TUAFC’s Video Analyst Louie Birkenshaw gives an insight into his role here at the Club.
Louie firstly gave a brief of what his matchday is like during a game and the information he gathers and sends.
“You will often find me behind the camera on a matchday up on the gantry filming the game or coding it, and the same with training, I film the training so players can watch things back and the management team can see different bits. So on a matchday i’m often coding and clipping up bits during the game that we looked at before the game, the opposition and stuff that we can look at after the game, while also sending clips down to the staff on the bench during the game so they can have a look at what we have worked on, and also things that we haven’t done well, so if we concede a goal for example, we can look at it straight away and say this is what we have done and rectify it as quick as possible, so i’m behind the camera or coding to help better the team.”
The build up to a game is also a big part of Louie’s job, with the management team and himself gathering as much information as they can on upcoming opponents.
“So before a game often myself and Aaron Downes will watch a few games of our upcoming opposition, and clip up bits of what they are good at and where we can hurt them, and then we will put together a nice package and do some animations to show the players, and to show the main bits of where we can really get at them and hurt them and then base our training around that, in terms of what they are not good at and we will look to exploit that in our training sessions that the Gaffer and Downesy put on.”
“The day before a game we show an opposition powerpoint, where we go through all the stuff they need to know on players and individuals going into the game, just so that they have every opportunity to win the game and don’t leave a stone unturned.”
Louie also gathers all the information from the GPS vests that the players wear during training in the week, so that each individual is getting the right balance.
“When i’m not filming we have got the GPS vests which we use every day in training, so we look to monitor their sprint distance, top speed, high speed runs, and then we use the data to make sure they are not overworking or underworking, so if they haven’t covered enough the next day Downesy can have a look at it and say they have only done this much, so lets push them and get them where they need to be.”