How Long Should a Presentation Last
Performance Analysis — By thevideoanalyst on May 3, 2011 2:06 pmHow Long Should a Presentation Last
In most of my analysis work I have tended to work with different teams and different sports at the same time. While this can have it’s disadvantages it has given me a great opportunity to work with many different styles of teams and managers. This weekend I got the opportunity to go into camp with a team for 3 days and work with them on a more full-time basis.
While we covered many things over the few days, there was one topic in particular that I wanted to discuss here.
How long should a video presentation last?
This is a question that has always intrigued me, along with others; How long is too long, how much interaction, how much talking over the video or how much video should be played to let the players observe?
The presentation is so important - it’s not what you said, it’s the way you said it. No matter how good your analysis is, if you get the delivery wrong the players will learn nothing. So here are my thoughts on what makes the best presentation.
- 3 – 6 mins of video
- containing about 5 – 15 examples
- the coach should know the order of the clips
- and have a good working knowledge (notes) on what to say
- Player interaction should be encouraged
- The coach and analyst should be prepared to play the clip a few times
- and at different speeds so the players can see clearly
- The total presentation should last about 30 mins (max)
There are obviously times when you may need to break from this, these are meant more as general rules but the point is this; keep it concise and make sure to interact and explain the clips to players.
Frustration
I tear my hair out (what little I have) when I have spend 3-4 hours preparing a presentation, I sit down and show it to the coach. The coach will get me to stop the clips and explain why that is such a good example of this or that, but when we get in front of the players they tell me just to play the clips, one after the other, with no discussion or explanation for the players. It is so frustrating to stand in a room and see all of the players looking up wondering why they are being shown some of these clips. There is a time and a place to give players footage and let them watch it by themselves but not in a team meeting.
Some of the problem is training, coaches that don’t use video a lot maybe don’t know what the best way to present is but I can tell you from experience that just playing 5 – 10 mins of highlights to room of players is a pointless waste of time. Thankfully this weekend the coaches I was working with were spot on with their use and timing of analysis work.
Research
Does anybody know of any good research on the concentration level of people in presentations or do you have any other best practices that you would add to my list?
Tags: freelance video analysis, General Advice, match statistics, notational analysis, Performance Analysis, sports analysis, Video Analysis, video analysis training, video analyst
3 Comments
Rob,
This topic is also one of my keen interests. In terms of concentration, short & long term memory, retention of info etc I would highly recommend checking out Dr John Medina and his “Brain Rules” book. It contains practical yet scientifically-backed research that is explained in an easy to understand manner.
One of the key points is the drop in attention/concentration after 10 minutes and the need for a new stimulus of some sort (ie change in presenter, short break, humorous moment etc) to re-engage.
Other things I think are important are, not so much the number of clips, but how many concepts you are covering and making it explicitly clear to the playing group what these are ie “today we are going to look at 5 clips on our defensive transition and I want you to pick out what we did well or could do better “.
As you mentioned, interacting/engaging with the group is so important and often a smaller group size is best to achieve this. If players are passive participants in the session there learning and retention will be minimal compared with when they become interactively engaged and have to process what they are seeing and hearing.
Finally, related to the concept of giving a video presentation or whiteboard sessions to a group of players, I wrote an article on my blog about “flipping” this process. You can follow the link below to get an understanding of what it’s about -
http://www.teamsportcoaching.com/flipping-player-learning-process-coaching/
Keep up the good work Rob
Mark Upton,
teamsportcoaching.com
Hi Mark,
Really liked both your blog article and the TED talk. A fantastic use of technology while still valuing the need for human teaching.
I will definitely check out that book. Its a great point you make about the number of topics rather than the number of clips. Trying to cover too many topics is probably more detrimental than showing too many clips.
I do like to see players and management discussing some of the clips, I think it gets players to buy into the process much more. And as you describe in your blog it seems to work well.
I also think it is important what length the presentation is, as there is only a certain length of time that optimum concentration can be maintained.
Also important to structure your analysis session and outline the breakdown of it at the beginning.
If you show some aspects of your game that are going wrong e.g. scores conceded, make sure you show the positives, parts of games where your team defended well. Players need to see the difference.
Also, have 3-4mins at the end of the session, concentrating on things that your team do well and how it is a factor in improved performance and the results of games.
Any thoughts?