Behind the Scenes With UW Hockey Video
December 21, 2005 | Men's Hockey
There is much behind-the-scenes work and many people that go into a successful season of Wisconsin men's hockey. From thankless hours on the road recruiting for the assistant coaches, to late nights in the laundry room for the team's director of hockey operations, much of the work goes unnoticed. One of those invaluable members of the UW hockey staff, and one whom the coaching staff relies heavily upon, is Zach Remiker.
Remiker is the team's video coordinator, and like all the UW hockey staff, Remiker's work is a seven-day-a-week job. The week begins immediately following Saturday's game each week.
'We start off by running game tapes to the officials and the opposing teams after Saturday's games,' said Remiker. 'I 'll check in with the officials to make sure there isn't anything that needs to be reviewed.
'Then I check with the coaches to see what they are going to want cut up for Sunday. I put all the game footage from the game, which includes our own video and whatever TV broadcast we have into our computer system for the coaches to look at the next day. In the meantime, I put together highlights and put together goals, power plays, penalty kills, hits and other things the coaches want to look at. When the coaches come in and want to put together a teaching tape for the team, I'll have much of it ready and will just have to put together the clips they want to present to the team. '
Video has evolved much in just a few years for UW hockey. Just two or three years ago, tapes were made VCR to VCR, taping clips onto another tape to show the team. Now, technology has made the process much more efficient. Software is available now to make lap top computers the video coordinator's equipment of choice. Game footage is sent directly to hard drives during a game which you can access on a network from coaches offices or anywhere else you'd like. Clips are simply marked on the program and teaching tapes and highlight videos can be quickly burned onto dvd's to show the team.
'Technology in video has become huge in college hockey, ' said UW assistant coach Kevin Patrick. 'In a standard week, we 'll break down the previous week's games and also scout the upcoming opponent, all on computer. At the beginning of the week we'll put together our recap of stats from the previous weekend and put that to bed. Then we'll start watching our upcoming opponents. The league has a new system this season where you upload your games on the computer from the weekend, so then you can download games from the next team you play. It's a new way to exchange video.
'We'll get those games broken down for teaching clips. Early in the week we'll concentrate on video of our own squad with the team, then beginning Thursday, we'll present video from the opposition to prepare for the weekend.
'What we do is pretty standard throughout the country, though I think we are a little more comprehensive in what we do with the breakdown of our team following a weekend. We go through the games extensively to find things we can get better on. Most teams will look closely at Friday night's game to improve for Saturday, then only look at the major themes from Saturday. We look at Saturday's game much more closely than the other places I've been. We have much more individual video work with players here, including their own stats, then anywhere else I 've been.'
