Introduction

Q: What is a Match Centre?

A: It’s a Coach Logic video platform where teams in the same competition share their games with each other.  

As well as my ‘proper job’ at Coach Logic, I am the Head Coach at Currie Chieftains Rugby Club and we play in the Scottish Premiership. As with many top level competitions outside of Football in the UK, teams have a limited amount of funding and a lot of talented players looking to maximise their experience and development opportunities.

The introduction of a Scottish Rugby Match Centre alongside a League Participation Agreement that all teams share their games each week hasproved a very cost effective way to raise the standards of competition, coaching and provide players with better development opportunities.

In this post I will reflect on my use of the Match Centre over the past season to demonstrate how impactful it has been.

Barriers to introducing Match Centres

First up I want to point out two biggest barriers to having a Match Centre in your competition and it’s not financial. Both of which require the Governing Body to step in and do what’s best for the game.

1. We don’t film our games

This is still a situation many teams find themselves in but if you are serious about team performance and player development it’s a must. AI Cameras have made it easier for teams to start filming but in my opinion the best solution is still a camera man filming from height.

The good news about having a Match Centre is that all teams have responsibility to film their home games only. So just focus on getting your home set-up sorted.

In addition check out the added commercial benefits video can have for your organisation.

2. I do not want to share our games and give away our secrets

This one probably grates me the most as a few coaches in a competition can stop something that is overall better for the game and the player experience. Governing Bodies need to step in at this point and make it part of the league participation agreement. For those coaches not wanting to share, ask them what is the positive impact of not sharing their footage?

If you are serious about improving your domestic competitions these two reasons should not be accepted.

How I use the Scottish Rugby Union Match Centre

I have access to two Coach Logic platforms, my Currie Chieftains platform and the Men’s Match Centre, which covers the top 2 levels of domestic rugby in Scotland. The home team has responsibility to film and upload to the Match Centre. Once the game is available on the Match Centre, I share it to my team platform and publish it to my players.

 I then task the players with completing 5 minutes of the video timeline each before Monday afternoon. Check out the Collaborative Analysis task I set my players below.

This method means the game is split up into its key events, making it easy to find the moments we want to discuss further. On Monday and Tuesday, players and coaches find moments and share as Clips and Playlists to the Feed for discussion. I then post a message on the Feed asking for players to suggest what we should be looking to cover at the Tuesday evening session.

The best bit about the Match Centre in terms of our match review work is that I know our opposition teams are viewing our matches and will be looking to take advantage of our weaknesses. This drives the team to get on top of these weaknesses as well as understand what makes us successful. It also forces me and the other coaches to evolve and vary our game on a weekly basis.

Giving away your ‘secrets’ on a weekly basis as a coach drives you to be innovative and this in turn provides players with a far more enjoyable experience.

On Wednesday our attention switches to opposition preview work. I generally share the past two opposition matches to our team platform and the coaches create opposition playlists and share these with the players to discuss opportunities and threats.

We then go into Thursday with a game plan based on our review and opposition preview work that week. I find that engaging players in the discovery process aids their learning but also gets them to buy in to executing the game plan.

Additional benefits of Match Centres

I have focussed on my personal use of the Scottish RugbyMatch Centre but there are many additional benefits to having one in place.

Refereeing Standards

As with the teams in our league, the MatchOfficials also have their own ‘team platform’, which provides a shared space to support each other’s development. Private copies of games can be created for personal review plus clips and playlists can be shared to the Feed for wider discussion within the group.  

Talent Identification

It’s impossible to be at every game, so it’s really valuable to have one shared space where ‘selectors’ can scout players. Players also get access to tools to make their own highlight reels to promote themselves and get into the eye of the talent scout.  

Coaching Course Resources

It provides Governing Bodies in charge of CoachDevelopment to use appropriate content in the delivery of their courses. Playlists and Clips can be downloaded and used in coaching materials and presentations.

Promoting the Game

The Match Centre can also be used by those tasked with promoting the game to create playlists for ‘Match Highlights’ or ‘Score of the Season’ competitions or ‘Play of the Week’

Conclusion

In conclusion the impact of providing a Match Centre for your top domestic competitions is clear and the barriers should be demolished. It’s definitely pushed me to be a better coach and that can only be a good thing for the development of players and the game overall.