It has been said, that having statistics without analytics is just like having knowledge without action. Even if you acquired all of the information available on the planet, it would be useless, unless to you acted on it.
Now, keep in mind that the whole goal of collecting any information is to analyze it – to identify any correlations, patterns and trends that will influence a decision to be made. This is exactly how teams are able to achieve even better results, while also increasing performance.
Sports Analytics: Enter Dartfish
You may be thinking to yourself, “I’m pretty sure they’ve been using sports analytics for some time.” This is quite true. For example, if you look at golf, according to the PGA, the entire sport has changed since 1980 – and analytics is a huge part of that change.
Many sports, such as golf, football, and baseball, have been implementing analytics for quite a while. However, it has been difficult to collect data for analytics of certain sports. Until recently, that is: Enter: Dartfish!
With all of the technological breakthroughs occurring over the past several years, sports analytics, the collection, and analysis of sports data, has become much easier, including for ice hockey. And yes, this includes ice hockey video analysis, when using Dartfish comprehensive data solutions.
The use of ice hockey video analysis is very important to the entire sport of hockey, as it provides impressive benefits.
Five benefits of data and video analysis in hockey
- Develops a more successful and stronger team – As in any sport, the main goal of a hockey team is to continuously get better results. With analytics, individual players and an entire team can be evaluated using qualitative and quantitative data. This data can then be used to adjust the team’s playing strategy, as well as to improve individual players’ performance.
- Builds a better plan – With the use of ice hockey video analysis, teams are now able to formulate evidence-based conclusions, make necessary changes, and plan for the future.
- Increases a team’s competitiveness – Now that it is common for hockey teams to use analytics, a lot of the data ends up being available online. In fact, there are many forums and sites dedicated to sharing sports analytics data. This is important, as hockey teams can use this data to make comparisons and to identify other teams’ strengths and weaknesses. When this has been done correctly, it has given certain teams a decisive advantage over competitors.
- Helps eliminate mistakes – Ice hockey video analysis, charts a team’s performance, including what the team has done wrong and what has done right. Through these analytics, mistakes can be minimized to achieve optimal results in future games.
- Generates faster & smarter on-the-ice decision-making– An increased amount of data is now collected and made available in real-time. Based on this, coaches are able to change up their game plan or make informed decisions during the game.
The Future of Hockey
Today, there are several different companies developing ice hockey video analysis software. And in the future, advancing technology will cause the amount of data available for analysis to increase considerably. Some companies are working with solutions that insert tracking devices into pucks and sensors into players’ equipment to collect data. Dartfish has decided to take another route, working on a visual computing system that, relies on the feeds from regular cameras. Using the feeds of 10 fixed cameras at different locations in the ice rink, this system’s computers identify players from both teams as well as pucks precisely pinpointing their positions at any time during a game. A system such as this, produces a massive amount of data ready for analysis.
What does this increasing amount of data mean for teams and organizations in ice hockey?
First, it appears that the future of ice hockey lies down a pathway where increased understanding of individual players’ statistics and gameplay patterns will, help both coaches and teams understand their weaknesses and capitalize on an enhanced ability to correct them. Similarly, this data will support better decision-making by coaches, when game strategy and tactics.
Shots on net, blocked shots, finished checks, and takeaways are some of the most important metrics tracked and precisely quantified. Tracking these metrics can help provide valuable insights into each match, team, and player. This vast amount of information will also provide ice hockey fans with comprehensive and precise game information and game-related content whether they attend live events or watch on TV.
Secondly, our combination of the latest artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies with the massive amount of data delivered by player and puck tracking solutions is opening the door to new territories of analysis. Using these data-savvy computer learning processes, teams will soon discover a whole new world of data and metrics that coaches can use to adapt training strategies and game tactics for superior outcomes.
These technologies will ultimately make teams more competitive and games more exciting. Thanks to advancing technology, the future of hockey is shaping up to be quite interesting.
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