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Coordinate Systems

fast-forward supports 14 named coordinate systems that map to 6 unique coordinate system definitions. Many providers use the same underlying system (CDF), just with different names.

Alias Table

Name Unique System Origin Units Y-axis
cdf CDF Center meters Up
secondspectrum CDF Center meters Up
skillcorner CDF Center meters Up
pff CDF Center meters Up
gradientsports CDF Center meters Up
sportec:tracking CDF Center meters Up
hawkeye CDF Center meters Up
signality CDF Center meters Up
kloppy Kloppy Top-left 0-1 Down
tracab Tracab Center cm Up
sportvu SportVU Top-left meters Down
statsperform SportVU Top-left meters Down
sportec:event Sportec Event Bottom-left meters Up
respovision Sportec Event Bottom-left meters Up
opta Opta Bottom-left 0-100 Up

Unique Coordinate Systems

CDF (Common Data Format)

The default and intermediate coordinate system. All transformations pass through CDF.

  • Origin: Center of the pitch
  • X: Left to right, [-pitch_length/2, +pitch_length/2]
  • Y: Bottom to top, [-pitch_width/2, +pitch_width/2]
  • Units: Meters

CDF coordinate system

Aliases: cdf, secondspectrum, skillcorner, pff, gradientsports, sportec:tracking, hawkeye, signality

Kloppy

Normalized coordinates used by the kloppy library.

  • Origin: Top-left corner
  • X: Left to right, [0, 1]
  • Y: Top to bottom (inverted), [0, 1]
  • Units: Normalized (0-1)

Kloppy coordinate system

Tracab

Native Tracab coordinate system.

  • Origin: Center of the pitch
  • X: Left to right, [-pitch_length/2 * 100, +pitch_length/2 * 100]
  • Y: Bottom to top, [-pitch_width/2 * 100, +pitch_width/2 * 100]
  • Units: Centimeters

Tracab coordinate system

SportVU / StatsPerform

Used by StatsPerform and SportVU systems.

  • Origin: Top-left corner
  • X: Left to right, [0, pitch_length]
  • Y: Top to bottom (inverted), [0, pitch_width]
  • Units: Meters

SportVU coordinate system

Aliases: sportvu, statsperform

Sportec Event / Respovision

Used by Sportec event data and Respovision.

  • Origin: Bottom-left corner
  • X: Left to right, [0, pitch_length]
  • Y: Bottom to top, [0, pitch_width]
  • Units: Meters

Sportec Event coordinate system

Aliases: sportec:event, respovision

Opta

Opta's normalized coordinate system.

  • Origin: Bottom-left corner
  • X: Left to right, [0, 100]
  • Y: Bottom to top, [0, 100]
  • Units: Normalized (0-100)

Opta coordinate system

Transforming Coordinates

# Load in native coordinates, then transform
dataset = tracab.load_tracking(
    raw_data="tracking.dat",
    meta_data="metadata.xml",
    coordinates="tracab",  # Keep native Tracab (centimeters)
)

# Transform to Opta coordinates
opta_dataset = dataset.transform(to_coordinates="opta")

All transformations use CDF as an intermediate: source -> CDF -> target. This means you can transform between any two coordinate systems.

See Transformations for more details.