A key task for coaches and trainers in sport (teams or individual athletes) is to provide in accurate and relevant feedback for their athlete(s)  so they can progress and improve their technical and tactical skills. Here you can distinguish between two different methods of skill acquisition. Intrinsic learning: using this method people learn by performing the skills. And extrinsic learning: using this method people learn by feedback and correction. According to our own experience video analysis can be a very usefull contribution to the second method. It's up to the coach to use it and get the right feedback to his athlete(s) at the right time in the right format...

Video can be used to analyse individual techniques, tactics, mental preparation, physical factors, etcetera... Video's main advantage is that it provides a permanent record of performance that can be viewed repeatedly using 'real-time', 'slow motion' and 'freeze-frame' facilities and can be used for long-term monitoring of player progression and development. But the most important advantage of using video analysis would be the use of objective observation instead of subjective perception!

Some part of the fascination for sports definetely comes from the fact that everybody will have an opinion about the game played. Wether you're a fan, parent, team-mate or an official... we're all inclined to consider ourselves coaches and have our opinion ready. This is a part of the charm of the world of sports indeed, however... a coach is not a fan! The coach has a specific task and the responsability to make their athlete(s) reach their goals and set new ones. So a coach would not be allowed to form their opinions without the facts to substantiate them. A coach would need to rely on the facts of the matter and could use some help in getting these because he's only human.

For instance, did you know that according to studies (Hughes & Bartlett) in only 40% of the cases coaches are able to correctly recapitulate how a goal was scored and this drops to a mere 20% when it comes down to different relevant plays during the game. Our short term memory has a limited capacity and as a coach it is impossible to notice every little thing (tactical, technical, own athlete(s), opponent(s), groupdynamics, individual performances, relief players, surroundings,...) during the game while they're coaching. This means the first impression of the game, even for an experienced coach, would be based upon subjective and partial observations, in the worst case even coloured by prejudice. We're only human...

So it is important the first impression is open for re-evaluation based upon the facts of the game. You can gather these facts in different ways of course, using technology or the good old pencil and paper... But if your goal would be to communicate these facts and findings to your player(s), video images are the most convincing arguments you'll find. You will improve your athlete(s) by setting objective key performance indicators beforehand, measure up their performance to the goals set and change what would be needed. However the indicators are often interpreted differenly by different people, so making these visible through the all seeing eye of the camera can help get the message across. If a picture paints a thousand words, imagine what 25 pictures per second can do!