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Football Scouting on a Computer - 101
If you've been thinking about getting involved with computer scouting with Easy-Scout or a similar program this season, here are a few suggestions for getting started and having success early - on.
1. Start simple and progress from there
Computer scouting programs like Easy-Scout can appear to be overwhelming at first
- particularly if someone is also new to scouting. This is in
part due to the amount of information that can be recorded and
analyzed.
It is important for new users to realize that
its more important to become comfortable with the video and game
breakdown process and to have some basic success, before
attempting to collect every piece of information that is
possible.
Easy-Scout products have been designed to
adapt to a wide range of users, from new users at the High
School level to expert users at the college level.
Try scouting an Offense for a few games by limiting what you "put in" for each play to the
Down,
Distance,
Hash,
Formation,
Play,
Pass/Run. and
Gain. Enter about 20-30 plays and then print some of the reports. You will
be amazed at what you can get out of just these pieces of
information, and can build from there. 2. Don't get overwhelmed by the reporting possibilities
Start with Basic - what we refer to as Overall Reports.
These reports include
Play Listing by Down,
Overall Play Tendencies,
Overall Formation Tendencies and
Pass/Run Tendencies by Down and Distance.
Then progress to reports that organize and
summarize
Play Tendencies by Formation, Down and Distance, Hash and for Short Yardage
situations, Goal Line situations. Look at these reports on the screen to get familiar with the information they provide
You may want to incorporate the Field Position
(yard line) but rather than trying to record this for every
play, just record the "coming out" (inside the 15 yard line..
what we call the "minus 15") and "going in" (inside the 20 yard
line, or the "Plus 20" - aka "Red Zone") plays. 3. Resist the temptation to
enter more data just because its available and there is a report
for it until you decide how you will use it. if you are
now doing things by hand, you probably don't have time to look
at much more than this anyway.
By starting simple, you will get the greatest return on the least amount of time. If you decide to do things like this for a few weeks or even the first season, you might even want to remove the other items from your play entry (data-entry) screen or form. This feature, included in Easy-Scout and some other programs, speeds up data entry because your eyes don't have to look at as much, and you don't need to skip around the screen.
In summary,
Football scouting on a computer is an incredibly powerful tool for the modern coach. By keeping it simple initially, you will get off to a
successful start and get a quick return on your investment of time and money. As time permits and you gain experience, you can take this to even greater levels. As with a season, getting off to a good start is the key.
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