Technology provided by Coach Logic allowing umpires more in-depth analysis of matches and access to shared knowledge.

In the case of the recent Women’s World Cup, every game was uploaded immediately after the match was completed and available on Coach Logic within 30 minutes. The umpires involved were then asked to view the match in their own time and ‘tag’ the passages of play that they felt highlighted certain parts of their performance.

The umpires then met: sometimes just with the umpires involved in that game, sometimes with the umpire manager and all the other umpires. The group discussed the significant actions that had been tagged and offered feedback.

“The technology is user-friendly, therefore once the team gets familiar with it and using it, the process to tag and quickly find plays were easy and this were able to fit easily into our process.” explained Ayanna McClean.

The Technology helped with clarity and quick assessment of games, both personally, with peers and umpire manager team. In the past there may be ambiguity in the post game debrief on situations discussed, but with Coach Logic you were able to pinpoint information, tag it and discuss it.

“Personallly it helped me review my games and having the outside view was useful. Then I could try to implement things my game lacked.”

The huge benefit for the umpires and ultimately the game, is the way that shared knowledge on this scale helps drive consistency in decision-making. The system is not limited to the umpires involved in one particular event, instead umpires and their mentors or other colleagues can view footage of matches wherever they are in the world.

There is clear benefit to being able to look back, trace thought processes and assess the decision-making process. There is little doubt that implementation of this type of technology is fast closing the gap between the professional players and the professionally-minded, professional behaving, but still amateur, umpires.

Content for this case study was originally posted by Pan Am Hockey.

The technology is user-friendly, therefore once the team gets familiar with it and using it, the process to tag and quickly find plays were easy and this were able to fit easily into our process.

Personally it helped me review my games and having the outside view was useful. Then I could try to implement things my game lacked.

‍Ayanna McClean
PAN AM & FIH Umpire