, you can add all your players into a Team Space so you can go over game footage. Every player will see the footage you are analyzing and can read your comments about certain plays.

One of the great functions of CoachNow is that it not only lets you record video clips, it has editing functions that allow you to draw lines, create slow-mo clips of recorded footage, and even do voiceovers so you can share audio breakdowns of the video clips.

This can help you in several ways…

Recording clips at games or training sessions so each athlete can see themselves performing. This provides an immediate impact with positive reinforcement.
For individual trainers, each player can post clips they take with their own phone to their Space so you can analyze their technique and provide feedback when you aren’t in your weekly face-to-face sessions.
Each Space is an ongoing record so your team and players can review feedback (which reinforces lessons). This archive also allows for both of you to track improvement.

Also, the ability to give feedback during the week when you aren’t face-to-face is perfect for elevating your training to something far above just doing on-site drills once a week.

This remote coaching aspect is an extra benefit for the athlete because it’ll be like having a coach in their pocket (and if you are a private trainer, you can raise your training fee rates for this type of access).

There is a monthly fee for CoachNow (or a discounted annual fee if paid in full), but that investment is small compared to the improvement you’ll see by adding this to your program. And if you are a private trainer, this small fee is more than paid for with the training fee you charge with only one student.

I really think this a must have for every basketball program or private training coach. This can revolutionize your ability to analyze player performances and communicate your wisdom to all your players.

To get a Free Trial and to find out more about this great training tool, go to CoachNow.io

NOTE: I have personally reviewed and tested many of the other coaching and private training apps, but CoachNow is the best I’ve found, which is why it’s the only app for private and remote coaching that I recommend. I receive an affiliate commission from CoachNow when you subscribe to the app after clicking through these links.

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