What is video analysis in sport?

Recording a training session or match and reviewing the footage to understand what happened — where the shape broke down, how a player struck the ball, whether the press was coordinated. In practice it covers three quite different jobs: capturing the video, breaking it down into clips and tags, and getting an athlete to change what they do as a result. Most products handle the first two.

Why is video analysis important in sport?

Because coaching from memory is unreliable in a specific and predictable way. You watch eighteen players and remember three — whoever scored, whoever made noise, and whoever did something in the last ten minutes. Video removes the argument about what happened. It does not, on its own, tell a player what to do about it.

What are the disadvantages of video analysis in sport?

Three come up repeatedly. It generates far more material than anyone reviews, so most footage is never watched. Review sessions are passive — players sit and are shown things, which is a weak way to learn compared with being told one specific thing before they next train. And it invites hindsight: a clip shows the outcome of a decision, which makes a reasonable decision that did not come off look like a bad one. It is a strong record of what happened and a weak record of why.

Does Sidetalk replace my Veo or Hudl subscription?

No. Sidetalk is not a camera and does not do anything to your video. Keep whatever you record with. Sidetalk sits alongside it and handles the part your camera does not: what you said, who it was about, and getting it to them.

Do I have to upload my footage to Sidetalk?

No, and there is nowhere to upload it to. Sidetalk stores a link to wherever your video already lives and a single time offset. Your footage never leaves the platform you keep it on.

Nothing at the moment. Sidetalk is free during the pilot — no card, no trial quietly expiring. The price gets set together with the coaches using it now.

Sports video analysis solved the footage. It never solved the feedback.

Cameras record the whole pitch on their own now. What still falls to you is the week afterwards — turning ninety minutes of video into something each player actually does differently on Saturday. Sidetalk records what you say while you coach, gives every player their own feedback, and puts it on the same clock as your footage.

Start freeNo card. Ready in two minutes.

Recording the match is no longer the hard part

Ten years ago, getting usable footage of a grassroots match meant a parent with a camcorder and a tripod that fell over. Now a camera on a pole films the whole pitch unmanned and has the match uploaded before you have finished packing the cones away.

That solved a real problem, and it created a quieter one. Coaches now have more footage than they will ever watch, and the thing that changes a player has not moved an inch: someone they trust telling them one specific thing to do differently, close enough to the moment that they still remember it.

Every tool in this category works on the video. Almost none of them work on what the coach said.

What analysis software still leaves to you

Tagging, clipping and drawing on frames are all solved. These are the parts that are still manual, and they are the parts that take the week:

Deciding what each individual player needs. A team clip is one clip. Eighteen players need eighteen different sentences, and you are the only person who knows which one belongs to whom.
Remembering what you already told them. You said it on the touchline at the time — clearly, specifically, in the right words. By Monday it is gone, and the clip on its own does not carry it.
Getting it to the player at all. Clips get posted to a group chat and scrolled past. The quiet defender who did their job for seventy minutes gets nothing, because nothing about them made the highlight reel.

Sidetalk is the audio half of the same job

You already do the analysis. You do it out loud, in real time, for ninety minutes, and then it evaporates. Sidetalk is a record button for that.

Put your phone in your pocket and coach the way you always do. Sidetalk transcribes what you said, works out which player each observation was about — you can tap a name while you talk, or not bother — and writes individual feedback for every player in the squad. You read it, change anything you want, and send it. Nothing reaches a player until you have seen it.

Then it lines up with your video

Sidetalk does not host, import or analyse your footage. It does something narrower and more useful: it puts your own words on the same clock as the video you already have.

Paste the link to the match. Wherever the footage already lives — a Veo match page, a shared drive, anywhere with a URL.
Give it one number, once. Either scrub to kick-off and type the time the video shows, or simply say what time of day the camera started rolling. Both clocks ran over the same match, so one is enough to tie them together. You do this once per match, not once per clip.
Every note now carries the video’s own timestamp. Jump to the 23rd minute in the footage and read exactly what you shouted there — filtered to the one player you are talking about. Or hit play along and let the timeline scroll itself while the video runs.

Works with the video you already have

Because the sync is a timestamp rather than a file transfer, there is nothing to integrate and nothing to re-upload. If your footage has a clock and a link, it works.

VeoThe camera stamps its files with a start time, so you can sync without opening the video at all.
Trace, Spiideo, Hudl, PixellotSame method. Paste the link, give it the one number, done.
A phone on a fence postMost grassroots footage. It has a clock too, and that is all this needs.
No video at allPlenty of coaches never film. The feedback works exactly the same; the timeline just counts from the start of the recording.

Which sport do you coach?

Sidetalk knows the words of your sport, which is what stops a transcript turning “sekseren” into nonsense and what stops the feedback explaining a term back to the person who taught it to you.

Frequently asked questions

What is video analysis in sport?: Recording a training session or match and reviewing the footage to understand what happened — where the shape broke down, how a player struck the ball, whether the press was coordinated. In practice it covers three quite different jobs: capturing the video, breaking it down into clips and tags, and getting an athlete to change what they do as a result. Most products handle the first two.
Why is video analysis important in sport?: Because coaching from memory is unreliable in a specific and predictable way. You watch eighteen players and remember three — whoever scored, whoever made noise, and whoever did something in the last ten minutes. Video removes the argument about what happened. It does not, on its own, tell a player what to do about it.
What are the disadvantages of video analysis in sport?: Three come up repeatedly. It generates far more material than anyone reviews, so most footage is never watched. Review sessions are passive — players sit and are shown things, which is a weak way to learn compared with being told one specific thing before they next train. And it invites hindsight: a clip shows the outcome of a decision, which makes a reasonable decision that did not come off look like a bad one. It is a strong record of what happened and a weak record of why.
Does Sidetalk replace my Veo or Hudl subscription?: No. Sidetalk is not a camera and does not do anything to your video. Keep whatever you record with. Sidetalk sits alongside it and handles the part your camera does not: what you said, who it was about, and getting it to them.
Do I have to upload my footage to Sidetalk?: No, and there is nowhere to upload it to. Sidetalk stores a link to wherever your video already lives and a single time offset. Your footage never leaves the platform you keep it on.
What does it cost?: Nothing at the moment. Sidetalk is free during the pilot — no card, no trial quietly expiring. The price gets set together with the coaches using it now.