With the release of
the movie and the book Moneyball, sports
and data analytics has caught up and
is now the biggest trend in the world of sports.
It was popularized by baseball and now found its way into
basketball, Cricket American football,
Football(Soccer), tennis and many other sports too.
But hey, what is sports and data analytics. I don't
really understand?
Well, then you are not alone. Sports and data analysis is heavily used by leagues in US but it is
still in its early stages of adoption worldwide.
Let us try and
understand what is data analytics in isolation and then later
relate it to sports. Fair enough?
Data analysis is a mechanism to collect and
analyze data that is generated to deliver better information, more efficiently,
for decision making.
To make it more
clear, Let us take the example of Facebook,
the most used social networking website. You would have observed the ads that
appear of the right side of the page. Now if you have ever wondered, how are
the ads so relevant to you? Ans: It is because of data analysis.
Facebook stores most
of your personal information, your age,
location, sex, marital status, interest, pages you like, places you visit and
so on.
This information is
then used to ad targeting. e.g. Dating website ad is show to people who are
'single' and not to people who are 'married' or already in a relationship
or a women inner wear brand will be
targeted to women and not necessarily to men or boys. These examples are
simple and straightforward. However the professional data analysts would try
and extract much richer patterns using more parameters to take decisions or to
come up with valuable insights.
Data analytics in sports
Let's try and map it
to Football, the most popular sport in the world. Do you remember the penalty
shootout in the match between Bayern Munich and Chelsea in the champions league
final 2012? If you are a Chelsea fan, you definitely would. Nonetheless, Petr
Čech the Chelsea goalkeeper dived in the correct direction every single time in
the penalty shootout before finally stopping one from Ivica Olic. Yes, the
Germans lost to and English club in penalties. Something unheard of.
How do you think all
this happened? Petr Čech is a competent
goalkeeper but part of this credit goes to data analysis because he had watched 2 hours of penalty videos of most Munich
players before the match and the team analyst provide him with exact data of
each Bayern player. Most football clubs in the world analyze such data of
opponents from their previous matches or
from training sessions. Such reports would provide data related to a player
like, direction in which he is most likely to score, which is very helpful
information. However, few players like Fernando Torres mix it up well. He
scores almost equally to the left of the keeper as to his right. So, stats
related to direction would not help the opponent goalkeeper as much. However,
76% of his penalties are on low along the ground and not in air. And most
likely in a world cup final under pressure he would use his most successful
shot. And guess what, the opponent goalkeeper already has that information.
Helpful isn't it? "In future,
footballers might not take free kicks trying to place it into top corner, but
pass the ball as the current success rate of scoring from outside the box
during a free kick is a mere 2% or Liverpool might stop crossing the ball every
single time as they used 421 open play cross to convert one in the season
2011-12" says Simon Kuper, well known British sports journalist and author
in Sports Analytics Conference at Manchester Business school earlier this year.
In cricket, stats
about batsman's high scoring areas, pressure-release shot, a bowler's % of slower balls in a t20 match,
stats on length, runs conceded
against a left vs.
right handed batsmen, all this data can be collected, mined and provided to
coach by data analysts.
Combining this with
sports biomechanics to track player movements and physical characteristics such
as heart rate to measure fitness and predict future performance of individual
players, takes sports to all different level. The data collected of a player can help coach take
appropriate decisions in selection and strategies during matches. The impact
of such approach is different in different sport based on the format of the sport.
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There would be one
section of people wondering if this scientific
approach is conclusive and will replace gut instinct of a player or a
coach in world sport?
Big question: Is art chosen over science?
This is the most
frequently asked question asked by traditional coaches and ex successful
players who have played their game without the aid of such technology.
Answer is NO. Science is not here to kill the art of sport
but to complement it.
The science does not guarantee result in any case, but it increases the
chance to succeed, helping players and coaches to take well informed decisions.
It is important to
know that this method of collecting and
analyzing data in sports is not here to
substitute a physical coach or a manager but to
complement the current coaching styles and take sport to next level.
It is most effective
when gut instinct and detailed studied analysis are combined to take decisions.
Organizations
and third parties
Such statistical
data is used for in-depth match analysis, talent identification, scouting
analysis and various other training and programs. Most of the sporting
clubs in US, European football clubs and
IPL franchisees in India are already making use of such analytics. Opta Sports,
has recently signed contract with ICC and Premier league as official data
providers. Prozone sports and SportsMechanics are 2 of the many companies in
the world who provide video and data analysis services to various elite
sporting clubs and organizations.
The Future
Technologists round
the world predict that concepts such as big data[in
simple terms: ability to collect and analyze the vast amounts of data,]
will be bigger than internet and will impact everyone's life. The most common
phrase used is that "Data is the new oil". It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot
really be used. Data be broken down,
analyzed for it to have value. You might
be intrigued to know how US retailer Target used data analysis to know about pregnancy of a women before her family knew it. Check
it out
Al in all,
interesting times ahead and it is matter
of time before sports and data analytics becomes intrinsic part of all sporting
clubs and organizations across the world.
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