I’ve created an extensive library of practice activities in Academy Soccer Coach (ASC) over the last 18 months. I find it to be a great tool to quickly sketch out activities using avatars. I purchased a subscription to TacticalPad over the summer and it’s been a battle to find opportunities to use it. I think ASC is superior in 2D static drawing. It does exactly what I want without a lot of fuss.
The power of TacticalPad is its ability to easily create dynamic schematics and share them as MP4s. TacticalPad also works seamlessly between my desktop Mac and my iPad. ASC has a web-based desktop version that works great on my desktop but (apparently by intention) does not work on my iPad. ASC offers a cloud-based version ($$$ subscription required) and an iOS mobile app that creates images but does not store the metadata files.
I use Dropbox as my cloud storage solution, which works great with the desktop ASC files and the desktop TacticalPad project files. The TacticalPad iPad version can “sync” to Dropbox but maintains its own folders. I like to name my folders based on the type of activity (“Warmup”, “Positional Play”, etc.) so I have to manually move TacticalPad project files around if I create them on the iPad.
I decided as an early 2020 resolution to begin to recapture my ASC library as TaticalPad sessions. My goal is to take one of my ASC activities in that day’s session and quickly render it in TacticalPad.
I’ve been using Camtasia to create training videos. The video below demonstrates an example of using Camtasia to provide captions for the TacticalPad video. Camtasia is massive overkill used in this manner but it gets the job done here.
I have a subscription to Vimeo to store my training video library. Here is the finished product for the 5v2 “river” game – a transitional rondo activity: