Video analysis helps us all to better understand the performances of ourselves and our team, whether you are a player, coach or analyst. Within your team’s performance analysis processes, it is therefore important to have effective methods to share video analysis with coaches and players.
In this post, I will introduce you to the Nacsport Viewer software, which I think is the perfect tool to supplement your analysis processes, even if you aren’t a Nacsport user. I will share insights from current Nacsport Viewer users, including viewpoints of players, coaches and analysts. Throughout, I will provide a brief look at similar workflows that can be achieved with the online sharing processes that have been enhanced with the online platform, Sharimg, which Nacsport integrates perfectly with.
What can you import into Nacsport Viewer?
Nacsport Viewer is designed as a read-only software, so although you can’t live capture or analyse footage with a template in Nacsport Viewer, it provides you plenty of powerful tools to review analysis that has been shared with you. You can view the video and analysis from another Nacsport machine or Nacsport Tag&view app, and even software like Hudl Sportscode and Dartfish, thanks to the ability to import XML and CSV files into Nacsport Viewer.
When you have imported your analysis and linked it with a video or videos (Nacsport Viewer can even playback 4 stacked video angles), you can open My Analysis and look at your timelines. In the timeline, you will have all the rows of category clips to look at, so you can review the analysed clips with full playback controls and easy ways to skip through these clips and multiple video angles.
“I find the software very beneficial for looking at our games with multiple angles. To see where the space is created for runners by looking at clips and these angles together has benefited me hugely.”Nickie Quaid, Goalkeeper, Limerick Senior Hurling Team (GAA Hurling)
As you fill up your My Analysis area with different timelines, you have the option to open multiple tabs of timelines at once, which makes it very easy to review clips from multiple games with Nacsport Viewer.
Reviewing data in Nacsport Viewer
You can even dive in deeper to the descriptor data in Nacsport Viewer, by using the Matrix tool and Dashboard. The Matrix gives a quick way to review clips including specific descriptor data, and it’s even possible for users to create and review a custom matrix. If there are multiple tabs of timelines open, you can use a multiple matrix, which displays the category and descriptor data from the multiple timelines together, which is great for watching specific types of events from multiple games.
Did you know that if you upload your Nacsport analysis (or XML files) to Sharimg, you can also use the multiple matrix feature online to review specific moments from multiple games? Watch here.
A more visual way to review the timeline data is with the Dashboard tool. You can import a Dashboard from the main Nacsport analysis machine into Nacsport Viewer (you can’t create a Dashboard in Viewer), so that those interactive charts and data labels can be clicked to play the video clips relating to that data, with multiple video angles showing there too.
“For the way that we review ourselves, each other and as a team at Castleford Tigers, having something as intricate as Nacsport Viewer is essential for us.The Dashboard gives us quick and easy access to every clip we would need when creating presentations, that we take back to our coaches as part of our review process.Additionally, the ability to use multiple analysis from more than one video helps us to compare statistics across multiple games and better focus on our strengths and improvements.”James Clare, Winger, Castleford Tigers (Rugby League)
Creating presentations in Nacsport Viewer
This is a process which I think brings the most power into Nacsport Viewer. When a timeline is open, you can create a Presentation Window for the clips from that game/training. Users can easily create different lists for their presentation, then add clips from the timeline, Matrix or Dashboard into these lists (like James Clare at Castleford Tigers).
When these clips are added into the presentation window, the length of the clips can be edited, with notes and drawings (including KlipDraw animations) added into them to further supplement the video. These presentations can be played back but importantly, the presentation file (.pre) can be exported and then shared to the main Nacsport user (like the analyst/coach), who can import the .pre file into their Nacsport software.
We give our Academy players the freedom to create their own presentations on the Nacsport Viewer machines, so they can let us know the things they want to look at in more detail too. Mark Dunning, Assistant Coach and Reserves Head Coach, Bradford Bulls (Rugby League)
This gives an excellent collaborative process for players, coaches and analysts to work together. With everyone creating presentation windows for their chosen focus areas, these can be imported into a ‘final presentation’ so that it can be played back in a team meeting, exported as a video file to be shared with others or even uploaded to the online Sharimg platform for people to review and edit further.
Did you know that admin users on the Sharimg platform can create and edit presentation windows online from the uploaded analysis or highlights created by players on Sharimg? Watch here.
Presentation windows that are exported can also be imported into Nacsport Viewer and played back, which can round off the process of sharing ‘final presentations’ back out to people to better review analysis from multiple games for example.
“Viewer licenses allow our players to build their own presentations individually. We then collate some of these presentations together, allowing players to present their findings to a unit or a team.Giving the players this ownership of their performance and reviews has been really beneficial for us all.”Joe Larkin, Head Analyst, ASM Clermont Auvergne (Rugby Union)
What else is possible in Nacsport Viewer
There are many other tools available in Nacsport Viewer to help the user get the most out of the analysis they have imported into Viewer. You can export the timeline data in a variety of formats (XML, XLS, CSV) if you want to work on this in tools like Excel or Power BI for example.
You can select and compare clips side-by-side in a timeline and even use the category frequency chart tool, providing you another visual way to see your timeline data and how often actions are happening throughout a game.
One of my favourite tools in Nacsport Viewer is something that you will only find in Nacsport Elite. This is the hugely powerful Search Tool. From the main menu, you open the Search Tool and then choose multiple timelines (databases) to add to your search. Next, you choose a specific category/descriptor or even a combination of these and as if by magic, you will then be presented with these specific moments from multiple games and videos that you can watch back straight away. How good is that?!?!
Want to see your headers that were on target from the last 5 games?
Search Tool
Want to see all of your kickouts from the season that went to the left and were won cleanly by your team?
Search Tool
Want to see all of your penalty corners from the last 3 years where you scored?
Search Tool
“With Nacsport Viewer, I’m able to add all of our games from the last 2 seasons into my search tool and easily watch back the tries we scored and the tries we conceded.“When I’m preparing for our new season, this gives me a way of seeing our attacking and defensive strengths and weaknesses quickly, to serve as a reminder and better inform my plans for the new season.”Ben Passenger, Head Coach, Paignton RFC (Rugby Union)
There is a reason that the Search Tool across multiple games is only available in Nacsport Elite (where you can export those clips or add to presentation windows too), but having the ability to use it to view clips in Nacsport Viewer is one of the best kept secrets out there I think. So if you only have one takeaway from this post, let it be learning about the Search Tool, my all-time favourite Nacsport feature (which has been there since the day we brought Nacsport over to the UK and Ireland back in 2012!).
Did you know that you can also use the register search tool for the analysis that you have uploaded onto Sharimg? Seriously. Watch here.
Find out more about Nacsport
Hopefully this post has provided you with insight to the power of the Nacsport Viewer system and it’s benefits as a video analysis tool for analysts, coaches and players alike. You can of course start a free trial of Nacsport yourself and we can assist you through this process and better understand your complete analysis requirements too. Please check out these additional resources for more information.
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