#1 Collab interview with CREPS
For the beginning of 2021, E-NOVON wanted to conduct some short interviews with some of its partners. Thus, we will have representatives from Grand Compte, independent soccer and padel centres, managers and coaches of high level sports etc. Who better than everyday users to talk about our products and services!
Today, it is Cyril Faucher, Coordinator of the Mission d’Accompagnement à la Performance at the CREPS in Bordeaux, who honours us by answering our questions.
Hello Cyril, first of all how are you and how did you manage these last complicated moments?
Things are going well, we are starting the year 2021 on a high note with a reorganisation of French and regional high level sport and therefore at the level of New Aquitaine and the CREPS of Bordeaux. It’s quite exciting and quite uncertain at the same time. Afterwards, as far as the health period is concerned, apart from the first confinement when there was no more face-to-face activity, since then, the Bordeaux CREPS, its athletes, its trainers and its staff have been privileged in the current situation in the sense that high-level athletes have had the right to continue training. And so, the coaches to be present, the staff in particular to support the high level also. Of course, while respecting sanitary precautions, which complicates the operation a little. Nevertheless, we were able to continue without worries.
Pour revenir aux compétitions, les sportifs s’entraînent comme d’habitude sauf qu’ils sont, pour beaucoup, quand même privés de compétitions. So it’s difficult to keep the groups together without knowing the schedule of competitions with some of them being cancelled as they go along. And France, which, for the time being, only allows senior delegations to go abroad in search of quotas for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. This means that we can have a very high level in the youth categories which for the moment is uncertain for competitions such as the world junior championships or others … Clearly, the current situation impacts the competitions but not our training.
The CREPS have decided to equip their infrastructures with a digitalized performance improvement solution, what were the motivations and reasons?
To begin with, at the Bordeaux CREPS, the performance support mission dates from 2015. I am not sure that all CREPS are structured in this way. Of course the INSEP is ten times bigger. Video coaching soon came “on the table”, starting in 2016. We therefore experimented with E-NOVON and its InoPerf solution through badminton. It was successful. Both because it was an aid to the coach and the athletes (it was immediately integrated into the training sessions), and because the system was not very time consuming. It was a service that fully fulfilled its mission, to increase the quality of training for at least the badminton division in the first instance.
In Bordeaux, our InoPerf equipment has been set up, how would you define it?
I present it as a hardware and software solution for video assistance to training, which is permanently at the training site, easy to use and has complementary functionalities when “consumed” simultaneously. I am referring to the delayed recording, the “buzz” (brief recording of a short sequence at the end of it) but also the pre-planned recording of a training session. The idea is to start tagging video footage easily during training so that the trainer’s exploitation of the video footage is streamlined. Indeed, we are aware that video is a great opportunity but, badly exploited, it can become time consuming.
For which disciplines are you equipped by InoPerf and how does it manage to adapt to the specificities of the different sports disciplines equipped?
We have perpetuated badminton. In the same gym, when it is in handball configuration, we have installed a second system which is available to the women’s team but which can of course be used by the men’s team. Then we have a system in the weapons room, in the judo dojo, and another in the weight room that points to a weightlifting platform. The most successful systems are those installed in the new archery facility where they are culturally highly video intensive. So there were even higher demands from the coach that InoPerf was able to meet. To define them, they are two mobile systems connected to the network and electrically with a stand on wheels where the multimedia display rests by a television set. In addition, two detachable stand cameras are also available to film the archer from different angles. Finally, the devices are complemented by a ceiling camera and two “teardrop” cameras that point at the targets to immediately analyse the impact and score of arrows. These tools “compete” with those installed in the beautiful archery hall of the INSEP, which certainly have more functionalities but require more time to appropriate and are more expensive.
In anticipation of the delivery of our new gymnasium dedicated to men’s volleyball and paralympic basketball on a daily basis, we have been working with the coaches and E-NOVON on the bookings and positioning of the cameras. This time we will have an innovation. The video projection will no longer be done on a television set but by a video projector which will broadcast on a large wall. All choices are made between the coach-user of the equipment, the CREPS performance support mission and E-NOVON.
In addition, I would like to say that E-NOVON has a great capacity to listen and analyse the needs of coaches. The problems of the coaches, i.e. the lack of time, the demand in terms of performance and reactivity are very well understood. This is very important to have legitimacy in high-level sport because it is not a question of arriving with a solution that you think is very good, applying it and leaving. So, in this agile co-construction of progress, both parties gain experience. In the future, I think we will acquire devices with even greater mobility.
What does the future hold for your collaboration with E-NOVON?
Just off the top of my head, I see two axes. The first is to synergise the CREPS InoPerf system with another digital system, Meta-Video, and this is already underway. The latter tool allows the creation of sequencing panels that can be individualised by sport. This would enrich the videos captured by InoPerf with more tags. This combination of the two technologies has already been technically done and we are going to start testing it on the latest InoPerf-equipped facility, i.e. our beautiful 500 m2 weight room.
Afterwards, we are part of the Grand INSEP network, so the idea is also to share good practices. And from this point of view, we are rather ahead with an integrated and coherent system between the tools of the Grand INSEP network. Meta-Video, which is more linked to INSEP, and E-NOVON, which is basically more linked to the Bordeaux CREPS but which is also based at the PACA CREPS and its site in Aix en Provence.
Finally, what can we wish you for the year 2021?
For France, and since the CREPS has selected Olympic and Paralympic athletes, I would like to say: we hope that the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) will be held in a configuration that is as close as possible to the Games as we like them, not too tarnished by the sanitary conditions that would reduce the number of spectators and the social interaction between the athletes and the delegations. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
For the Bordeaux CREPS, to select even more athletes for the Tokyo Olympic Games as well as for the major championships in their category, so that they can defend their chances with the Paris 2024 Games on the horizon!
Finally, to have the time to promote within the Grand INSEP network solutions that work, so that at the national level we can benefit from the best options!
Thanks Cyril, happy new year 2021 and see you soon!
Cyril Faucher – Coordinateur de la Mission d’Accompagnement à la Performance au CREPS de Bordeaux
