..  by the time they reach early adolescence.  Which means as coaches (just like the Blues Brothers) we are on a mission.  As coaches, we probably don’t often ask ourselves too often ‘what are the longer term benefits we achieve for society here?’ All the hours (weeks, years..) spent coaching kids. Well we know some of our users do just that, but as a rule of thumb most of us coach soccer simply for the love to the game. Not much to talk about match analysis and stats in this subject.

Sport gets kids off the street and the sofa, away from the Xbox and the Doritos.  It gets them thinking, making decisions, working in and for the team.  It improves their physical and emotional well being. Travelling to compete and play in different districts opens kids’ eyes to different environs. Having teenagers active in a sport can play a major difference in their life. 

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Fancy getting rewarded?  You can get extra time added your subscription when you refer Statzpack to a friend (or foe!).  When they sign up, you get extra time on your subscription period.

How do you do this?  Easy.  When you are logged in to the Manager website click on the Profile tab, drop down and click on Refer. From there you can invite friends by email or by facebook. Simple.

HOW  =  Log in to Statzpack, go to the PROFILE tab, select REFER and add your friends email addresses – start getting FREE Statzpack.

Any Questions?

• > Do I have to be a paying user to make a referral and get a bonus?  No.
• > Does my friend have to purchase Statzpack? No.
  > What do I get? You can very quickly add a lot of time to your subscription. If a friend signs up to an annual service you will get 2 extra months added to your subscription – even if you are only a Trial user.

Who’d be a referee? Not me for sure, but someone has to step up to the mark to officiate the game. And thank heavens we have countless volunteers and part time refs in the game at the youth level to keep it alive. I’ve done my bit running the line, but I was useless, as I kept watching the game like a fan, mentally kicking each ball, waiting for passes to arrive.  Knowing every move is being scrutinised and evaluated by players, fans and of course parents – it’s the pastime of the calm or super think skinned. Officials we salute you!

So what does make a good referee?  I’m not sure Statzpack can tell you. I often wonder how does someone become a ref? And if you want to read one person’s journey as a USSF soccer coach, you won’t waste any time taking a flick through this blog Tales of a Soccer Referee. His journey from volunteer, to enthusiastic and qualified ref is a worthwhile read.

And talking of evaluation, an interesting report has been issued in the UK looking at the performance of the refs in the top league the EPL which gives some great stats on the card rate and PK decision by the top refs in England. Amongst other things, it also pretty much summarises the long time suspicion that the top teams are favoured by refereeing decision making when they play at home. Read More

First, can we say many thanks to the people who took the time to complete our survey. We found out some interesting facts, and one lucky person is getting an iPod in the mail this week, (Pete W keep an eye out for the post.)  Plus a big thank you to the 12 people who said they would be happy to provide a testimionial. Stunned – many thanks.  One question we asked was, ‘Do you have to track the time a players gets on the field? Over a game and a season?’

The replies:  Yes – 25%  No – 37.5%  Sometimes – 43.8%

Another question we asked, was ‘What was your motivation for buying/using a product like Statzpack? (e.g. Tracking player times to ensure equality, collecting information on players, collecting data to share with admin staff/local newspapers).

Here is a sample of the replies. Read More

Some quick and easy to view videos that show you the Statzpack App

The Statzpack v2.0 App in action.
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A number of our customers have given us some user feedback about the App, seeing it almost freeze at half and full time, as they wait for the confirmation pop-up to appear.   

For example John S. told us:

“…I was just playing with it a little bit, for example, and after stopping the clock it takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes before the Full Time/Cancel dialogue box pops up.”

If you have had this problem – please read on (and forgive us for going on a little here..).

So why can it seem to take so long?

Unlike other soccer Apps available, Statzpack sends your data to our secure website.  When recording a game this occurs on 2 occasions at the end of the first half, and at the end of the second half. When your iPhone (iPod or iPad) is connected to the internet the App will detect this and attempt to send the data to the website.  The App will use either a WIFI connection or your cellular/mobile data network

This function is great, especially if you want other people to see your stats at half/full time.   Likewise when you log in to the Statzpack App, it goes off to the server to check to see if the game data on the matches what’s on the server, synchronisation.  

Now in simple terms, as the Statzpack App sends data to and from the website. Data packets up to the web, and data packets back down again.  The ‘game data files’ which get sent up and down from the server are moderate in size, for 90% of our user they are tiny. Read More

Information (more importantly statistics) is what is at the heart of analyzing game data.  We, as coaches tend to rely on our gut instinct when dealing with players, and deciding how they performed in a match, but that is far from a fair way to rate a player’s performance.  Participation in sport is driven by an individual‟s enjoyment of the sport, but also by a keen desire to improve performance. Teams, coaches and individual athletes are all motivated by a common goal of increased excellence in their designated sport, e.g. improving their league position next season, running a new personal best or winning at a major championship.  One of the key elements in achieving improved performance is the provision of feedback. Feedback involves sensory or perceptual information relating to an action or series of actions and comes from one of two sources: intrinsic or extrinsic.

“You can drive a car without a dashboard, without any information, and that’s what’s happening in soccer. There are excellent drivers, excellent cars, but if you have your dashboard, it makes it just a little bit easier. I wonder why people don’t want more information.”

-Jean-Pierre Meersseman, Soccernomics

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Tournaments. The time of year when teams gather, compete, socialise, share stories, learn from each other and centrally – play soccer.  We love to work with tournaments
Dynamos Select Soccer, in Houston Texas, holds its Dynamos Puma Cup for the 29th time. The aptly named Valentine’s Tournament will be held over the weekend of the 13th & 14th February.   Once again we are working with the Liverpool Knowsley Soccer Tournament, which is held in the football mad city of Liverpool, England.   Home to Liverpool and Everton, birthplace of Wayne Rooney and the Beatles.  This tournament has been running over 15 years and attracts an array of teams from across the globe. 
If you would want some Statzpack support for your tournament, just get in touch and we would be happy to help. tournaments@statzpack.com.

The physical size of players and the correlation between size and effectiveness on the field in all sports is a long and much debated and pondered subject.  Especially for the youth coach as they deal with the issue with coaching children developing physically (and emotionally..) at different stages and ages.  It’s been the subject of many locker room conversations and PHD thesis.

Taking a look at most sports there is often a relationship between physical attributes/size and the end results in play.  At one extreme you have race jockeys, the other you have sumo wrestlers.  American football does entertain many packing under 200lbs.  

And for sure in soccer there are few goalkeepers in the pro game standing less than 5 ft 11 in. In the English Premier League Tim Howard and Brad Friedel both hit 6 ft 3in.  Edwin Van der Sar is of Manchester United is an amazing 6 ft 5 ½ in.  So they say Irish goal guardian Shay Given is short for a goalkeeper at 6 ft 1 in.  So there’s probably little argument that height counts in the nets, at least at the top level.  Except for Jorge Campos who kept nets for Mexico 100 times, standing at 5 ft 6 in!    

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