Video tagging software for coaches: how to choose.

Four things to check before you pick tagging software.

1. 1

   How fast can you tag?

   Tagging means pressing a button every time something happens, live during the game or on the replay. Look for tag buttons you build for your own sport, each with a keyboard shortcut, so your hands do the work and your eyes stay on the video. Ask whether a tag window can be saved as a template for the next game.

2. 2

   Can you see every tag on a timeline?

   A list of tags is not enough once a game has hundreds. You want rows by category, a way to select, search, move and trim tags, and a click from any tag back to the video.

3. 3

   What happens after tagging?

   The tags are only the middle of the job. The output is a set of clips in the order you will talk about them, with drawings on the key frames, ready for players. Check that clips, stop-frame drawing and export are in the same app, so you do not move files between three programs.

4. 4

   Does it keep your data?

   Look for tag files you can export and import as XML or CSV, so your tag libraries and tagged games are not locked in. Also check where the project lives: on your own computer, or on a vendor server you rent.

Tagging software is priced in three bands.

Video tagging software for coaches falls into three kinds of pricing. Free tools cost nothing but ask you to build the workflow yourself. Enterprise packages are quoted per club or per seat after a sales call, and the price is not on the page. Between the two sit self-serve apps with a public price you pay yourself. When you compare, ask for the yearly total for the whole staff, not the first month.

Pelaa is a Mac app that does the whole job in one window.

Pelaa video analysis opens your game video (MP4, MOV, M4V, MTS or M2TS). You build tag windows of buttons for your own sport, each with a shortcut, and save them as templates. Tags land on a multi-row Track, one row per category. Select the ones you want and press =Equal sign to send them to the Stack, trim and reorder the clips, press ]Closing bracket to freeze a frame and draw on it, then export H.264 MP4 with ⌘ECmd+E. Reports turn your tags into count or time tables. Tags import and export as XML and CSV. You can also tag live from a camera or capture box while the game records. Projects are .pelaa bundles on your own Mac and work offline.

I built it from hockey, after five seasons in the KHL plus three in Finland as a video coach and player scout. The workflow fits any sport with video. See sports video analysis software for Mac.

The price and the platform, stated plainly.

• 14-day free trial, no card
• 14-day refund on paid plans
• 2 Macs per plan, 3 on Lifetime
• macOS 12.3 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel
• Mac only, no Windows or web