Maximize Your Football Coaching Video

7 Steps to Getting More from Your Team\'s Video Personnel
by: David Affholter
Video Coordinator, University of Saint Francis, Ft. Wayne, IN
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College coaches will admit that watching video accounts for 2-3 times more of their in-season workload than actual on the field preparation. Football game video is a necessary evaluation tool for coaches and players, yet many coaches struggle through each season with untrained videographers producing ineffective results.

A decade of coordinating video for high school, NAIA, and NCAA-FBS football has taught me that finding the right personnel to handle your team's football video is important. I have also experienced, however, that effective management of videographers makes the difference in preparing current personnel and assisting others to develop into the right person for the job. The following outlines seven steps to developing and maintaining excellence in your video staff.

1. Emphasize the importance of football video
Improved-coaching video can help your team win games. Football coaches often underestimate the impact coaching video can have on a team's success. Coaches focus on offensive, defensive, and special teams productivity. Video provides the best means to evaluate each of these areas. Your team's video staff members need to realize that the video they produce will become the basis for future improvements for your football team.

2. Clarify the role of video personnel
Videographers are a key part of the success of your football program. The videographer’s role, however, is often misinterpreted by players, coaches, and staff members as being relatively insignificant. Be sure to include videographers when preparing for team dinners, awards banquets or when handing out team apparel. Recognize other opportunities to facilitate team membership for your video staff.

3. Empower personnel with the ability to make improvements
Confirm that improvements can be made. Relatively inexpensive investments can serve not only to enhance coaching sessions but also assist the ease of use for video personnel. Equipment upgrades and video training resources convey that improving video is a necessity in building your team's success. Ask your video personnel for suggestions on how to improve the process toward achieving better results.

4. Coach up video personnel as you would a player
When your video staff gets it right - let them know. Show examples of what works best and what needs improvement. Continue to encourage videographers to focus on helping the team succeed through practice and execution.

5. Understand the limitations of working with technology
Technological problems will occur. Plan ahead with video personnel and provide backup strategies for managing situations where your technology might not cooperate. Convey to your videographer that the next game always provides an opportunity to improve filming technique or compensate for possible technical issues.

6. Express the opportunity for excellence
Video can be an example of excellence for your team. Football video provides the rare opportunity to excel on each play with no opposition. In football terms, videographers are always an unblocked blitzing linebacker. Emphasize this as a basis for getting it right on every play.

7. Communicate the career opportunities in sports video
Coaching video is needed at all levels of football. With technology becoming increasingly affordable, more teams have the opportunity and necessity to add video personnel to their staff. Many current coaches and video coordinators have been provided opportunities through video internships, video graduate assistantships, and student video positions. Preparing your videographers not only provides your team with an effective coaching tool, but also serves as an opportunity to pursue sports video as a career choice, career backup, or career avenue into future coaching positions.

David Affholter enters his seventh season as video coordinator with the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, IN. He has worked as football video coordinator for New Mexico State University as well as at the high school and professional indoor football level.

For More Information: https://www.championshipgradevideo.com

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