As we approach the start of the World Cup Qatar 2022, I had the opportunity to chat with Victor Vasques who works for the neighboring country UAE. Vasques is a sports training specialist who works as the Assistant Coach for the UAE Men’s Beach Soccer National Team. He has been with the team since 2016 and is about to enter his 8th season. He has recently started using FL-UX as the video analysis solution in 2021.

When did you start using FL-UX for the UAE Beach Soccer Team?

Vasques: We were in preparation for the last World Cup. We started our training in April of the last year in 2021and I was looking for some software, some app that could help me bring better things to my players, you know, to my team to develop and somehow bring the technology.

At the time I was looking like crazy for something that could help. That’s when I was introduced to buying FL-UX. Since I purchased a subscription, I haven’t stopped using it since July of last year.

So if you are looking for something simple and at the same time answer your questions as a coach, I advise you to go with FL-UX. It saves you a lot of time and a lot of energy to do other things for sure.

FL-UX has a lot of features to allow flexibility to its users. How do you use the platform for your team?

Vasques: I think FL-UX is complete software. Why? Because we can keep our data saved in one place. It’s good to analyze all training and matches and try to share with our players so they can understand our good points and our bad points. What they can, what they need to do to improve, and what they are doing well in the match. Also, understanding the standards and behaviors of the opponents that they’re going to face can create a good strategy for us to win games on the beach. 

I normally make videos for all my training. I try to record and keep all of them in FL-UX which I can use afterward to show my players some individual points and some collective points. During the match, we try to analyze the opponents, their standards, and their movements in the game. And at the same time, our points, our situations, our behavior, and standards during the game during the competitions. Yes, that’s how FL-UX has helped me develop my team.

Of all the features FL-UX offers, what is your favorite feature you like to use for your analysis work?

Vasques: Okay I need some time for this… I’ve always tried many video software to analyze my games and to improve my team. I think FL-UX is so complete because you can save not to your hard drive but to the cloud. So you have more space on your computer and you can keep it all the time. 

Your players can watch what you are doing at the same time I work, and they don’t need to be close to you to understand what’s going on, same with the staff. For example, I’m doing an analysis of videos in my room when we are at a hotel. At the same time, my coach is watching what they have to do. After we are done, we have everything in place before having a conversation, so that is a very good point about the software. 

It’s so simple because you can write in the text what you want to say, and at the same time draw the idea that you want to show. This makes it easier to talk to players, to talk about what you want them to do. 

The other good point is for any problem that you have during the process, you can contact George who will try to answer you at the same time. That’s important for us. There have been a lot of times that I need to use one program to edit and cut videos, then go to another to draw, and I didn’t know how to do something. In that case, I needed to go and try to find answers on YouTube on my own. But in FL-UX, you can achieve everything in one place. You can save your database in one place for anyone to watch at any time. 

You just need to create an account and you have your support guys for any kind of problem you might have. There are always there to try to help us to sort it out. So those are the good points. And believe me, George, I tried many many programs to find myself comfortable. It was not easy, but today I can tell you that I am willing to feel comfortable with FL-UX to develop my work. 

What do you think makes FL-UX different from all the software out there?

Vasques: I think the problem you have as a coach is about time. You know, sometimes you are at a competition and you have a lot of things to do. But still, you have to spend time on video analysis. You spend around 2 to 3 hours trying to understand what happens in the video, edit, and bring the best things for the players. 

And I think FL-UX makes it easier for me to create video analysis and this gives me the possibility to get more time to do other things. Like using the extra time I have to do a better presentation to my players to clarify to them my strategies and points of improvement. 

As I told you before, the tool allows me to draw, write, cut videos, and have everything in the same place. So for example, if you make a mistake in a game today, I can show you a similar situation in the past. I have all the texts and all the problems in one place. I can show the same players their past to follow up with them about their development. Everything is in one place, and my computer is still working just fine, and I think it is really really important for us as a coach 

What would you say to coaches who might be intimidated by the idea of using video analysis software?

Vasques: If you are looking for something simple and at the same time answer your questions as a coach, I advise you to go to FL-UX, to save you a lot of time and a lot of energy to do other things for sure. 

Thank you Victor for sitting down to do an interview with me and best of luck with your upcoming matches and tournaments!

You can follow Victor Vasques and the UAE Men’s Beach Soccer National team on Instagram at @uae_beachsoccer