Abstract
This paper deals with video-based match and performance analysis in high-performance youth football. It draws on empirical material gathered during ethnographic research conducted with two teams organized within the framework of the youth academy of a German First Division football club. The material is analysed from a perspective inspired by sociological practice theories as well as the theoretical concept of subjectivation. The paper investigates the different contexts and practices of training in which videos occur and sheds light on their implications for the organization of play as well as for the development of players and coaches. Using long-term participatory observations and narratively designed qualitative interviews, it is revealed that videos serve different and heterogeneous purposes within different practices. Thus, this paper details not only the intended and obvious effects of video analysis, such as the optimization of play and training, but also its unintended and widely ignored side effects.
Zusammenfassung
Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit videogestützten Spiel- und Leistungsanalysen im Hochleistungsjugendfußball. Er basiert auf empirischem Material einer ethnografischen Studie, die mit zwei Mannschaften aus dem Nachwuchsleistungszentrum eines deutschen Fußballvereins der Ersten Bundesliga durchgeführt wurde. Die Analyse des Materials erfolgt aus einem Blickwinkel, der von soziologischen Praxistheorien sowie vom theoretischen Konzept der Subjektivierung inspiriert ist. Es werden verschiedene Trainingskontexte und -praktiken beleuchtet, in denen Videotechnik genutzt wird, und Wirkungen der Videoanalyse für die Organisation des Spiels sowie die Formierung von Spielern und Trainern reflektiert. Auf der Basis langfristiger teilnehmender Beobachtungen und narrativ angelegter qualitativer Interviews wird aufgezeigt, dass Videos in verschiedenen Praktiken unterschiedliche und heterogene Wirkungen entfalten. Der Beitrag schildert also nicht nur die beabsichtigten und offensichtlichen Effekte der Videoanalyse, wie die Optimierung von Spiel und Training, sondern geht auch auf deren unbeabsichtigte und weitestgehend unbeachtete Nebenwirkungen ein.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Thus, this paper is in line with (a few) other approaches not focussing on questions of optimization. Schmidt (2015), e. g., reflects on the technologization of football from a practice sociological perspective. However, in contrast to this paper, he neither provides empirical material nor focusses specifically on videos. Groom, Cushion, and Nelson (2011) deal with video analysis in youth football from a psychological perspective. They draw exclusively on interviews and explore the videos’ effects on individual players’ psyches.
For reasons of limited space, only selected results will be presented. There are practices of video analysis and respective effects discernible in the field other than the ones addressed here.
All data were gathered in German. For this article, the respective material was anonymised and translated into English by the author.
The permanent availability of the videos not only implies an increase in opportunities for the coaches to assess a match analytically. Rather, the multiplication of opportunities goes hand in hand with an increase in the necessity and the club officials’ expectations to actually utilize them to the most profitable extent.
This selection inevitably defines certain aspects or situations of a match as relevant, while excluding others from collective analysis (see also Tuma, 2012).
The practice of playing football, like practices in general, is characterized by different positions that its participants occupy. This multipositionality implies a multiperspectivity: Due to being uniquely positioned within a practice, each participant has a unique perspective on what is going on that is different from that of the other participants (see also Alkemeyer, Brümmer, & Pille, 2017; Brümmer, 2015).
The videos do not sufficiently capture verbal communication between players or the atmosphere in a stadium and make it difficult to assess details of individual players’ activities. Furthermore, in the practices of collective video analysis only pre-selected sequences are discussed that show fragments of a match according to the coach’s selection choices. For the alleged objectivity of visual representations see also various studies from the field of visual sociology (e. g., Burri, 2008, 2012; Tuma, 2012).
Subsequent to the collective assessment of a past match by means of the videos, the new knowledge thus generated comes to be embodied on the pitch in different training procedures. Here, it becomes clear that the analytic assessment by no means inevitably results in play becoming more efficient and skilful. Occasionally, innovations and changes envisioned during video analysis instead turn out to not be viable or impede shared play.
See for the permeation of feedback practices by a logic of examination and selection also Janetzko’s study (2018; in press) on talent construction in high-performance sport.
Burri (2008), who coins this term, argues that the particular persuasive power of pictures (as compared, e. g., with words or text) stems from the fact that they condense information and make it visible at a glance.
References
Alkemeyer, T. (2013). Subjektivierung in sozialen Praktiken. Umrisse einer praxoelogischen Analytik. In T. Alkemeyer, G. Budde & D. Freist (Eds.), Selbst-Bildungen. Soziale und kulturelle Praktiken der Subjektivierung (pp. 33–68). Bielefeld: transcript.
Alkemeyer, T., Brümmer, K., & Pille, T. (2017). Intercorporeality at the Motor Block. In C. Meyer, J. Streeck & J. S. Jordan (Eds.), Intercorporeality. Emerging socialities in interaction (pp. 203–235). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bette, K. H., & Schimank, U. (2006). Die Dopingfalle: Soziologische Betrachtungen. Bielefeld: transcript.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction. A social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1990a). The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1990b). The scholastic point of view. Cultural Anthropology, 5(4), 380–391.
Breidenstein, G., Hirschauer, S., Kalthoff, H., & Nieswand, B. (2013). Ethnografie. Die Praxis der Feldforschung. Konstanz, München: UVK.
Brümmer, K. (2015). Mitspielfähigkeit. Sportliches Training als formative Praxis. Bielefeld: transcript.
Burri, R. (2008). Doing Images. Zur Praxis medizinischer Bilder. Bielefeld: transcript.
Burri, R. (2012). Visual rationalities: towards a sociology of images. Current Sociology, 60(1), 45–60.
Carling, C., Williams, M. A., & Reilly, T. (2005). Handbook of soccer match analysis. A systematic approach to improving performance. London, New York: Routledge.
Elias, N., & Dunning, E. (1986). Quest for excitement: sport and leisure in the civilizing process. London: Blackwell.
Foucault, M. (1985). Hermeneutik des Subjekts. In H. Becker, et al. (Eds.), Freiheit und Selbstsorge (pp. 32–60). Frankfurt/M.: Materialis.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday.
Goodwin, C. (1994). Professional vision. American Anthropologist, 96, 606–633.
Groom, R., Cushion, C., & Nelson, L. (2011). The delivery of video-based performance analysis by England youth soccer coaches. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 23, 16–31.
Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (1995). Ethnography. Principles in practice. London: Routledge.
Hirschauer, S. (2004). Praktiken und ihre Körper. Über materielle Partizipanden des Tuns. In K.-H. Hörning & J. Reuter (Eds.), Doing culture. Neue Positionen zum Verhältnis von Kultur und sozialer Praxis (pp. 73–91). Bielefeld: transcript.
Janetzko, A. (2015). Professionelles Sehen. Sichtungspraktiken im Tanzsport. Sport und Gesellschaft, 12(2), 105–131.
Janetzko, A. (2018; in press). Über „Talentschmieden“ und „geborene Sieger“ – Eine praxeografische Analyse von Talentkonstruktionen im Leistungssport. In A. Böker & K. Horvath (Eds.), Begabung und Gesellschaft. Kritische Perspektiven auf Diskurse und Praktiken. Heidelberg: Springer.
Kelnberger, & Kneer, C. (2017, August 12 & 13). Ein Kinderspiel. Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Kolbinger, O., Linke, D., Link, D., & Lames, M. (2015). Do we need goal line technology in soccer or could video proof be a more suitable choice? In J. Cabri, J. Barreiros & P. Pezarat-Correia (Eds.), Sports science research and technology support (pp. 107–118). Schweiz: Springer.
Memmert, D., Raabe, D., Knyazev, A., et al. (2016). Big Data im Profi-Fußball. Analyse von Positionsdaten der Fußball-Bundesliga mit neuen innovativen Key Performance Indikatoren. Leistungssport, 46(5), 1–13.
Memmert, D., & Raabe, D. (2017). Revolution im Profifußball. Wiesbaden: Springer.
Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a sociology of social practices. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243–263.
Schatzki, T. (2002). The site of the social: a philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Schmidt, R. (2015). Neue Analyse- und Wissenspraktiken im Profifußball. Sport und Gesellschaft, 12(2), 171–186.
Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M. (2012). The dynamics of social practice. Everyday life and how it changes. London: Routledge.
Tuma, R. (2012). The (re)construction of human conduct: “vernacular video analysis”. Qualitative Sociology Review, 8(2), 152–163.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the coaches, athletes, and club officials involved in the research for their support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
K. Brümmer declares that she has no competing interests.
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brümmer, K. Subjectivation by video—ethnographic explorations on practices of video analysis in high-performance youth football. Ger J Exerc Sport Res 48, 358–365 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-018-0504-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-018-0504-5