Hockey Video Analysis: What Hockey Wales Has Learned

Katie Glynn spent five and a half years as assistant coach for the GB and England women's team. Now, as performance director at Hockey Wales, she is using hockey video analysis to change what is possible for players and coaches at every level of the game.

For most of its history, video analysis in hockey has been a tool for the elite. Professional programmes had analysts. They had software, dedicated staff, and the time to use it. At grassroots level, you had a coach, a whistle, and whatever you could remember from the touchline.

That gap is closing. Katie Glynn has watched it happen from both sides.

Why hockey video analysis matters at grassroots level

At the elite level, the case for video analysis is well established. Players watch themselves back. Coaches identify patterns. Opponents get scouted. The question has always been whether that kind of preparation could reach clubs and schools that do not have the infrastructure to support it.

"Video is such a huge development tool. When you're coaching players of all different abilities, they learn in different ways and visual learning is a big part of that. Having the ease of using it to clip, review, and share with players in your own time is a massive learning tool. To be able to do that at grassroots, not just when you're getting the top tier players in, is so important." Glynn says, adding that the shift is not just about access to footage but about what happens to coaching quality when you can review what you actually did, not what you thought you did.

That applies to coaches as much as players. The footage does not lie about whether a session is working. It tells you how many times a player touched the ball in twelve minutes. It shows whether the drill is achieving what you designed it to achieve, or something different entirely.

How AI has removed the barriers to entry

The traditional barriers to video analysis at grassroots level were practical. You needed someone to film. You needed someone to clip and code. You needed time, equipment, and in many cases a dedicated analyst who most amateur clubs could not afford.

"It's massively breaking down the barriers in terms of needing a person to be there, needing expensive equipment, needing that person to go away and manually do all the work for you. It's really easy to set up. You don't need someone standing there throughout the game. It makes it easy for anyone to use, which is the huge benefit. You don't have to be in an elite setup and you don't need expensive infrastructure." Glynn explains, noting that for volunteer coaches in particular the question is no longer whether you can afford to do analysis but whether you are willing to use what is available.

Broadening the talent pool through hockey video analysis

One of the most significant changes Glynn describes is what video has done to talent identification at Hockey Wales. Traditional selection has always been constrained by the trial window. You bring players in for one or two days, you watch them under artificial conditions, and you make decisions on that basis. Players who are quiet in a trial environment, or who are not at their best on that specific day, get missed.

"Sometimes we get these windows where you're getting players in and having to select them off two days or one day of seeing them. What this is allowing us to do is to watch school competitions, national cups, regional training sessions. All of us, and all of our coaches, can access that easily. If we're missing players or there are quieter players that don't stand out in a trial environment, you're able to pick them up and go back and watch." Glynn says, adding that the effect is cumulative: even after squads are selected, coaches can keep tracking players through the rest of the season. Someone missed in November can still be identified in February.

"We're finding now that we're going, oh actually we've missed that person, or look at this person, and we can then invite them in. It just gives you the tool to constantly see what's going on in the pathway, in the system, in the clubs and the schools, which you just haven't been able to do before." Glynn says.

Giving players ownership of their own development

Video analysis changes not just what coaches can see but what players can do with their own development. The habit Glynn describes at her own club is immediate: messages arriving after games asking when the footage will be up. Players who watch themselves back regularly begin to develop a different relationship with their own performance.

"What you want is younger players to be able to go back and watch themselves, to watch what they did well, to watch where they made mistakes, because that is the learning tool. It is not just you finishing your game and thinking in your head, did I do this, did I do that. They can actually go and watch it and play with it themselves. I am a big believer that players have to take ownership of their own development." Glynn says, adding that ownership also extends to preparation: players use footage to study upcoming opponents, a benefit most grassroots clubs had not previously considered possible.

Community growth and the live stream effect

Hockey in Wales presents a specific geographic challenge. Players travel long distances for competitions. Families cannot always follow. For a sport that depends on community engagement to sustain itself, that distance creates a real problem.

"Geographically where we play and where our players travel to, it's not always accessible for families and supporters to get to some of those venues. It's hours away. But we now have county champs, national school champs, indoor champs, some senior internationals on there. For families and friends and any supporters who can't physically get to the games, they can still watch and be part of it. That's a really important part in growing our sport and growing our community." Glynn says, with the numbers reflecting that growth: around 2,090 followers on the live stream platform, over 4,500 views on some competitions, and following grown by around 700 people this year alone.

Hockey Wales is partially funded through participation numbers. The connection between visibility and funding is direct. More people watching means more people engaged. More people engaged means more people playing.

Uses nobody expected: umpires, schools, and e-learning

Some of the most interesting applications Glynn describes were not planned. Schools in Wales are now using footage for GCSE and A-level moderation, giving teachers a way to assess player performance that was not previously available. Umpire development has moved partly online, with clipped examples used in e-learning modules to train officials at scale.

"It's not just about the players and the coaches. It's our umpires, it's our schools. Having access to that is massively beneficial." Glynn says, adding that the effect on school and club relationships has been equally significant. Sharing footage has strengthened communication between schools, clubs, and universities. Organisations that were operating in parallel are beginning to operate together.

"You want your community to be working together, not against each other. And this is a tool that's allowed us to come together a lot more." Glynn says.

Punching above your weight with limited resources

Wales is a small country with a smaller talent pool than most of the nations it competes against. Its senior internationals are self-funded. The resource constraints are real and ongoing.

"Having clubs of all sizes and schools of all sizes having the same accessibility to these tools is really important, and that's not often something you would have had in the past. You can't underestimate the value it gives us, especially when we struggle with resource at the best of times. This is something that plays a huge part in us being able to punch above our weight and keep developing good juniors, good clubs, and grow the talent pool." Glynn says, noting that Veo cameras now appear at clubs, schools, and indoor events across Wales with a regularity that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. The question, she suggests, is whether the sport can now build the educational infrastructure to help coaches use what they have access to.

That is where Glynn sees the next challenge: not access to the tools, but depth of knowledge about how to use them well. Getting footage is no longer the hard part.