How 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.