Here's a question: Where can I buy the equivalent of this post, but in video form with actual illustrative game footage?
I've wanted to see that for some time. Want it for every sport on earth, really.
I've thought about trying to watch a bunch of coaching videos for my sport of choice, but was never sure it would help. They aren't designed for me. I don't need to know how to think like an above-average high-school coach or player; I want to admire the work of top-level pros.
If you have an xbox or playstation buy Madden and try learning to play the game it a bit. The formations, plays, and strategy are pretty much all real. You'll learn about different formations, routes, zone defense, etc.
Agreed. I really didn't understand football much at all until I started playing Madden with a group of friends. They helped me out in the beginning by answering questions like "why are there two different colored lines for the QB routes?" (it's an option play). By learning the game of Madden, I learned the game of football and now have an appreciation for the sport.
Interesting that this didn't occur to me. An artifact of being just a little too old, I think. (In the Atari 2600 days one did not play sports games for the knowledge...)
What's sad is that I read a whole
article about how much hard work it is for sports-game programmers to get all this stuff perfect and I still didn't get it until now!
Coaching videos might still be illustrative, though more for the finer points of technique, which matter more than one might think. Not even pros have perfect fundamentals every time.
There is a plethora of this material for soccer, Zonal Marking (zonalmarking.net) is one major blog that covers apparently every match in most major world leagues.
Hmm I've never actually seen anything put together like this. But you can follow Chris Brown on Grantland.com who breaks donw plays (with video and diagrams) from each NFL week and you'll slowly figure out what to look for and understand the strategy within the game. Also nfl.com has PlayBook (show) videos which break down different plays from the week.
A great tool to watch plays in stop motion so you can figure out whats happening is NFL Game rewind.
What I've written here is more a structured way of breaking down an NFL play as its taking place.
I actually found The Triangle on Grantland through Chris Brown's blog: http://smartfootball.com/. He has a large archive covering both offensive and defensive strategy, well worth a look.
A number of posts have diagrams as well as a video. Some of the older posts point to videos that are broken now, but I was able to find most of them with a google search like "2009 Brady 46-yd TD". You'll find the video clips on youtube or NFL.com.
The picture pages are college football, not pro, but it is the closest I've seen to what you're asking for. Each post describes the details of a given play, and visually shows you each step. Then, you can watch a video of the play in real time at the end.
> I've wanted to see that for some time. Want it for every sport on earth, really.
For tennis I recommend a book by Brad Gilbert called "Winning Ugly". A treasure trove of tennis tips and tricks; opens up a whole new perspective at the tennis game - both yours and the pros' you watch on TV.
Thanks for this. I have basically never watched tennis. But now I've read the late David Foster Wallace on the subject, and I'll be damned if that guy couldn't sell anyone on tennis, especially a geek. So maybe I'll take your advice and learn something about tennis...
Here's a question: Where can I buy the equivalent of this post, but in video form with actual illustrative game footage?
I've wanted to see that for some time. Want it for every sport on earth, really.
I've thought about trying to watch a bunch of coaching videos for my sport of choice, but was never sure it would help. They aren't designed for me. I don't need to know how to think like an above-average high-school coach or player; I want to admire the work of top-level pros.