CREATING EFFICIENCY IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AT SOUTHAMPTON

SUMMARY

Southampton Football Club has implemented a video capture and analysis system from Pixellot to improve its youth and women’s sports development including a fixed camera at Testwood stadium and five portable cameras. The deployment has allowed Southampton to capture and analyse home and away games efficiently, enabling coaches to focus on improving team and player performance using the video and data. The automated tactical view provided by the system also enables coaches to get a better understanding of the tactical side of the game.

BACKGROUND

Southampton Football Club is one of England’s oldest football clubs, with a long and rich history of producing world-class talent. Established in 1885, The club was a founding member of the Premier League in 1992.

Southampton Academy has produced various world-class football players over the years including Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The Academy has teams starting from under 9, leading up to under-17 and under-19 youth teams, all the way up to 23 years old. They play at A.F.C. Totton’s Testwood Stadium, which is also in use by Southampton F.C. Women’s teams.

VISION

Given Southampton’s rich history of developing young talent, the club aspires to develop the football stars of tomorrow by utilizing the latest technologies and methodologies available.
They were looking for a system that would free up the coaches from the operational logistics so they could focus on using the video and data to improve team and player performance.

CHALLENGE

Southampton’s desire to capture and analyze women and youth games and practices were confronted by several challenges. To begin with, not all activities are conducted at a fixed venue. Since the youth and some of the women’s activities are conducted at a rented stadium as well as on the road, it was important to find a centralized solution that would allow them to capture and analyze home and away games in an efficient manner, especially given the fact that they were short on manpower.
In addition, Southampton F.C. required an automated tactical view feed to follow the game and to have all the footage uploaded to the analytics platform. The entire workflow needed to be seamless and automated, as well as being cost-effective while providing quality footage.

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTATION

Southampton F.C decided to deploy one fixed Pixellot Camera system at the Testwood stadium, augmented by five Pixellot AIR portable cameras that were used by the various teams at home and during the away matches.

OUTCOME

With the Pixellot system, all games at all levels and age groups are captured and analyzed. The coaches have more tools to educate young players and prepare the next generation of talent. Coaches are better able to get players more involved in analyzing their technique and getting a better understanding of the tactical side of the game.

The addition of portable Pixellot systems enabled Southampton FC to capture away games and practices easily. Before, they needed to send an analyst to manually record everything that was happening on the pitch. Moving to Pixellot cameras enabled them to improve their coach’s workflow and get complete, high-quality footage of matches and practices, as well as the data analysis.

ADVANTAGES

• A single Easy-to-use solution for home and away games and practices
• Seamlessly integrated into the current coaching workflow
• Portable for use with away games and practices
• Automated Tactical view covers all players in the frame

Nathan Hurst, Head of Academy Performance Analysis

“Pixellot is enabling us to be much more efficient with our manpower. The automation lets us free up two more people who can concentrate on analysis and the quality of the video is higher than what we could shoot previously.”