This is a quick tutorial on how to make even better use of the new Zone Tool in Dartfish. This would have been almost impossible to do in previous versions of Dartfish (and is still difficult to do in our competitors software).

Hopefully this tutorial will give you a feel for what is possible from the new 6.0

Remember this is the same tool being used by this year’s All Ireland Champions Dublin, last year’s champions Cork and almost everybody else in Irish Sport.

We are delighted to announce that the Irish Team travelling down under have chosen Dartfish as there exclusive video analysis provider for the 2 test series.

There analysts who previously worked with Dublin went through an extensive selection process. Check out the testimonials from Michael Kennedy, Performance Analyst, Kevin O’Brien, Selector and Mike McGurn, Strength & Conditioning.

The Irish team will be using Easytag, Dartfish 6.0 and Dartfish TV.

The following article appeared in the Irish Independent on Tuesday. If you are interested in learning more about the stats mentioned in the article or about the analysis service we offer please get in touch.

Great to see one of the best teams in the world using Dartfish TV to help them improve. Have a read of the article below.

Coaching Meets the Internet

When Wallaby kicker James O’Connor lines up a shot at goal against the Springboks on Sunday there will be one South African hoping he strikes straight and true.

Former Springbok Braam van Straaten signed up as Wallabies kicking coach in August 2010 and has utilised his passion for ball striking to tweak the techniques of the Australian kickers.

“I’ve been very privileged to work with them a very long time now, just over a year, and they are starting to pick up on the art of kicking, which is the language we are talking about,” van Straaten said.

“They’re getting really good at it. Whenever I come into camp it’s only the small little subtleties that we work on.”

While van Straaten has joined the Australian camp in New Zealand to provide hands-on tutelage, courtesy of technology, most of his work with the Wallaby kickers has been done without him leaving the comfort of his home in George, South Africa.

Compact technique

“We’ve put up a platform to work anywhere in the world with anybody, which is really great. They’ve been sending me their kicking clips on Dartfish TV (a video-sharing website) and I download, analyse and send it back to them,” he said.

“Whenever they’ve got a question, I share my screen on Skype (a communication application), show them exactly what they need to do and give them certain exercises that will help in getting them nice and solid and compact in their technique.”

The 40-year-old coach, who notched 221 points in his 21 Tests for the Springboks, was eager to dismiss suggestions he would have mixed emotions ahead of Australia’s quarter-final against his home nation.

“There’s a certain number of people in New Zealand who say the same about Robbie Deans. It’s a professional era. I’m here to do a job. Nothing else matters,” he said.

Knows his stuff

James O’Connor, who kicked nine goals from 10 attempts against Russia in Australia’s last pool match, was quick to credit van Straaten for his success.

“He’s done massive things with me,” O’Connor said.

“Technically, there’s no one better than Braam. He knows his stuff and it’s his passion, goalkicking. If you could kick all day long, he’d be there with you.”

As for dealing with the difficult kicking conditions presented by the infamous winds of Wellington, van Straaten says the answer is simple.

“If you get the fundamentals right you will get a good strike on it, even in a windy stadium,” he said.

“You will look for good rotation, good penetration in the kick and that will get the ball through the poles.”

A big congrats to Dublin on winning the All Ireland Football Championship. Dublin were the first county to come on board with Dartfish. There analyst back in 2005 Ray Boyne made the brave decision to go with Dartfish and Hasn’t looked back since.

In the week leading up to the final you could find Ray diligently watching the players as they trained, all the time tagging what he sees on Dartfish EasyTag.

It’s been a long time coming and through the work we have seen Ray put in it has been well deserved. Congrats to all the team.

It also makes it two all Ireland’s in 2 years for Dartfish with Cork winning last year and now Dublin.

Just a quick note to say both congratulations and best of luck to Derry and Donegal in the Ulster Football Championship this weekend. Both counties are long time Dartfish users and under new management this year they have made great strides forward.

I’m sure both analysts are hard at work this week preparing for the game. And we wish both teams the best of luck.

Please book your place by emailing info@tocasports.com

We look forward to seeing you there.

GAA League Champions

The league finals for Division 1,2,3 & 4 were held at the weekend and it was a great weekend for Dartfish. The division 1,2,3 & 4 winners were all Dartfish users. A big congrats to Louth on winning the division 4 final, Longford were successful in division 3 and Donegal in division 2.

Also, commiserations to the 3 losers in those finals, who are Dartfish users as well. I’m sure both the winners and losers will take great heart from having reached that stage of the final and will hope to progress a lot further come championship time.

Congratulations to the Cavan U21′s on winning the Ulster Championship. Great victory for them over Tyrone by 1-10 to 0-10. I know the hard work and time that has been put in behind the scenes and it is fantastic to get a result like that.

Cavan have been great Dartfish users over the last number of years and I know they won’t be satisfied with the Ulster title and will be aiming to go all the way.

TOCA Sports would like to wish the team and their analyst the best of luck.

Dartfish 3rd Level College’s & Universities

Dartfish Video Analysis Students

In College’s all over Ireland Dartfish is being thought. Not something we could have said back in 2004 when we started. It is a great move forward for performance/video analysis in Ireland in general.

All of the students attending colleges such as Carlow IT, IT Blanchardstown, Tralee IT, Cork Institute of Technology, UCC and DCU (and nearly every other college), are getting great exposure to Dartfish and how it can help their future careers.

Of most note are probably DCU, Carlow IT and Blanchardstown IT; these college will all be teaching Tagging as part of their curriculum. This will mean all the students studying sports courses in these colleges will have exposure to Dartfish for both Technical and Tactical Analysis.

This can only be a good development for Irish Sport. These students will be going out into the workforce with an invaluable skill and qualification on their CV. For video analysis in general it means as a country we will have so many more people qualified in the area and that can only raise the standard for everyone.

Presently there are only 2 people qualified in Ireland to supply performance analysis service support to our high performance athletes. Hopefully this will change over the coming months and years.

Exciting time for Performance & Video Analysis in this country and a great time to be a student.