Turkish Super League basketball powerhouse Fenerbahçe Beko are now looking for the competitive advantage which will take them to the next level in both domestic and wider European competitions. 

When speaking to Fenerbahçe Beko assistant coach Erdem Can, he was clear in the motives of his team - “our organization wants to be the best”. Success has never been a problem for Fenerbahçe, who have nine national championships and one EuroLeague title in the last decade, the challenge is now to optimize player and team performance and plan for the future.

“If you have a big man, you need to show him his footwork or his defensive mistakes, or if you're talking to your guard you need to show him how to use the shot clock defensively like his body positioning, angles or again, footwork,” said Can. “There are three things that are vital in the game of basketball: one is spacing, second is timing, the third is execution and if you don't make your players digest these details, you cannot improve. So what we try to do is basically try to teach all our players visually to master these fundamentals.”

Fenerbahçe head coach Igor Kokoskov and his coaching staff will utilize Hudl Sportscode to tackle their next campaign and beyond.

Strong team performances begin out on the training court and technology is key for Fenerbahçe as they work through a demanding domestic and continental season.

“There’s millions of details that you need to show the players to improve their flaws,” said Can. “One of the basic principles is game time reactions. We record some of our practices and scrimmages to break down and show our players, because showing things such as accurate floor spacing is really important in basketball games. Technology is one of the most important parts right now to prepare our players, judge their individual effectiveness, and crucially to provide visual memory, there are the most important assets.”

Coach Can see’s how feedback plays such a critical role in coaching and performance and how technology can help engage his players through video analysis and objective statistical analysis using data. Hudl Sportscode is the software that Fenerbahçe Beko have recently added to their program and it is already having a strong effect on generating quick and accurate statistical insights.

“Sportscode gives us the luxury of analyzing opponent teams and generating statistics that we can use and make our players digest,” said Can. “From there, we can create our own strategy plus make our players watch themselves and give them a library of clips to study around their individual performance - this is precious. Sportscode is helping us a lot because technology is one thing, but there’s also being practical, which means we must be as quick as possible in our analysis. With the technology, everything is right at our hands and reachable, be it reports or libraries of clips.”

The Fenerbahçe coaching team are excited to implement Hudl Sportscode into their live game analysis on match day.

The club has plans to extend the use of analysis software to operate beyond training environments and into live match scenarios - a key functionality of Sportscode. 

“Eventually we will use it for all these parts like matches for sure,” said Can. “We will use it to prepare game reports and also the ability to live edit during games is really important. One of our two video coaches will make the live cuts during the game and provide half time analysis to the players. Players need to understand visually, it's very difficult to convince otherwise if you compare with say, verbal terms. You need to give them something visual that they need to see and the quicker you make this you get a quicker reaction and better reaction. It’s priceless again for us, and Sportscode is making this.”

Installing a whole new set of analysis software into a club can seem daunting, especially in a club the size of Fenerbahçe, but Can and his staff found both the installation and onboarding education process relatively easy. 

“To be honest, in the beginning, it seems pretty complex,” said Can. “It seems like a lot of buttons to push and labels to add to the code window, but once you get inside, you realize that this is really effective and easy. As an assistant coach right now I'm not cutting the games, but I talk with our video coaches and they agree with me, this software is much easier to use than the others. The reaction time is fast and totally different because we used to take more than an hour to prepare our game analysis - opponent analysis even longer - but now during the game one of the video coaches is watching the game and at the same time cutting that and then it’s ready in a few minutes.”

Sportscode gives us the luxury of analyzing opponent teams and generating statistics that we can use and make our players digest. - Erdem Can, Fenerbahçe Beko assistant coach.

It was also really important for Hudl staff to be present and at hand during the onboarding process explained Coach Can. “This was really very important as we only have myself and two others remaining from the previous coaching regime - the rest of the staff are new members and some of them have no experience about video editing and all of us had no idea about Sportscode. After two weeks of your support we were well organized and right now we can do all of it: prepare sessions and everything. So without your support this was impossible and the surprising thing is I didn't expect that. That's a quick adaptation from us, So the software is so practical, but also your support was a really important thing.”

Looking forward to their next campaign, Can and Fenerbahçe are excited for what their new analysis offering can bring to their already strong and successful club.

“I always say the same thing: In order to be the best, you have to follow the best,” said Can. “All but one of the NBA teams are using Sportscode for a reason and having this now is very logical. We've already been late to have Hudl Sportscode, but for me it’s the standard, it’s needed. So at the end of the day we pick this, as the best part of the basketball world is using this and we want to follow this.” 

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