Hockey Coaching Software

[CoachJ]

Long time reader, first time poster 🙂 I have been searching high and low for hockey coaching software, and after trying the 7-day trial of Sports Performance Analyzer, I think I am going to nab a copy of the Pro model.

Has anyone else on here (I couldn't see anyone before me) tried their 7-day trial or bought their software?

The site is http://www.spa-hockey.com/ I appreciate everyone's comments.

[TomM]

I use TC Whiteboard to do all the posting here. You can do separate drills and put them together in a practice plan that you print out. You need the program to print out the diagram and notes together but I use the export function which makes the gif diagram that I can post here.

You can download the program on the internet and it costs about $70 and you get free upgrades.

http://www.technicoach.com/ is the site you can order from.

[CoachJ]

Hey TomM, thanks for the reply. It's funny you had mentioned drawing drills, I got an email today from the SPA folks and they were announcing their new drill drawing software. I did end up buying SPA Pro, which has been fantastic so far, and I used their online version of their drawing tool (which is really cool) and it seemed really easy to use.

I have heard of TC Whiteboard before, and I think another program called DrillDraw. Again I would appreciate any thoughts or recommendations.

Oh the drill planner is here: http://www.spa-hockey.com/html/hockey_drill_software.html

Thanks!

[CoachJ]

Whoops, and the SPA Drill Planner is $49.99. I meant to put that in the last message sorry.

[Robert Mattson]

I was going to start a new topic but decided to revive this old one. Is there any software out there (preferably free) that allows a user to mark-up video of a game or practice by hand?

It seems like a simple technology in light of how easy it is to mark-up still frame pictures, but I was surprised when I tried to find some freeware that worked on video. It looks like the SPA company mentioned in a prior post is coming out with a video product, but it is not yet available, according to the website. I know golf instructors use this sort of software, and of course, everyone sees it used in sports broadcasts.

[hockeygod]

I don't know of anything for free. Not sure what platform you are using (PC or Mac); regardless, look at the enclosed software bundle included with your computer. Do Windows Movie Maker or Quicktime meet your needs? Or check the respective Microsoft / Apple sites to see if there is something to do what you want. If you find something, keep us posted! Happy hunting.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Kai K]

I use Magix Movie Edit Pro to edit video with my PC. It is quite easy to use (I'm totally amateur with video editing and shooting and i've learned to use this software by trial and error) but has good tools for editing.

Here's few videos that i've made with the software.

https://sth-se.diino.com/kai_kmk24/pelikirja

https://sth-se.diino.com/kai_kmk24/Hockey%20videos

Kai

[hockeygod]

How much $ for Magix Movie Edit Pro?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Kai K]

79.99 C$
http://www.magix.com/us/ca/products/

Kai

[Robert Mattson]

Ok, here's the only freeware I could find: http://www.kinovea.org/en
I haven't had much time to play with it, but I was able to draw over MPEG4 video using the intuitive editing buttons at the bottom. Kinovea allows you to draw angles, lines, and freehand over the video. There is also a side-by-side video feature. This is sufficient for my needs which is just to show kids some examples from games where they played a particular situation properly. I figure all kids like to see themselves on video and using positive examples would be a good way to build pride and enthusiasm in reacting properly to different game situations. (FYI, we started the season 0-12 and are now on a 7-0-1 undefeated streak, thanks in large part to the ABCs!)

For those who want to pay for something a little more advanced, a Google search with terms "video analysis" AND (sports OR coach) will bring up a number of software packages that allow a user to draw on top of video.

[hockeygod]

rcmat,

Thanks for sharing the software name with us. Good to hear it is helping meet the needs of you and your players. Also nice to hear the ABC's are helping you with your coaching. Game-like situations (the decision-making approach) really do work. Although the results might not happen overnight, it gets better with time. Funny how lots of people are against something that might be considered 'counter-culture' to what has always been done to coach hockey (patterned, mindless drills (no accountability or game-like situations) with few puck touches, too long of rest between reps, boring… under the belief that this will help their players "perform" come game day!) If only more people would approach it with an open mind, these coaching / teaching techniques would help improve the quality of practices everywhere… teach our players an understanding of the game… not to mention improve the coaches game intelligence too!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

CoachJ wrote:
Whoops, and the SPA Drill Planner is $49.99. I meant to put that in the last message sorry.

Now that I bought a new laptop, it is time to more closely look at a drill design program.

Looking at SPA, Drill Draw, TC Whiteboard. Are there any more suggestions? Please provide a link and price structure… SPA doesn't post their prices… CoachJ says it's $50/year.

I want one that can categorize drills; be able to draw up one or more drills – even an entire practice plan on one page (3-4 rinks plus description); print in colour or B/W; one that is fairly quick to learn; the ability to export to a .pdf file (Tom – like what you use TC Whiteboard) – I think this would be good, regardless of drill program – so I can keep my work stored on a hard drive if the software company goes belly up or I decide not to renew a description. Does SPA or Drill Draw allow this?

I don't think I need the TOI feature (like on SPA) at this point. Being able to write over video(SPA again) would be nice, but not needed right now. I don't want to purchase other's drill packages. But can one share drills between people if they are using the same software? IE If I buy TC Whiteboard, can Tom and I 'share' (import/export drill files)?

What other features are good / essential to have vs. fluff?

CoachJ, how is the SPA planner working out? IS the $50 price an annual fee or lifetime? Can you print out a couple of drills to a page; like for a practice, or just single drills?

Anyone else on here use Drill Draw? Feedback?

I think I can try all three for a free trial period which I might end up doing. Just thought I could get a head start via other people's experiences!

Thanks in advance…

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Kai K]

I have DrillDraw and I really like it. You can categorize your drills, export / import dirlls, share drills with other DD users. It has PDF add-on module.

Kai

[DMan]

Dean,

I purchased Drill Draw this year, and I think it's quite good. At the start of the year I was good about entering drills and making complete practices, but as time went on I found it more useful to print out index card sized pieces of paper just to keep me on time between drills.

I think the major benefits of drilldraw are that it's easy to learn, it's a great way to archive and organize all your materials, and you don't need an Internet connection. There is a great tutorial that shows it's features here:

I was leaning towards the TC whiteboard program at first because I liked it's simplicity, but they switched to an online version that relies on the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in to work and I had terrible problems with it working.

Hope this helps….
Dave

[DMan]

Dean- One other thing…..you can use a free program called PDF Creator to print your diagrams into PDF format if you have a Windows computer.

http://www.pdfforge.org/

Once installed it shows up as one of your printers and you simply print into a PDF file….No need to buy the add-on.

Dave

[Author]

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