Hello and welcome to your fifth lesson.
In our last session, we saw compelling evidence of how set pieces can single-handedly decide championships, European spots, and relegation battles. We learned how to use goal contributions and Expected Goals (xG) data to analyse and demonstrate this impact, answering the crucial question of why set-piece analysis is so vital.
Today, we transition from the 'why' to the 'how'. If the last lesson was about understanding the value of set-piece data, this lesson is about learning to create that data yourself. Our learning outcome is to use video analysis software to tag and categorise set piece events from match footage. This is the foundational skill of a modern analyst and coach, turning raw video into a structured, searchable database of tactical events.
The Analyst's Workflow: What is Tagging?
Before diving into software, it's essential to understand the core concept: tagging (also known as 'coding'). In essence, tagging is the process of watching a match video and marking specific moments (events) with pre-defined labels. Instead of scrubbing through 90 minutes of footage to find every corner kick, you create a system that allows you to instantly pull up all corner kicks with a single click.
This process revolves around a "coding panel" or "tagging window," which is your custom dashboard of buttons.
E-book How to shape the game with your video analysis
To get a formal definition of this crucial tool, let's consult the e-book 'How to shape the game with your video analysis' from the coaching consultants at Tactalyse.
Please read the section titled 'The power of a coding panel in video analysis'. It clearly defines what a coding panel is and lists its key benefits, such as creating structured analysis and improving time efficiency.
As the e-book explains, a well-structured coding panel is what transforms raw footage into actionable insights.
Seeing it in Action: The Core Tagging Process
The best way to understand this workflow is to see it in action. The principles are the same across most software platforms, but we'll use a guide for Nacsport, a popular and accessible tool, to walk through the process.
The tagging process generally involves two types of buttons:
- Categories: These mark the primary event you want to capture. This button creates the video clip. For us, this would be
Corner Kick,Attacking Free Kick, orLong Throw-in. - Descriptors: These add context to the category. They don't create new clips but attach information to the clip you just made. For a
Corner Kick, descriptors could beInswing,Near Post, orShot.
The Nacsport Quick Start Guide
This quick start guide for Nacsport provides an excellent overview of the entire tagging workflow. Pay close attention to the distinction it makes between 'Categories' and 'Descriptors'.
Watch from the beginning to 07:51. Focus on understanding the overall goal of 'tagging' a game, the main windows you'll work with (video player, tagging window), and especially the difference between 'Category' buttons and 'Descriptor' buttons.
Building Your Toolkit: Creating a Tagging Window
While you can download pre-made templates, a professional analyst custom-builds their tagging window to suit their specific philosophy and focus. As a set-piece specialist, you will need a window designed to capture the exact details that matter for your analysis.
Let's look at how you create the buttons and set their properties. A key property is the 'pre' and 'post' time (sometimes called 'lead' and 'lag'), which determines how many seconds of video are captured before and after you press the button. For a corner kick, you might want 3 seconds before the kick and 10 seconds after to capture the entire sequence.
The Nacsport Quick Start Guide
Now that you've seen a tagging window in action, let's quickly see how one is built. The Nacsport guide shows how simple it is to add new buttons and define their behaviour.
Watch the segment from 07:51 to 09:56. This demonstrates how to create new Category and Descriptor buttons and adjust their properties, such as the pre- and post-roll times for clips.
To reinforce that these principles are universal, let's see the same concepts in Hudl Sportscode, which is considered the gold standard in elite professional football. The terminology is slightly different—they use 'code buttons' (for categories) and 'label buttons' (for descriptors)—but the underlying logic is identical.
Sportscode Tutorial - Learn the basics!.. Football Analysis
This Sportscode tutorial shows the same workflow in a different package. Notice the conceptual similarities: a primary button to create a clip and secondary buttons to add descriptive information.
Watch the segments from 02:43 to 04:44 and 05:18 to 07:20. Pay attention to how 'code buttons' are created for main events (like 'Shot') and 'label buttons' add details ('On Target'). Also, note the 'lead' and 'lag' time, which functions just like 'pre' and 'post' time.
Designing a Set-Piece Coach's Tagging Window
Now, let's apply this to your role. What should your tagging window look like? It needs to be organised and capture all the necessary information for analysing set pieces.
Here is an example of a professional template. Notice the clear, structured layout, with a dedicated section for 'SET PIECES'.
Your main Categories would be:
- Attacking Corner
- Defending Corner
- Attacking Free Kick (Direct)
- Attacking Free Kick (Indirect)
- Defending Free Kick
- Attacking Throw-in (Final Third)
The real analytical power comes from your Descriptors. For each Attacking Corner you tag, you would also click several descriptor buttons to add layers of information.
Example Descriptors for an Attacking Corner:
- Delivery Type: Inswing, Outswing, Short, Driven
- Delivery Zone: Near Post, Central, Far Post
- First Contact: Own Team, Opposition, Uncontested
- Outcome: Goal, Shot on Target, Shot off Target, Blocked Shot, Cleared, Foul
By tagging a corner with Attacking Corner (Category) + Inswing + Near Post + Own Team + Shot on Target (Descriptors), you create a rich data point. After tagging the whole match, you could instantly filter and watch all inswinging corners aimed at the near post that resulted in a shot. This is the foundation of effective opposition analysis and self-scouting.
Test your understanding!
You are tasked with analysing your team's defending against long throw-ins into the box. What Category and what potential Descriptors would you create in your tagging window to effectively analyse this specific phase of play?
Show answer
Category: Defending Long Throw
Potential Descriptors:
- First Header: Won, Lost
- Second Ball: Won, Lost
- Outcome: Cleared, Conceded Shot, Conceded Goal, Won Foul
- Opponent Target Zone: Near Post Area, Penalty Spot Area, Far Post Area
This structure would allow you to quickly assess your team's effectiveness in the key moments of defending a long throw: winning the initial aerial duel, securing the second ball, and preventing a shot.
Getting Started: Your First Steps with Analysis Software
Professional software like Hudl Sportscode can be very expensive. However, there are excellent, accessible options to get you started.
Metrica Sports: Everything You Need to Know About ...
The article 'Metrica Sports: Everything You Need to Know...' outlines one such tool. It breaks down the workflow in a way that should now feel very familiar and, importantly, explains how you can access it.
First, read the section 'How Does Metrica Sports Work? A Step-by-Step Breakdown'. You'll see it follows the same Import -> Tag -> Annotate -> Export workflow we've discussed. Then, read 'Accessing Metrica Sports for Free: The SoccerEDU Partnership'. This provides you with a direct, no-cost way to start practising the skills from this lesson.
I strongly encourage you to follow the steps in the article to get your free Metrica PlayBase license. The best way to learn this is by doing. Find a recording of a match online (YouTube has many full matches) and try to build a simple set-piece tagging window and code your first game.
Conclusion
In this lesson, you have learned the fundamental technical skill of video analysis: tagging and categorising events. This is the process that turns unstructured video into the powerful data we discussed in the previous lesson.
Key Takeaways:
- Tagging (or Coding) is the process of marking events in a video with labels to create a searchable database.
- A Tagging Window is your custom interface of buttons used for this process.
- Tagging systems are built on Categories (the primary event, which creates a clip) and Descriptors (the context that adds information to the clip).
- A well-designed tagging window, tailored to your specific analytical needs (like set pieces), is crucial for efficient and insightful analysis.
- There are accessible and even free professional tools, like Metrica Sports, that allow you to start building these skills immediately.
Preview of the Next Lesson:
Simply creating clips of every corner kick isn't enough. The next step is to use those clips to communicate tactical ideas. In our next lesson, we will learn how to use annotation tools (e.g., telestration) to highlight tactical details in video clips. We'll take the clips we've learned to create today and add drawings, player highlights, and text to turn them into powerful teaching tools for players.