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References

1) Borg, G. (1990). Psychophysical scaling with applications in physical work and the perception of exertion. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 55-58.

2) Carter, A. (1996). Time and motion analysis and heart rate monitoring of a back-row forward in first class rugby union football. In Notational Analysis of Sport, I & II (edited by M.Hughes),pp.145± 160.Cardiþ :UWIC. 

3) Edwards, K. and O’Donoghue, P.G. (2004). Technical effectiveness of shooting and passing of winning and losing teams in international netball competition, In Performance Analysis of Sport 6 (Edited by O’Donoghue, P.G. and Hughes, M.D.), Cardiff: CPA UWIC Press, 15-21.

4) Clubb, J., & McGuigan, M. (2018). Developing cost-effective, evidence-based load monitoring systems in strength and conditioning practice. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 40(6), 75-81.

5) Foster, C. A. R. L. (1998). Monitoring training in athletes with reference to overtraining syndrome. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 30(7), 1164-1168.

6) Franks, I. M., & Miller, G. (1986). Eyewitness testimony in sport. Journal of sport behavior, 9(1), 38

7) Gabbett, T., King, T. & Jenkins, D., (2008). Applied physiology of rugby league. Sports medicine, 38(2), pp.119-138.

8) Hughes, M. (2004). Performance analysis–a 2004 perspective. International journal of performance analysis in sport, 4(1), 103-109.

9) Hughes, M.D. & Bartlett, R.M., (2002). The use of performance indicators in performance analysis. Journal of sports sciences, 20(10), pp.739-754.

10) Hughes, M.D. & White, P., (1997). An analysis of forward play in the 1991 rugby union world cup for men. Notational analysis of sport I & II, pp.183-191.

11) Jones, N.M.P., James, N. & Mellalieu, S.D., (2005). The development of objective methodologies for scoring team performance in elite rugby union. Journal of Sports Sciences.

12) Lyons, K. (1988), Using video in sport, Huddersfield: Springfield Books. 

13) O’Donoghue, P. (2006). The use of feedback videos in sport. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 6(2), 1-14.

14) O'Donoghue, P.G., Robinson, J. & Murphy, M.H. (1995), An Object Oriented Intelligent Notational Analysis Multimedia Database System, In Object Oriented Information Systems (Edited by Murphy), London: Springer-Verlag, 169-172. 

15) Olsen, E. * Larsen, O.Y.V.I.N.D., (1997). Use of match analysis by coaches. Science and football III, 3, pp.209-220.

16) Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., & Jasper, M. (2001). Critical Reflection for Nursing and the Helping Professions a User's Guide.

17) Underwood, G. & MacHeath, J. (1977). Video analysis in tennis coaching, British Journal of Physical Education, 8, 136-138. 

18) Wright, C., Atkins, S., Jones, B., & Todd, J. (2013). The role of performance analysts within the coaching process: Performance Analysts Survey ‘The role of performance analysts in elite football club settings.’. International journal of performance analysis in sport, 13(1), 240-261.

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Blog 12: Skills Audit 2 (review)

I feel that it is always important to reflect, whether you're rejecting on what you have done in a day, reflecting on what you had for dinner or in my situation, reflecting on my experience with my team throughout the course of the academic year and most importantly reflecting on the skills audit that I completed at the very beginning of my performance analysis experience. When i first sat down and thought about what skills are needed to be a performance analyst, i looked through research papers that delved into what the key skills are for a performance analyst. i then went onto ranking these skills from 1-5 and how confident i was with these skills.

These skills included; IT skills, Software efficiency, working under pressure, knowledge of the game, creativity and time management. The reason for why I chose these skills was due to the fact that research identified these skills as being vital to the success of being a performance analysis. Therefore when reflecting and looking at the difference of my confidence of these skills compared to the beginning of my experience and currently where i am with my experience. 

I am going to rank/rate my skills comparing the beginning to currently. IT skills pre=2 post=2, software efficiency pre=3 post=2, Working under pressure pre=2 post=1, knowledge of the game pre=5 post=3, creativity pre=4 post=2 and time management pre=3 post=1. 

Looking at the progress that I have made makes me feel very accomplished as before i started this experience I was very nervous as I have never taken part in anything like this before especially with the particular sport. Therefore to look at the skills that I chose to improve and actually see an improvement makes me feel as if I have really learnt something and I want to continue to keep learning and improving my skills. Moving forward i want to continue to improve my knowledge of the game by continuing to read research papers about Rugby League and also asking Danny as he has said that i can ask me any questions in order to improve my learning and understanding. 

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Blog 11: KPIs and there meaning (with examples)

As stated previously in my first KPIs blog, KPIs are used by analysts and coaches in order to evaluate performance of individual, team or specific aspects of the team game (Hughes & Bartlett, 2002). After developing my key performance indicators with Salford Red Devils, i thought it would be beneficial for my development and learning to talk through my KPIs, explaining what they actually are and what they show, also explaining how these KPIs will be reported back to the coaches and the players. 

Being able to define KPIs and identifying what these KPIs look like is really important for performance analysts, most specifically when it comes to trying to establish reliability of said KPIs (Edwards & O’Donoghue, 2004).

Pass- when it comes to using this performance indicator for the team, passes relates to the player on the ball at the time being able to pass it to his team mates and the intended target for the pass. This is split into two descriptors (successful and unsuccessful) it is important to distinguish passes from successful and unsuccessful as it helps me as the analysts differentiate the good and bad and also allows for the players and coaches to establish where the successful and unsuccessful passes on the pitch are being made. 

On the ball- when it comes to using this performance indicator it was quite straight forward as the aim for our players when they are in possession of the ball is to run hard and fast at their opponent in order to try and gain as much yardage as possible, this is important as it is part of the teams philosophy where if a player is not running hard and fast they stand the chance of getting substituted. 

Successful passes- video link of the use of the passes KPI (successful)

Unsccessful passes- video link of the use of the passes KPI (unsuccessful)

On the ball- video link of use of on the ball KPI

As we can see in the clips of the passes and on the ball KPI indictors- it shows the successful and unsuccessful as well as the clips of the players on the ball. Creating these KPIs and the use and examples shows how they are actually used in application. Moving forward I feel like it would important for me to continue the use of these specific KPIs, even though it may seem very basic and simple, it is very effective for the players and the coaches.

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Blog 10: Examples of individual clips for reserve players

The use of individual clips with the slaford red devils reserve team is something that is very important to the team, both the coaches and most importantly the players. Having the ability to pick of key actions of each individual throughout the course of a game is highly valuable as the players have the opportunity to watch their clips and see what they are doing wrong or correctly. Through the individual clips i decide to use the performance indicators that include, pass, tackle and on the ball. With pass and tackle have descriptors, labelled as successful and unsuccessful. I chose to do this as the players can watch how successful or unsuccessful their passes and tackles are and where exactly they could improve in these actions.

Below are going to be some examples of individual players clips from a game against Bradford rugby club. 

ADAM HOLT- Bradford clips- as we can see in this clip, it has aspects of the performance indicators that i have highlighted in this blog as well as previous blogs. It shows Adams key passes, tackles and possession on the ball throughout the game, adam was then sent the clip to his email so he could watch the clip. 

JAMIE ABRAM-Bradford clips- similar to the clips that have been created for the previous player, the player is able to view these clips with the coaches during the video session of training which takes part on a Thursday and is also able to watch these clips in their own time to reflect on their progress and see where improvements can be made.

I have found during my time completing the individual clips that actually doing them is key to the players development and it has also shown me how important it is to ensure that the clips are precise in order to keep the players engaged and interested in what it is you are actually trying to do for them. Moving forward i will continue to make these clips the same as it seems that the players are really taking in the message you are trying to deliver back to them within the clips. 

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Blog 9: Alternative, cost effective, measures for S&C

Not every team has the financial backing compared to sports like football. Due to the fact that rugby doesn't have as much funding behind it as football for example, even though most first team rugby league teams have access to GPS trackers in shirts, teams such as the reserves and the academy may struggle to have the ability to have access to GPS. Which is the situation that i am in with my time with Salford red devils reserves. Having the ability to measure players strength and conditioning throughout the course of a season is important as it allows for coaches to see exactly where the players are doing well and where there is an area for improvement and alotegther informing decision making from coaches (Clubb & McGuigan, 2016). An area of importance to both the performance analyst and the coach involve load monitoring of players in order to ensure that training programmes are effective and also monitoring if the players are at high risk of inury (Clubb et al., 2016).

As stated above, with the first team they have access to GPS that can track and monitor these variables for players, however research has tried to find a cost effective alternative to equipment that measures the same thing but can be expensive. One alternative is called a RPE scale, which stands for rating of perceived exhaustion. Players are asked to rate how hard a session is on a scale of 0-10 (Borg, 1990), the intensity of the session can then be multiplied in order to get an overall score of the intensity felt by the athlete (Foster, 1998). Having the opportunity to provide measures for external and internal load for athletes, especially in a team with less funds, is highly important through the course of the season.

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Blog 8: Rugby League demands

Rugby league is a game played by 13 people on each team, with each half of the game lasting 40 minutes each. Consiting of a 10 minute break interval at halftime. Rugby league players are required to complete frequent bouts of high intensity activities such as, running and tackling as well as low intensity activities such as,walking and standing (Gabbett, King & Jenkins, 2008). This highlights the explosive and competitive nature of the sport and also highlights the importance of the role that the performance analysis plays in a team. It highlights the importance of being able to keep track of each players movements during the course of the game. For example keeping track of the distances ran by each player in each position, the amount of time they spend on the ball and where on the pitch they are on the pitch. This helps both the coaches and the players as they can look at the data outputs from devices such as GPS (Global positioning system) and see exactly where they match up compared to normative data as well as where the coach would like for the player to be. 

This research also highlights how the importance of GPS can make or break a Rugby teams season. However some clubs, like my own, have not got the financial structure in order to be able to afford things such as GPS trackers for their players, therefore it would be difficult to gain this information. This also forms part of my experience with the club for the year as i will face barriers such as finance that I would have to find a way of getting around, which makes the whole process of gaining experience in performance analysis that extra rewarding, due to having the ability to adapt constantly.

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Blog 7: Identifying KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

Team performance in rugby has typically been assessed through the comparison of winning and losing teams and the winning team having that extra cutting edge difference in their approach compared to the losing team (Hughes & White, 1997, & Jones et al., 2004). Therefore this cutting edge difference can either make or break a teams season, therefore being able to identify performance indictors that are set out from the onset of the season will allow for the coach and the coaching staff to get across a message to the players of certain actions that they are wanting them to complete throughout the game, this being either attacking actions or defensive actions. A performance indicator can be defined as, a selection of action variables that defines some or all aspects of a performance (Hughes & Barlett, 2002). With different sports, come different performance indictors needed in order to be successful within that sport. For example some performance indictors in Rugby would be, turnovers, tackles & possession (Carter, 1996). Performance indicators can also used in other aspects of sports, for example assessing team performance throughout the course of a season, whether that bing soccer or rugby (Olsen & Larsen, 1997)

Identifying performance indicators allowed for me to be able to know exactly what to put into my coding window on NacSport, for when it comes to coding actions for the reserves team. As the picture above shows, it highlights the things that Danny and myself sat and talked about and what ended up being our performance indicators.

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Blog 6: First time with the reserve team

I have been working with the under 19s team with Salford Red Devils since November. When I first had a meeting with Danny Barton (coach of the under 19s), he mentioned how the club were planning on bringing back the reserve team that Salford once had, when he first mentioned this new prospect, it filled me with excitement for further development for myself, as I saw it as just a step below the first team, which meant that I could potentially get another opportunity to support the first team with any aspects of performance analysis. 

Just like the first time I met with the under 19s, i was nervous and both excited to get going with the reserve team. Due to the team being brand new, the coaching staff decided to conduct a trial for players that they selected. This was a great opportunity for myself to get myself used to the facilities that the team have, meeting all the members of staff that will be working with the reserve team for the rest of the season and most importantly meeting the players and building some small initial rapport.

I was asked to film the trial game, luckily, unlike the time I was with the under 19s, were there was no vantage point for me to film from, the facilities at the teams home ground allowed for me to climb up scaffolding in order to film form a better angle and get the full view of what the head coach wanted to see when looking back at the footage. From earlier discussions and talks with Danny it was clear of what sort of things he wanted to take into account when going forward with the rest of the season with the team, these things then led onto me and Danny sitting down and coming up with the key performance indicators that will be used when analysing the reserves team performance when the season would start. 

Going forward from this experience with the reserve team, i will be trying to adapt on some of the challenges that i faced during this time. These challenges included the SD card running out of memory half way through the trial games, one way that i will prevent this from happening again is ensuring that the SD card that i have on the day has enough memory left in it and also ensuring that i have a spare SD card in the event that one of the SD cards corrupts in anyway.

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Blog 5: First use of Nacsport

consider this is one of the key skills I want to improve during my time with the under 19s and reserves team. This software that I will be using throughout the year is completely new to me, however i have had some experience in the use of another software programme known as Sportscode, during my second and third year of my degree. Now if its just between me and you, I much prefer using sports code to nacsport. So going into my first use of it i was very tentative and nervous andi thought that i would have to forget everything that I have learnt in order to relearn pretty much the same thing but using a different software!!

But all hope was not gone, I quickly gathered myself and thought i’d use my head and went on YouTube to watch tutorials on how to use nacsport and before I knew it I realised nacsport was quite similar in its use to sports code!! who would've thought that? That’s right not me. so I sat through all the different videos on how to use the software and after a cold 3 hours recording the under 19s away game I was ready to begin my video analysis journey. 

Creating a code window was not too dissimilar to the clearing a code window using sports code, therefore this process was quite straight forward. Similar to actually coding the clips that needed to be clipped, for example the hot key information was the exact same, which made it easier with the fact that the hot keys were able to be added with lagging keys, to be set exactly where and when I wanted them. Hopefully from this experience it will lead to much further confidence and growth of knowledge throughout the rest of the season.

Going forward with the rest of my placement i will ensure that i put the hours in when it comes to trying to become more efficient with the use of nacsport as it would benefit me for the rest of my time with the club. The way that i will tackle this aspect of being more efficient with nacsport would be to watch youtube tutorials highlighting how to use certain aspects of nacsport. The main learning that i gained from my first use of nacsport allowed me to realise how the importance of creating a coding window that fits your teams philosophy of pay is in the success for video clips to be accurate to what the coaches and the players want feedback on.

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Blog 4: Winstanley college away

Well today was my first time with the under 19 rugby team, as they had an away game in wigan. I was invited to travel with the team on the minibus, as this was the first time I met the team i was nervous, however the boys were very welcoming and asked me how I was doing and so on. Whilst on the minibus I already had a couple of thoughts running around in my head. For example, when we get to the venue, will there be some form of scaffolding or a vantage point that I could access in order for me to have better filming opportunities throughout the game. As I was thinking this, I knew it was something very important that I should be thinking of, knowing that when it came to video analysing, having better filming quality and being able to see the full picture of the team, just like the coach asked, ensuring that the teams shape and formation was spot on. 

But just my luck, when we arrived at the college, there was no vantage point, there was no scaffolding there was no bus stop I could climb up to gain a birds eye view! Therefore I had to think quickly on my feet in order to make the situation better. The second best thing that I could think of was filming from behind the sticks, this allowed me the opportunity to zoom in and out of play and view the different actions that occurred during the game. This quick thinking of mine was recieved very well from the coach who acknowledged the initiative I showed when the odds were against me. So for me that was an extra bonus. The filming of the game went really well as everything that was wanted from the coach was captured on camera and was then ready to be analysed at a later time. 

Overall this experience was good due to it being the first time I had recorded a game for the team and it going extremely well. Something I will take into account for the next time I record a game will remember to bring GOLVES because it was absolutely FREEZING!!

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Blog 3: Video analysis and its purpose

The potential of video recorded images to support coaching in sport was recognised soon after video cameras and video cassette recorders became available (Underwood and MacHeath, 1977; Lyons, 1988). Computer-based match analysis systems now integrate quantitative performance data with video images (O’Donoghue et al., 1995). These systems can be tailored for use with any sport using performance indicators of interest to the coaches and players (O’Donoghue, 2006). These systems of video analysis allow for the coach to see actions that have occurred during the game that they might have missed. Analysis can provide 5 different things according to Hughes & Franks (2004). Analysis of movement, education for coaches & players, Tactical evaluation, development of database and technical evaluation.

Therefore as a performance analyst it is important to ensure you have the correct and up to date analysis products to en sure that when it comes to sitting down and analysing, you are set up to do the best job possible, ensuring it is also analysed on time.

This is also why the use of video analysis is very important, this is due to the fact that a coach will only remember 42% of what has occurred during the course of a game (Franks & Miller, 1986). Due to this small percentage, it further highlights the importance that performance analyst play especially when it comes to video analysis of performances. 

Throughout the course of my expericne within my time with Salford Red Devils under 19s team, I will be using video analysis in order to present data back to the coach, I will also be using different types of software in order to collate all of this information that the coaches asks for.  

With Nacsport scout plus, it works a little bit difficult when it comes to registering actions, compared to Sportscode. In Nacsport, there is a category button which allows for you to, register the main actions in a sport, for example pass, tackle, try. There is also another button needed in order to register actions in Nacsport, this is known as the descriptor button, this descriptor button is the sub-categories of the main actions that are in the category button. An example for descriptor buttons can be, successful, unsuccessful as well as individual players. This area for category and descriptors comes under the coding aspect of Nacsport. The analysis area of Nacsports is where you are able to extract the clips from the coding section and arrange them into a presentation which can then be presented back to the team. 

This is a video that highlights the use of Nacsport when it comes to the coding and analysis section of performance analysis.  

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Blog 2: Skills audit 1

You may ask yourself what it takes to be successful in becoming a performance analyst, I find myself asking that question a lot during my third year of undergraduate studies. Will this skill be useful? Is this really what employers/coaches want? Will it help the overall outcome for the team? 

But looking at research papers and noting down what I think is needed in order to be successful I have found a new understanding of some of the key skills/competencies needed in order to achieve success.

Key competencies/skills:

-IT literate, vision, attention to detail, team player, initiative, creativity, communication, relationships, working under pressure, knowledge of the game, academic knowledge and skills. (Jones, 2013)

Key competencies and skills I want to develop:

-IT skills, software efficiency, working under pressure, knowledge of the game, creativity, time mangement.

Self assessment of skills: 

Key- 1=very confident, 2=somewhat confident, 3=neutral, 4=very slightly confident, 5=no confidence

IT skills=2, Software efficiency=3, working under pressure=1, knowledge of the game=5, creativity=2, time management=2

These skills and competencies that have been researched by Jones (2013) are important as they involve skills that are all tied into activities that will be done on a daily basis, for example having good creativity skills will allow for the performance analyst to create presentations and videos that will keep the players engaged in what is being presented instead of having a plain presentation with no form of engagement that can keep the athletes entertained and focused on the message that is trying to be delivered. 

One skill that I want to develop during my experience would be to increase my knowledge of the game. This skill is important as it would allow me to be able to come up with some Key Performance Indicators that I think would help the overall improvement of the team. Knowledge of the game will also interlink with other skills within the competencies/skills development. 

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Blog 1: What is performance analysis?

Performance analysis has been defined as the investigation of actual sporting performance or training performance and the main reason being to develop an understanding of performance and thus leading to decision making being conducted by those seeking to enhance their performance (O’Donoghue, 2010).

Role of performance analyst:

A performance analyst has many different roles when it comes to their discipline. You could almost separate the roles of an analyst into sub headings that highlight the responsibilities of an analyst (Hughes, 2004). This diagram below just shows the different sub headings that can be made for the jobs/roles that an analyst has to complete.

 Throuhgout the course of this blog, I will be blogging my experience with performance analysis throughout my placement with Salford Red Devils rugby league team. Throughout my experience I hope to gain an understanding of the types of skills that an analyst needs to have in order to be successful and highlight some of the competencies that are needed to be an analyst. 

It would be a benefit for me to be able to achieve some experience with using Nacsport software in order to be more efficient when it comes to analysing the teams performance and being efficient enough to be able to analyse under stressful situations when coaches need it. Another benefit that I would like to achieve during my experience would be an improvement in my communication skills, which would have a benefit when it comes to reporting back to both coaches and the team when it comes to team meetings.