Hi,

I'm new to assistant coaching 5th grader boys in a rec league. I taped our first games of the season - total of six 6-min quarters of screening games - and watched them all. I'm curious though what would a more experienced coach look for in game tapes. In other words, how/what to learn from the tapes. Also what should players look for if they want to watch too - obviously it's fun for them but it could also help their development right? Or are avg 5th graders too young to actually gain much?

Thanks!
MM

Watching game film is a fantastic teaching tool at the younger levels. The problem I found was the game film usually was too boring to watch since it included everything. Plus, stopping it and slowing it down was a pain or trying to fast forward to the stuff I wanted to cover was also a pain.

So, I used to take the time to go through and edit the film, slow it down and put in comments. That takes a lot of time if you're not comfortable with video editing software, but it eliminated all funky stuff and let me focus on some key teaching points. Here's one from my 3rd grade team a few years back at this point (we were The Spitting Llamas):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzT-Hef9w0U

if you had someone who could do some quick video editing, that might help.

Coach Rob is right. Unless you cut the video to just shot shorter clips, it will be tough with young kids to watch film.

Even with 10th graders, they struggle with watching raw game film. And i use shortcut keys on the computer to fast forward and jump around fairly quickly. They still lose attention at times.

Here's a blog post with tidbits about watching game film and using free software.
http://jeffhaefner.com/coach/cutting-down-turnovers-improving-defense-and-objectively-analyzing-your-game-results/

Thank you coaches for those great tips.

My follow up question is, do I only show players clips of what they did right to re-enforce the positives, or do I go over both good and bad plays/sequences? Or perhaps only bad as a team and not single out individual player? I read it somewhere that most pros only watch highlight reels to help visualize success and desired outcomes.

I would show both and pick your poison on the areas that need improvement. I'd stay away from pointing out mistakes that are obviously due to current skill levels (e.g., missed shots, missed passes, lost dribbles). Showing them areas that need improvement is just part of the gig, so I'd definitely include that. Maybe have a 3 to 1 ratio with 3 positives for every 1 that needs improvement.

I can understand the concern of not wanting a player to feel singled out, especially on a video in front of their peers. The more you can use several players in an example that would probably help. Focusing on team concepts vs. individuals.