Tagging Video

Traditionally, reviewing sporting performance on video is a linear process – you rewind the tape, press play and observe the action as it takes place. Of course your camcorder's fast forward button saves time but finding and replaying important moments in the game or competition essentially remains linear – and slow.

Imagine how useful it would be to be able to mark and label these events on the tape as you are filming because you could later jump between these marks in any order you choose. You could review only the events of interest and choose to see related events: "Let me look at all the times our opposition scored" ceases to be a lengthy process of fast forward and play.

Dartfish's Tagging module doesn't physically mark a tape but instead brings digital video onto the computer and allows you to create a searchable index of the video content. Each event is tagged with not just one label but a set of values that really identify what is happening. This process not only lets you search and review these events but compiles match statistics: "Which shot does my opponent most often score with?" is not only a question that can be easily answered, but the relevant shots can be replayed and analyzed.


A short history of tagging

If all this sounds familiar, that is because Dartfish Tagging is a combination of long-used tactical analysis methods:

Notational analysis - the coach or analyst sits on the sideline with pen & paper ticking off or coding events as they take place in a game. Tagging does this using buttons which are clicked to code events.

Video indexing - even before digital video, coaches attempted to make it easier to find useful moments in the video of the game by noting the time that they took place. This made it easier to fast forward to that point on the tape but it's easier still with Tagging; the events you code are listed in an index which can be searched and displayed non-sequentially.


Is Tagging just for Team sports?

No. While other Dartfish modules are used for technical analysis of isolated events. Tagging is more about a tactical analysis of the game as a whole while being able to focus on specific moments of choice. It is therefore useful for any sport where these qualities are of interest: Team sports, racket sports, combat sports, skating/gymnastic routines etc.