Method and apparatus for evaluating athletes in competition

A system for evaluating athletes comprising:

• at least one athlete tracking subsystem, operative to simultaneously collect tracking data on a plurality of athletes;
• at least one tracking data processing subsystem, operative to process the tracking data to produce athlete motion data;
• at least one analyst subsystem, operative to allow at least one analyst to input data to the system;
• at least one database, operable to store and retrieve data records comprising at least one of the athlete tracking data, the athlete motion data, derived data, and the analyst-input data;
• at least one athlete motion analysis processing subsystem, operative to process the data records, and responsive to the analyst inputs to provide derived data;
• and
• at least one display subsystem, operative to visually display at least one of:
• at least one of the data records;
• at least one graphical representation of the at least one of the data records;
• video data associated with the at least one of the data records;
• and system status and configuration.

An apparatus for evaluating athletes, the apparatus having an athlete motion analysis processing subsystem comprising:

• a first software component, responsive to a query, operative to obtain and correlate data for a plurality of athletes;
• a second software component, responsive to the correlated data for the plurality of athletes, operative to calculate derived data from at least one of athlete motion data, stored derived data, and analyst input data;
• and
• a third software component, operative to evaluate the calculated derived data and to format the results for at least one of storage, analysis, and display.

A method for displaying a graphical icon correlated with a video image of an athlete, the method comprising:

• collecting tracking data of the athlete's motion;
• controlling a digital video camera to maintain the athlete in a field of view of the digital video camera;
• recording a digital video image of the athlete in motion;
• generating a data structure, data, and an image for an icon in a computer, wherein:
• the icon represents a feature of the athlete's motion;
• and
• the image of the icon is created in a perspective of the digital video camera that recorded the video image, as if the icon was located near the coordinates of the athlete at the time the athlete was there;
• and
• superimposing the image of the icon onto the recorded video image.