Houston Dynamo Lead MLS adoption Of Performa Sports Player Development Solutions

The Houston Dynamo recently signed up with Performa Sports for real-time performance analysis and player development support, the first North American MLS franchise to do so. Joe Turley, Director of Marketing & Communications, Performa Sports, was en route to a video analysis session with an Irish League football club outside Dublin, Ireland when he responded to the Sports Techie community blog Q&A about the historical news that a respected U.S. Major League Soccer Club has agreed to use their game-changing sports tech tools. Their extended analytics, reporting, collaboration and storage software was designed for MLS football analysts, coaches and players to gain a competitive edge in sport.

Houston Dynamo
The Dynamo moved to Houston from San Jose in December 2005 and played their first season in Houston in 2006. The club won consecutive MLS Cup championships in 2006-07 and has been one of the league’s leading franchises, domestically and internationally, since its birth.

The Dynamo has an extensive academy and player development program. The Dynamo Academy consists of the best youth soccer players in the Houston area aged 13-18. Players train four days per week and play weekend matches in the USSF Development Academy league. This packed schedule and constant drive for talent identification and effective skills enhancement, demands a flexible, user-friendly and highly efficient performance analysis solution that can be used consistently across all of it’s coaching staff.

The Academy’s football department work closely with individual players to determine a set of key development indicators which we feel are important for each player at particular stages in their evolution. The Performa Sports application allows us to visually communicate match performances that can then be tailored into their personal development programs.

Houston Dynamo’s Youth Director, James Clarkson, said, “With the MLS expanding every year, the player pool from which to draw from becomes smaller and smaller. For the Dynamo it is important to develop our own players so we can constantly compete for the MLS Cup. Using Performa Sports allows us to efficiently monitor all the players in our system from a very analytical stand point. Players can view their own performances from each game and look at the statistical data that is collected from them, helping to improve player learning. We are looking forward to a long and successful partnership with Performa Sports.”

The Dynamo Academy has three competitive teams, competing at the U-14, U-16, and U-18 level. Successful players can be signed directly to the Dynamo first team.

Performa Sports
Turley said “We are delighted that our first Major League Soccer customer is Houston Dynamo. At the forefront of the league since its inception, Dynamo continue to implement fresh approaches in the growth of their franchise and the development of Soccer in the US and we are looking forward to helping with their academy performance analysis requirements and ongoing player development strategies.”

Performa Sports came to life as the solution to the frustrations and time challenges faced by a young performance analyst, who intuitively knew that there was a faster and easier way to process performance analytics that could also help to influence the outcome of a game and improve performance.

Performa Sports is pioneered by Joe’s brother, Danny Turley. Their mobile technology sports performance analysis solution was developed together with elite and grassroots coaches, analysts and players. The Dynamo will use Performa’s data and tactile features to try and win the 2014 Eastern Conference and a shot at the MLS Championship.

Their user-friendly sports tech takes advantage of the ultra-fast processing speed of an iPad together with an intuitive user-interface that calculates real-time stats while integrating with other advanced analytical tools.

How it works: Performa Sports iPad app for sports performance analysis

Performa Sports is a powerful easy-to-use real-time performance analysis application combining the mobility and touchscreen interactions of the iPad with the secure accessibility of the Cloud for extended analytics, reporting, collaboration and storage. It captures the 70% of performance observation that is often missed. Satisfied clients are better able to see the small margins that often make the difference between winning and losing.

”I already knew about the product from work I did in Sierra Leone. I’d seen what they were doing with other clients, like the Craig Bellamy Academy, and how easy it was to take to the pitch,” said Tom Harris, Technical Coordinator with Houston Dynamo.

Performa Sports is a powerful easy-to-use performance analysis tool combining the mobility, speed and touchscreen interaction of the iPad with a secure Cloud-based analytics platform. Designed for analysts, coaches, and players the integrated suite of intuitive performance analysis software delivers real-time, accurate recording of data, powerful visual communication and performance tracking over time, with:

• Real-time statistical analysis
• Simple and fast video analysis
• Live in-depth statistical graphs
• Profile player performances
• Create playlists for coaching, training and scouting
• Easily share your analysis
• Benchmark performances and trends over time

Set up your KPIs
Customize the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you want to measure and evaluate in live game analysis. Extend the depth and quantity of your analysis through multi-analyst collaboration and unlimited KPIs in post-game analysis.

Team & player profiling
Create, edit and personalize your squad list by assigning squad numbers and uploading a player photo. Start each game by setting up your starting team, subs and formation. Then choose to profile the opposition. See player and team performance stats build over time.

Live-game tagging
With simple touchscreen thumb taps along the right and left handsides of the iPad interface you can track more detail easier and faster with statistical graphs instantly generated.

Performa Sports has an international client base including grassroots, amateur and professional teams in soccer, gaelic, hurling, rugby union, tennis, hockey. They take part in the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) in the Premier League’s drive for quality coaching environments.

Pricing Options
iPad Stats + Cloud, $15 month – The basic plans are ideal for fans, enthusiasts, junior clubs and proud parents.
iPad App, $800 year – Designed for amateur and semi-pro clubs serious about performance analysis.
iPad App + Cloud, – Pro 5: $1,250, Pro 15 $2400, Pro 30 $4,800/year The Pro Plans offer a scalable and bespoke suite of performance analysis software for Academy and Pro teams.

Features
Games – Create unlimited games on your account.
Offline Players – Profile & track an unlimited amount of players on your iPad & online account.
Analyst Account – This user can add, remove and edit the analysis information via the iPad App. Multiple Analyst Accounts allow for collaboration across teams and staff.
Online Player Accounts – Once players are added via your iPad, you can invite them by email to log into their own account to review & communicate on their performance data & video analysis.
Data Storage – Easily share Word docs, PDF’s, Presentations, Images or Video with your colleagues & selected players by uploading these materials to your resources section.
Video Analysis – Sync your real-time stats captured on your iPad with the game video to create your post-game video analysis.
Online Videos – Upload game videos to your online account via our built in Web Uploader or through their Mac App available to download from the Mac App Store.
Shared Games – Create & send private video links to view a game you’ve uploaded online. Link views work on a countdown basis and can be topped up at any time.

CAIS
CAIS (Coach Analysis and Intervention System) is an iPad software application that provides coaches and coach educators with real-time or post-event analysis of coaching behavior in practice and competition to develop optimum performance environments. CAIS is an invaluable coaching analysis tool for all sports, during training and competition.

Benefits of CAIS

• Complete a short online training package and a practice observation and you’re ready to go
• Creates optimal coaching and learning environments
• Provides objective data about coaching performance
• Creates individual and detailed coaching reports
• Creates coach behavior profiles and databases
• Supports coach education and professional development with data and supporting video feedback
• Supports coach education assessment
• Allows real-time or post event analysis of coach behavior or a combination of both
• Creates bespoke coding templates to analyze specific aspects of coaching and create a database of coaching analysis
• Generates coach behavior reports to identify strength and development areas
• Filters the analysis to provide data concerning particular moments, behaviors or summaries of coaching
• Includes ready-to-use statistics about coaching practice
• Instantly creates video feedback
• Imports or exports coach behavior data

Sports Techie Q & A with Joe Turley
1. Can you discuss the details of the site license the Dynamo purchased?

We can’t give exact specifics on the license type other than it is a customized Performa Sports Pro Package combining both our iPad application and Cloud analytics platform.

2. Are any other MLS or other American sports league teams showing interest in your performance software?

We have had interest from other MLS clubs plus have two soccer clubs and one GAA club in California also using the system. We’re also about to announce that we’ll be working with the New York GAA team (that’s an early heads up for you. GAA is the major team sport in Ireland but a minority global sport but is also very popular with Irish communities around the world). We are also exploring a number of exciting options with other US sports.

3. Why is iOS the chosen Performa Sports platform?

Why iOS? The founder, my younger brother has worked as an analyst for over 10yrs, since he was 17. He became frustrated with options that were available and also wanted a mobile solution that provide live stats to help inform decisions on the line that could help impact the outcome of the game, as post match video review was too late. In 2008 he created the first native iPhone app out of the University of Ulster, our first Performa Sports prototype. Soon after Apple introduced the iPad which gave us a bigger screen area, it was tactile and mobile. As a device it allowed us to deliver a solution to a need in sports performance analysis – make it easy, with real-time stats, significantly save time, work with video and make it engaging and relevant for the athlete to improve learning. A few generations later and we have an intuitive, highly efficient and robust solution that doesn’t get too worried about bad weather conditions! The Apple iPad changed the market potential for and continues to get better, but the growth of Android tablets will hopefully mean another platform for Performa in the future.

4. What is going on with Performa and the World Cup?

World Cup, there may be a chance that we will be involved with one of the teams but its a very long shot at this time as discussions started late. We may do some tournament analysis for a bit of fun and share this with our social media community.

5. My Mom is Ecuadorian so of course I love this – “Performa Sports is a must-have for athletes and coaches alike.”

— Futbolmetrics, Ecuadorian Football League Analytics

We met the guys from Ecuador in Boston in 2012 and went from there, nice guys.

Craig Bellamy Foundation
The CBF operates Sierra Leone’s only professional Football Academy. The Charity runs the National Youth Football League developed with support from UNICEF, offering underprivileged children the chance to reach their potential through sport and education.

Contact
@performasports
http://www.performasports.com/

Sports Techie, If you want real-time stats analysis in order to understand what’s happening in the game, when it matters, Performa Sports might be your answer as they now are with the Dynamo. Go for the free 15 day trial accessible on their web site to help decide if the role, speed and function is what you are searching for.

I like that Performa Sports believe in opportunity and accessibility for all levels to engage with performance analysis and support the importance of a holistic approach to athlete and coach engagement in improving performance. Their move to mobile devices and Cloud accessibility and storage for player performance improvement in soccer are trends fueled by cutting edge Performa Sports technology products.

Turley said, “We are planning for a major international youth tournament during the Summer, will share some of this with you later as we should hopefully get some interesting behind the scenes video and content.”

Performa Sports understand the power of numbers and believe in the potential of people, tangibles the Dynamo organization and their local youth will enjoy this season.

I will see ya when I see ya, THE Sports Techie @THESportsTechie – http://twitter.com/THESportsTechie

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