FA Learning Coaching Tool

User Guide
Ver 1.0
 Software ........................................................................................................2
Installation ........................................................................................................... 3
Application Download.......................................................................................... 3
Application Launch .............................................................................................. 4
The Menu ......................................................................................................3
New Session ....................................................................................................... 5
Load Exercise...................................................................................................... 6
Save Session ...................................................................................................... 6
Save Session As ................................................................................................. 6
Snapshot ............................................................................................................. 6
Quit...................................................................................................................... 6
Feedback ............................................................................................................ 6
Pitch Zoom .......................................................................................................... 6
The Bench ........................................................................................................... 7
Teams.............................................................................................................. 8
Home Kit .......................................................................................................... 8
Away Kit ....................................................................................................... 9
Team Players................................................................................................... 9
Non-Team Players........................................................................................... 9
Referee ............................................................................................................ 9
Assistant Referee .......................................................................................... 10
Goals ............................................................................................................. 10
Balls............................................................................................................... 10
Cones and Flags............................................................................................ 11
Info-Palette .................................................................................................... 11
The Timeline ...............................................................................................12
Add Frame ........................................................................................................ 12
Add Pause......................................................................................................... 13
Delete Frame/Pause ......................................................................................... 14
Playback buttons ............................................................................................... 14
Play................................................................................................................ 14
Stop ............................................................................................................... 15
Play Speed .................................................................................................... 15
The Pitch Hoarding............................................................................................ 16

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 2

Software
Installation
The software will be available to download from www.TheFA.com/FACALive.

An executable setup application will install the application onto the coach’s
personal computer.

Min Screen size: 1024x768

AIR Runtime base requirements:

WINDOWS
• Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM
• Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHZ or faster, 1GB RAM
• Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise
including 64 bit editions, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Tablet PC
Edition SP2 and SP3, Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows
2003 Server

MAC OS X
• Intel Core™ Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor; PowerPC® G4 1GHz or
faster processor
• Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5
• 512MB of RAM

LINUX
• Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM
• Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHZ or faster, 1GB RAM
• Fedora 8, Ubuntu 7.10, openSUSE 10.3

Application Download

PLEASE NOTE: As part of the installation process, you will be presented with the
dialogue box shown below.

This box acts as certification that the software you are about to download is a
bonfide Football Association product and is intended to reassure you that it has not
been tampered with by any third party prior to installation on your computer.

By clicking install, you agree to the conditions outlined below.

The material and software on this website is provided "as is", without any
conditions, warranties or other terms of any kind. Accordingly, to the maximum
extent permitted by law, the Company provides you with the material and software

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 3

on the basis that the Company excludes all representations, warranties, conditions
and other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law which,
but for this legal notice, might have effect in relation to the material and software
on this website).

The Company, any other party (whether or not involved in creating, producing,
maintaining or delivering the Website), and any of the Company's group
companies and the officers, directors, employees or agents of any of them,
exclude to the maximum extent permitted by law all liability and responsibility for
any amount or kind of loss or damage that may result to you or a third party
(including without limitation, any direct, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or
damages, or any loss of income, profits, goodwill, data, contracts, use of money, or
loss or damages arising from or connected in any way to business interruption, and
whether in tort (including without limitation negligence), contract or otherwise) in
connection with the downloading, use, inability to use or the results of use of the
materials and software on this website, including but not limited to loss or damage
due to viruses that may infect your computer equipment, software, data or other
property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing this website or your
downloading of any software or material from this website or any websites linked to
this website.

Application Launch

On launch of the application the user will be presented with the full size pitch
option in the main interface window as default. Should the coach wish to change
this to another pitch option, he should choose the “New Exercise” button.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 4

The Menu

The menu is a simple toolbar across the top of the screen containing the following
command buttons.

New Session
The New session button allows the user to create a new blank exercise
based on one of five official pitch types. If there’s an existing exercise
already loaded then coaches will be presented with the option to save or
discard it prior to continuing.

On pressing the New button, the user can select one of the following pitch types.

Normal Pitch

Five-a-side

Futsal

Mini Soccer

Training

Selecting any of these options with a single click will return the coach to the FA
Coaching Tool interface where the chosen pitch will be displayed ready for a new
exercise to be created.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 5

Load Exercise

Clicking on the load button allows the user to open previously saved
sessions. This will load the saved exercise into the main application
window and allow the user to continue working on the exercise.

Save Session
If a session has already been saved, pressing this button will save any
additions since the last save.
If an exercise has not been saved previously then clicking the save
button will launch a standard Save Session dialog box where the user
will be given the option to save the file to a default folder or alternatively
navigate to, and save the exercise in their preferred location. All
sessions need to be saved as a type ‘.442’ file. For example;
CoachinSession1.442

Save Session As
Clicking the Save as button will allow coaches to save an additional copy
of the session.

Snapshot
Clicking the Snapshot button will allow coaches to save a snapshot of
the current step as a standard image format (.jpg, .gif, .bmp).

Quit
Clicking the quit button will enable users to exit the application. Should a session be
loaded, users will be provided with the option to save or discard the active exercise.

Feedback
Clicking the feedback button provides the user with information on how to suggest
improvements to the tool and also request assistance.

Pitch Zoom
Clicking the pitch zoom buttons allows the user to zoom In and Out of
the session.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 6

The Bench

The Bench is the toolbar on the left hand

side of the pitch area. It is split into three
main sections; Participants, Equipment
(includes Non-Team Players and Officials)
and the Info-Palette. Players and
Equipment are dragged from The Bench
and placed into the exercises; the Info-
Palette allows the attributes of any
selected item to be edited.

Participants
Participants are the players and officials
that take part in an exercise. Some
players are part of a home or away team
and are known as “Team Players”.
Additional players are also available which
are not part of a team and are known as
“Non-Team Players”. Officials consist of
one “Referee” and two “Assistant
Referees”.

All participants are represented by

circular discs with ‘boots’ to indicate
the direction they are facing; they all
have the following attributes
(editable depending on the type of
participant).

Name: Name or nickname of player

Shirt Colour: Colour of shirt worn by
player
Shorts Colour: Colour of shorts worn by
player
Number: Squad number of player (must
be unique in a team)
Number Colour: Colour of number on
shirt worn by player
Direction: Direction player is facing
(indicated by ‘boots’)

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 7

Teams

There are two teams (home and away) consisting of a squad of up to16 players.
Each team can be personalised and identified by the colour of their shirt, shorts,
boots and squad number.

Only when the relevant team icon is selected (located at the very top of bench
area) will all the players in that team be highlighted and the entire team’s attributes
editable in the Info-Palette.

Home Kit

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 8

 By default; home team players will all display the England home kit and
face up the pitch.

Away Kit
By default; away team players will all display the England away kit and
face down the pitch.

Users can select their preferred kit colours using the colour palette and there is an
option to save the changes as the team default colours. .

Team Players
Team players are members of either the home or away teams.

Each team player can be named by clicking on the individual player and editing the
default text.

Their individual kit colours cannot be changed (as they are part of a team) and only
one of each of this type of player can exist at a time.

Once a team player has been dragged to the pitch, the original space on The
Bench that was occupied by that player will be greyed out; his name and player
number will still be visible.

If the player is on the pitch then he can also be rotated by selecting the
player and clicking the left and right arrows.

Non-Team Players
Non-Team players have none of the restrictions of team players.

Each one can have a completely different kit colour, the same number (or even no
number) and there can be as many of them as the coach wants on the pitch.

To speed up the design of sessions, two default non-team players are provided;
one face up, one face down, all in different kits.

Referee
Only one Referee can be dragged on to the pitch and the only editable
attributes for a referee are his shirt and number colour.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 9

Assistant Referee
Up to two Assistant Referees can be dragged on to the pitch, as per the
Referee, the only editable attributes are the shirt, shorts, boots and
number colour.

Equipment

The Equipment section contains the objects that can be placed onto the pitch area
and used in the exercises. Equipment can be deleted from the pitch by right
clicking on the object and selecting Remove.

All objects are rotated in 5-degree increments to make placement and connecting
to other objects simpler.

Any number of these objects can be placed onto the pitch. When selected the
attributes of each object are editable in the Info-Palette.

Goals
When dragged to the pitch area, goal types will correspond to the type of pitch that
it is being dragged on to. However, the goal icon in the equipment panel will
always remain the same.

Balls
Ball colour and power can be controlled by right clicking on the ball once on the
pitch or in the info palette)

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 10

Cones and Flags
The colour of the cones can be selected in the info palette.

Info-Palette

The Info-Palette displays the attributes of any selected item and allows the relevant
attributes to be modified.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 11

The Timeline
The timeline shows all the frames that make up this
exercise. The initial frame (frame 1) is just used to setup the
starting positions of all the participants and equipment in the
exercise.

Every frame (except 1) contains the starting and ending

positions of the participants and balls in that step. The
starting position is the ending position of the previous frame;
the coach then moves each player, official or ball in turn to
its ending position for the current frame.

During playback all players and balls end up at their final

positions specified in each frame at the same time.
Therefore players or balls with further to travel must move
faster in the frame than those with less distance to cover.

When a timeline has too many frames to fit on a single

screen the up and down arrows become active to indicate
that the scroll bars can be used to scroll the timeline up and
down bringing all the required frames into view.

Clicking on a frame in the Timeline displays the contents of

that frame on the pitch; allowing the user to modify the
Objects and Motion Lines. The Info-Palette will also be
active and contain instructions on how to use frames and
pauses.

Add Frame

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 12

Each Additional new frame will be added after the last frame in the exercise series
and it will only be possible to add a new frame to the end of the sequence.

Once a frame has been added Players, Officials and Balls can be moved to a
secondary location. When dragged from their starting positions a ‘yellow’ line will
be created between this and the ending position. This Motion path also indicates
the path of movement in playback.

When the motion path is selected, the user will have the ability to edit the path by
clicking and dragging the motion icon; increasing or decreasing the curve using
arrows to the left and right of the initially straight line.

Once Players, Officials and Balls have been repositioned and their paths of motion
determined, further steps can be added in order to build up the session for ultimate
playback.

Add Pause

A pause is a still frame that contains written and/or illustrated comments.

A pause is added to enable the user to stop the animation of an exercise in order
to bring attention to a certain topic or area of interest.

When the pause frame is selected, a notes area and a number of drawing tools are
made activated in the Info-Palette. The drawing tools consist of a freehand
highlighter tool plus a rectangular and a circular spotlight tool. Using these tools
and the notes window the user can annotate a particular point in the exercise.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 13

During playback the animation will stop on a pause frame and display the
annotations, playback will continue when the play icon is pressed.

If annotations have been added to a pause an icon will be added to the pause
frame in the Timeline to indicate this.

Delete Frame/Pause

Clicking the relevant delete icon will delete the selected frame or pause from the
timeline.

Playback buttons

Three playback buttons and a Play Speed selector are available to view your
interactive session.

Play

The first playback button will provide playback of frames up to a pause. Once
playback has cease at the pause, pressing the button again will enable playback to
the next pause and so on. The user can also start the session at any point within
their session by selecting the appropriate frame before the play button is clicked.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 14

Stop

The second playback button allows the user to stop the playback button. This will
automatically reset to the first frame in the Timeline.

Play Speed

Each session can be viewed at one of four different speeds by selecting the
appropriate icon.

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 15

 The Pitch Hoarding

The pitch hoarding allows the user to navigate to the following websites
and gain further information on:

The Football Association

FA Learning
The FA Coaches Association
The FA Learning Shop
Full Time, The FA’s League Administration System

FAL Coaching Tool Software – User Guide ver. 1.0 16