Ipswich Town Academy Uses AI Football Cameras to Transform Player Development

"We film everything. Every training session, every game, every age group from under-nines to under 21s, home away, we get everything filmed," says Jamie Mitchell, Head of Methodology at Ipswich Town FC Academy.

Mitchell's approach reflects a comprehensive video strategy that has transformed how the academy develops young talent. The systematic capture of every moment allows coaches to provide detailed, objective feedback that accelerates player development.

This challenges the traditional assumption that youth development relies primarily on live coaching feedback during training sessions.

Ipswich Town's comprehensive academy video system

Jamie Mitchell has spent over a decade in performance analysis, working his way from volunteer positions to leading methodology at one of England's most respected academies. His experience spans clubs including Luton Town, Leyton Orient, and Norwich City before joining Ipswich Town.

Ipswich Town FC Academy serves as a pathway to professional football for young players across the region. The academy operates year-round with multiple age groups training simultaneously across different areas of their facilities.

This environment creates unique challenges for coaches trying to monitor and improve individual player performance while managing team development across all age groups.

The challenge of traditional coaching feedback methods

Before implementing comprehensive video analysis, academy coaches struggled with the limitations of real-time feedback. "I could tell them what went wrong, but they couldn't visualize it," explains Matt Pooley, Lead Individual Coach in the Professional Development Phase. "By the time we got to the next practice, they'd forgotten the specific situations."

Traditional coaching relied heavily on verbal instruction and whiteboard diagrams during training breaks. "There's such a difference between telling them and showing them," Pooley notes. Players would repeat positioning errors because they couldn't see themselves making the mistakes.

The academy needed a way to capture every training moment and game situation to provide visual evidence of both successful plays and areas needing improvement. Without this capability, player development remained inconsistent across different age groups and skill levels.

How Veo transformed Ipswich Town's player development

The academy discovered Veo through their partnership network and immediately recognized its potential for systematic player development. "We're really fortunate as George mentioned, we've had a partnership with Veo for a long time," Mitchell recalls. "We use their cameras a lot and it helps us capture everything."

Veo's automatic ball-tracking eliminates the need for dedicated camera operators during training sessions. "We plan where to put that camera as well. We won't just put it up and say this is here," Pooley explains. "You want to use the best footage possible for that analysis."

The technology enables age-appropriate feedback delivery across all academy levels. "What an under nine would see looks completely different to what an under 21 would see," Mitchell notes. "We're really age and player appropriate with the way we deliver feedback."

Finley Walker, Lead Junior Academy Analyst, sees immediate engagement from younger players. "They're eager to review what they did - why they missed a shot, why they got called for something," he explains. The visual evidence helps players understand their decision-making process and execution in ways verbal feedback alone cannot achieve.

The academy now operates a systematic three-step process: capture everything, code specific events and performances, then deliver targeted feedback through weekly analysis sessions with every age group from under nines to under 21s.

Ready to transform your academy's player development?

Ipswich Town's experience shows how video analysis can accelerate youth football development at every level. Want to discover what systematic video feedback can do for your players? Veo experts are standing by to help you get started.