LongoMatch: The Digital Coach

What is LongoMatch?

LongoMatch is a free sports video analysis software (http://longomatch.ylatuya.es/).  I have to say, after 17 hours or so of usage, this is a fantastic bit of software!

What have I done so far?

1.  Created a volleyball categories template using 21 actions I would normally manually record for a volleyball match.

2.  Created a team template using all players from the Dulwich Tuskers’ 2010/11 roster.

3.  Organized the categories’ shortcut keys for efficient use. 

4.  Tagged point-ending events of each set of one volleyball match on three separate occasions. 

5.  Compared the statistics recorded on the three separate occasions to check for any differences.  If there were any differences, I check where I went wrong and tried to learn from that. 

6.  Exported the statistics as a .csv file and compared those numbers to the original manual collected statistics of the same match (see link).

7.  Created a playlist of one player’s points scored and published a video (see below)

What have I learnt so far?

The biggest thing I learnt was getting proficient at tagging.  Using all 21 actions was far too overwhelming to start with hence I just tagged point ending actions.  It also took time to reorganize the shortcut keys so I was able to tag quicker, e.g. putting “Assist Attempt”, “Attack Attempt” and “Dig” as shortcut keys “A”, “S” and “D” respectively as they go sequentially together. 

What is the best function about LongoMatch?

It is definitely the nature of tagging.  Seeing the tag’s corresponding video is of tremendous use.  The other benefit is to be able to create playlists and publish videos.  This is exciting because I am able to compile video clips of anything I need to do, e.g. motivational clips, areas of improvement etc.

What is the plan for the future in relation to LongoMatch?

I plan to practice more and seriously log in those computer match analysis hours.  For volleyball, I feel another 10 hours of usage and I should be proficient at it.  I would also have to create categories templates for other sports such as football and practice tagging those sports efficiently.  There is also a function to capture still (PGN) picture files at any rate, e.g. 4 per second.  This would be useful from a biomechanical point of view and something I plan to utilize.

What is your overall impression?

This is a powerful bit of software that I will hope help serve me for years to come.  THE best thing about LongoMatch is the fact it is free.