Seeing the game
Michele van Rooyen is an analyst who's worked within South African Rugby for the past 20 years. She discusses analysis and advice for coaches, including for coaches who don't have access to analysts.
The majority of my work has been based in Cape Town South Africa, although I have had the privilege to represent my adopted country in 5 of the 7 continents throughout my time in rugby.
Over the past 20 years, I have worked in some capacity or other (just filming or providing analysis) at every level of South African rugby, the only 2 exceptions being with the women’s U20s and the Springboks themselves.
I’ve attended two World Cups and two Commonwealth Games in addition to numerous international matches and tournaments.
My last role was with the Springbok Women’s Sevens team. I worked with them as they qualified for and then participated in the HSBC SVNS series and then qualified for Olympic Games to be held in Paris.
During my time in rugby I have seen how the role of technology has changed the game. When I started working with the Springbok Sevens men’s team no one was using live video footage, they would all wait to be given their matches to view at the end of each day.
We changed that. At the South African tournaments I was capturing video from the back of the outside broadcast truck and passing the files to the coach straight after the game.
At the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, the tournament organisers stated that we could film but not use a tripod in case we blocked out someone’s view. We moved to a different location where no one could sit behind us and filmed using our tripods.
It was only during the 2007/08 season that World Rugby introduced analysis rooms that would provide analysts with a live video feed.
All of the coaches and players that I’ve worked with have on the whole been great. They’ve been very respectful and wanting to understand as much about the game as possible.
It’s not bothered them that the information is coming from a female. However, it’s been a bit more interesting being the only female in a room full of male analysts though. They forget that you are there and just engage in men’s talk which isn’t always appropriate.
What, why and how
The question of what happened during competition can be easily answered using a pen and a piece of paper. The how or why around an event can be examined with video footage.
Before you take video of matches, think about why you want to capture footage. What is the purpose?
Once you have video think about what you do with the footage, what will you look at? How can you measure and present different skills or moments?
The value analysts can bring
What value can analysts add to the game depends upon how value is assigned to performance by the different role players and the environment within which they work
If you look purely at the video footage, any member of the support team (see image above) can get an insight into their area of expertise by asking questions of what they can see whether it’s in training or competition.
I think that is a vastly unexplored area within the analysis field that should be further looked into especially with professional teams.
However, in simple terms coaches can gain technical and tactical feedback of the team or individual performances.
The medical team can get feedback on injuries, the strength and conditioning coach can see if their programs are effective by watching the movement patterns and technical skills.
Psychologists can observe if there are any performance trends that can be highlighted for motivational purposes or where additional coping strategies need to be developed.
From another perspective, the level of training and experience of the analyst can determine the value they can add.
The ability to think critically about how training methods influence performance and vice versa can aid the development of more relevant and resource effective exercises.
All of these areas can benefit from analysis but you have to keep returning to the WHY, WHAT and HOW of the process, because you could end up with information overload and none of it gets used.
Keep those areas as your focus and slowly develop systems that can actually aid progress rather than just looking good on the match day program.
A good relationship between coach and analyst is signalled by openness. There needs to be an openness to communication where both parties are willing to learn and grow together for the better of the team or system that they are working in.
Personalities need to be put aside so that forward momentum can be achieved. Management of resources (players, training sessions, equipment and time) can determine how long it takes for trust to be built between the individuals.
The image below can help an indication of how relationships can develop. If you aren’t seeing the left to right change in trust, then you might not be the right fit for each other.
What analysts can focus on
There are some differences between analysing 7s and 15s. The fundamentals of the games are still the same with passing, receiving and carrying the ball the basic attacking skills and tackling the basic defensive skill.
However, the set pieces are different due to the fewer players in 7s and this places a different focus on how they are used during matches and thus practiced in training, which impacts the analysis that gets done.
Where the differences between the 2 games becomes very apparent is at competition time and are related to time factors. The length of a 7s match is substantially shorter than in 15s (14 minutes vs 80 minutes).
That means you are analysing on average 20 games a day (including potential opponents that only become known after the pool stages of a competition) vs. a single match with 15s.
Feedback is required immediately after your team has played in 7s, so they can evaluate the previous performance and plan for the next one in 4 hours’ time.
This repeats 2-3 times a day and then you have overnight to get ready for the next day’s opponents. You then have a week to travel to the next venue and begin your preparation for that tournament.
In a 15s context, you can be asked for statistical or video based feedback at any time during the match but you are normally in the same area as the coach, and connected to the same video feed so no running around is required until possibly half time.
However, that is determined by the coaches that you are working with and the facilities that you are playing at.
I personally try to avoid the post-match event simply to start tidying up the information that I collected and have the basic breakdown ready when we return to our base venue.
You would then generally have another day to complete the player analysis but everything needs to be ready after the players’ rest day.
Once your own game has been analysed then you would update your preparation database on your next opponent.
I’ve often been asked to film the conditioning sessions so that S&C can evaluate how the players are executing technical movements.
I’ve also filmed the running patterns of players returning from injury for the medical team so they can see how they are responding to their rehabilitation program.
However, I think the most non-rugby related filming I’ve been involved with as assisting a violinist to determine which bowing technique was the ‘efficient’ for them to use.
I’m currently doing a Professional Doctorate at Leeds Beckett. I’m investigating whether it is possible to create a sustainable analysis 'experience' for the South African sporting community, through engagement with stakeholders in elite sports.
This includes creating a more interactive environment for the coaches and athletes, a more informed process for administrators. The ultimate aim is to develop an academic course to provide essential education, training and research support for people with an interest in sports analysis.
My experience has shown that currently we aren’t equipping university students with the correct skills to work as an analyst.
In addition to this, I have experienced many coaches and players who don’t have a proper foundation in engaging with video material so there’s a continual tension between the two when it comes to sharing information.
If you’re wanting to work with analysts
If you’re a coach wanting to work with an analyst, make sure you have a clear understanding of what you require from video footage as many coaches are just looking for a video editor rather than an analyst.
Then go through the WHY, WHAT and HOW process to establish a plan of how to integrate analysis into your coaching. The exact requirements will change over time as you become more familiar with what is possible and as the players improve their skills and understanding.
Listen to the responses from the players as to how they are feeling about being filmed and evaluated – generally in front of everyone.
Video is a very powerful tool that can assist performance enhancement but when used incorrectly it can also be destructive.
If you don’t have the resources, what can you do?
If you’re a coach that doesn’t have the budget for an analyst, you can assess the equipment that you currently own.
Pen and paper can be a useful tool to collect information during matches, because it’s simple. The majority of people have smartphones with cameras.
There are free apps available in the stores that can assist with general feedback. Develop your own notation system using pen and paper while watching other teams perform.
Then ask what do these insights actually tell me about performance and how can this be applied in my own role.
Observe movement patterns that occur during matches and assess whether your training sessions are designed to replicate similar outcomes.
Use your watch to measure how much time is spent between the start and end of a set piece and ensure that you recreate similar work loads.
Determine where on the field certain events are located using pitch maps and use a variety of coloured pens to highlight different periods in the match.
Watch matches or practice sessions from different positions and see how that changes your perspective on what you see.
Watch how the attacking team create space using running lines and then see how the defense respond. When there’s a mismatch between the attack and defense what happens?
These are a few of the ideas that could help develop an more analytical approach to your observation processes.
Always come back to the WHY, WHAT and HOW and make the fewest changes possible to achieve the greatest level of performance improvement – less can be more.
That's a fascinating read and as someone who works in IT and Apps, it's really interesting to hear the importance it plays in sport. Of course I know it's used and it plays a vital role, but I've never heard an analyst talk about how it's used in that detail. Really great article.