I had been tagging key metrics on an ad-hoc basis using paper and a pen. I wanted a better solution so that I could maximise the return on that effort. Tagging is amazingly powerful but while the paper based information I was getting was great for me, it was pretty hard to transfer to players. Video support is invaluable in this regard.

I had a few basic requirements.

Windows Platform
Microsoft Windows devices are relatively cheap and available.

Easy to Use
The system MUST be simple enough so that anyone who can use Word or Excel can pick up how to use StatsManager in just a few minutes. This is crucial as in a lot of sports clubs or schools the biggest issue is actually getting someone to help with the video analysis. It's a huge bonus if they happen to be good with computers too. I did look at other tools which are functionally very rich but far too complicated to use for the average person whose main job is not video analysis.

Cost
The industry leader in sports tagging only runs on the Macintosh and at the time of writing the entry level product is a four figure investment per copy. A few hundred pounds for my whole club (which needs multiple copies to share between the coaching team) I would happily have paid, four figures per copy (plus a Mac to run it on for each person) simply wasn’t affordable.

What started as a simple project to achieve the above morphed into StatsManager. Thanks to the early adopters for their feedback and patience through the beta-testing phase.

Mark Murray
Product Creator