5 Reasons To Use Video Analysis To Accelerate Hockey Player Development

I’m always amazed by the technology we have at our finger tips to help players improve their game today. Whether its an app with Dartfish technology, advanced stats that help quantify play, or the seamless ability to take video of games and skills with any smartphone or tablet device, we’re now armed with so many great tools to take player-development to the next level. In this article, I want to highlight 5 reasons to use Video analysis as a development tool and illustrate how it can positively effect you or your player’s game.
1. There is nowhere to hide. Video analysis brings the microscope of learning squarely on the player. It allows athletes to visually replay a situation they lived, just from a different perspective. As players (and coaches), sometimes we perceive plays or situations initially from a perspective that isn’t totally conducive for teaching or learning. By reviewing the game tape, players and coaches are forced to take a step back and reevaluate “what actually happened,” leading to a more educated analysis and helping to identify corrections needed.

2. Benchmarking. Video allows us to identify habits and skills that have led to success over time. By using key game metrics (Puck Touches, Positive Play %, Corsi, Chances For, Shots in the house etc.), we can track over an extended period of time which specific habits and skills have lead to both success and mistakes for the player. This analysis can be an integral part of helping a player find ways to be more consistent and understand how to best measure their game.

3. Visual Learners. Most athletes, in my experience, prefer to learn through visual teaching methods. This is the same reason a coach demonstrates a drill on the board or in person before the actual exercise begins in practice. Using video analysis makes things easier for our players visually, thus they can take in information faster and accelerate their improvement.

4. Skill Development. Current video technology allows us to slow down any skill (skating, shooting, stick handling etc.) to the point that we can break- down the exact area within that skill that need the most improvement. Patterns or errors that are tough to detect on the ice, when watching a player execute at full speed, are now easily identifiable and correctable through video.

5. Habits and Hockey Sense. Through video we can repetitively clip situations that occur frequently in the course of a game. By seeing these from a “birds eye view,” the players understand how to best approach these situations from a hockey-decision standpoint. Building good habits and hockey sense is much easier with the help of video because spatially the player is able to see where all 10 skaters are on the ice at any given time. The more the players can see these patterns and situations as they develop on video, the better equipped they’ll be to make the right decision under pressure during a game.

Would you like to get a taste of what video analysis is all about? Click below to learn more….