If you are out at the world championships and you see a former Hungarian national team player in the press section he is not a write but it is Gergely Majoross the video coordinator for Team Hungary. One might ask what the job of a video coordinator is, or is there really much of a benefit to have an extra person on the staff.
The purpose of this position is that they are supposed to record, tag and analyze the video of games if the coach asks them to. In this case Majoross sits in the press section and has a laptop that is hooked up to a TV camara, he sees on his screen what the person at home sees on their television screen. Once the live feed is going on the screen he has to tag every action that happens in all three zones on the ice, offensive, defensive and the neutral zone. When the puck moves into the attacking end a button is pushed to indicate that the action is going on in that end. Once it is indicated where the puck is the coordinator has a list of codes or buttons/button combinations to learn so they can tag every action. Some the plays that he has to code are: break out, controlled breakout, line rush, fore checking, neutral zone fore checking, and if the goalie plays the puck are just sample of these codes.
During the game coach Rich Chernomaz may call on Majoross to check something out for him that happened in the previous period or ask for his opinion on what he saw. After the game the coach and his staff can break down the film they way they want to or select plays that they want to analyze, such as break out plays. This information is also available for any player as well if they choose to. Gergely Majoross not only does this for Hungary but also for all the other games of the tournament so that the staff can prepare for the next opponent.
Majoross him self has experience in this facet of coaching since he does this for the youth national teams that he is also associated with, however he does that off of a DVD recording. This is the first time that the Hungarian national team is using software like this to tag live action. The program that is being used is called Steva Pro which is used also by the Canadian and Finish national teams as well as the Dallas Stars and the Montreal Canadians. The software itself costs 2,000 euros for the license and 900 to renew it every year. Prices may vary once you have used the software for 3 years.
Majoross says that at times it is hard to follow the puck you really have to pay attention to tag everything correctly.
The concept may be new in Hungary but look for it to become more and more popular in years to come.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky