{"id":1077,"date":"2019-09-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/data-and-analytics-10-steps-to-ensure-your-data-is-hitting-home\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:29","slug":"data-and-analytics-10-steps-to-ensure-your-data-is-hitting-home","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/data-and-analytics-10-steps-to-ensure-your-data-is-hitting-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Data and Analytics: 10 Steps to Ensure Your Data is Hitting Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Sep 25, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Data and Analytics: 10 Steps to Ensure Your Data is Hitting Home<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Data & Innovation<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/data-and-analytics-10-steps-to-ensure-your-data-is-hitting-home\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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There is room for subjectivity but avoid politically-charged scenarios, and here’s why you really shouldn’t avoid that low-hanging fruit.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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While it is easy to think that the data you have in hand is a game-changer, it counts for little if the message is not packaged in the right way and sent by the right messenger. Here are ten steps to consider on the path to building trust with coaches and athletes alike.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

1. Have the right conduit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Detailed analytical reports might be the order of the day for performance staff but these can very quickly get \u201canalytically heavy\u201d as Chad Gerhard of the Orlando Magic says. \u201cThere are several levels of reporting, obviously, and the reports I am pushing out are to be digested by sports medical, sports performance, high performance personnel.\u201d Therefore, it is incumbent on his boss, Orlando\u2019s Performance Director David Tenney, to bring a digestible version of the report to the coaching staff. \u201cDave has a good relationship with the coaches and is the one who talks to them more or less every single day and he\u2019s the one who interprets it and packages it in a way that makes sense to the coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Reach for the low-hanging fruit<\/strong><\/p>\n

You will never be able to address every point on your list so go for the easiest, most accessible datasets. \u201cWe play 82 games in six months,\u201d says Chad Gerhard. \u201cWe play on average three or four games per week. Unfortunately, there\u2019s nothing you can do with that schedule and we need to work around that. The lowest-hanging fruit for us is the shoot around and days off. Those are the things we can manipulate to try and give our guys as much recovery and rest as possible.\u201d The easiest way, he says, is communicating with the coach. \u201cWe start by asking how many minutes a guy has played in the last four days? Questions like that are very digestible from the coach\u2019s perspective because that\u2019s how they live; they see the game in terms of minutes played before you get to any fancy metrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Allow for subjective elements<\/strong><\/p>\n

As performance staffs proliferate, the emphasis on subjective metrics of wellness and fitness grow, which means data collection must be completed with this trend in mind. \u201cBaseball is not an industry full of dummies,\u201d says Ryan Murray of the Texas Rangers. \u201cWe\u2019re very smart people and it\u2019s evident that not only objective but subjective information is becoming more and more involved in our modelling and predictive software. It\u2019s about using that to our advantage rather than just ad hoc conversations or an objective way of thinking about a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Simplify for the coach<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to placing data in a coach\u2019s hands it had better be simple. \u201cYou\u2019ll see a lot of graphs that look really simple and clean, but they\u2019re underpinned by complex datasets that we have to boil down and clean up,\u201d says David Martin, formerly of the Philadelphia 76ers. \u201cYou can easily have around 100 parameters available to look at after a game and we\u2019ll try to identify parameters that correlate to one another very tightly. We would take the variables available to us and try to boil them down to a couple of metrics that tell the story. We\u2019d then ask, \u2018do you have any questions, coach?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Have exit strategies<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an analyst, a coach will not heed your suggestions on every occasion and it is best not to take it personally. \u201cWe are advisors in professional sport; advisors to the coaches, the players, the front office,\u201d says David Martin. \u201cThe way that you provide that advice has to have\u00a0exit\u00a0strategies so that if they don\u2019t take your advice you can\u2019t get upset about it. If they don\u2019t understand your advice you can\u2019t say they are stupid or unintelligent. You need to come up with a new infographic or you need to find another time to talk to them or you just need to\u00a0recognize\u00a0that despite your best advice that for whatever reason the team is not going to take onboard your recommendation. If it\u2019s not taken onboard you go back to the drawing board and get ready for the next issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Be visual<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heuristic data \u2013 where coaches and athletes can educate themselves \u2013 particularly when it is visual, has proven a valuable tool in the military and is starting to make inroads in performance as sport wakes up to the possibilities of a visual approach. \u201cI saw a very interesting presentation given by DAARPA,\u201dsays David Martin. \u201cThey were creating advanced infographics that would allow a platoon to rapidly understand a number of characteristics. They were creating pictures and you would be trained to read those pictures.\u201d Expect to see more visual representations of data across elite sport.<\/p>\n

7. Try to speak to the athlete on their terms<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSome guys, if you have that conversation, you can get what you need out of them and with other guys you can\u2019t,\u201d says Chad Gerhard of his situation at Orlando Magic. \u201cThat\u2019s where you have a blend of data and information and you report it saying, \u2018you look like you\u2019re struggling, you look like your ankle is affecting you a little bit, and they might say that you\u2019re fine, but if you actually look at it there\u2019s data to support that you take three times as many jumpers off your left than you do from you right and every time you sprint you cut to the right. I think you\u2019re compensating a little bit \u2013 what\u2019s going on?\u2019 it\u2019s really those conversations where the data really comes into play and really helps guide the conversation.\u201d It is essential that those conversations be game-related. \u201cIt has to be basketball-related because if it\u2019s not then it doesn\u2019t matter. You always have to bring it back to, \u2018this is what you look like during a game\u2019.\u201d Also, in basketball, as in numerous sports, athletes will listen when you stress ideas that will extend their careers and, as a consequence, their earning potential. \u201c\u2018I\u2019m here to help you have a longer career,\u2019\u201d Gerhard will tell players. \u201c\u2018I can\u2019t make you any younger but we can try to change and adapt your training and maybe you\u2019ll get another contract. I want to keep you in the league as long as I can.\u2019 When you put it in terms like that it starts to make sense to these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

8. Public praise can go a long way<\/strong><\/p>\n

Data can be powerful when used to praise athletes in front of their peers. \u201cGuys love hearing what they do well,\u201d observes Ryan Murray. \u201cAt the beginning of Spring Training, we have small group sessions with subsets of players. You lift them up in front of their teammates, you start getting some momentum going.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. Be aware of the piggy bank<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one department can mopolise an athlete\u2019s time and analytics is no different. \u201cThere\u2019s zero time in the NBA and that\u2019s the toughest part,\u201d says Chad Gerhard. \u201cYou really have to pick the big-ticket items; \u2018if I only have five minutes with you then this is what you need to do in those five minutes.\u2019 I look at it like the athlete\u2019s piggy bank and everyone is trying to take money out of that piggy bank. I am trying to take money and so is the athletic trainer, the physical therapist, the masseuse, the chef, the head coach, the general manager, the media. They only have so much money to give and you have to ask yourself \u2018how much money do I want to take?\u2019 and of course you want to take all of it but I can only take a small piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

10. Avoid politically-charged scenarios<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is all too easy for an analyst to be drawn into personal agendas and that is to be avoided at all costs. \u201cIf a player comes to you with a question that is politically-charged,\u201d says David Martin, \u201ca question such as, \u2018am I moving quicker than the person that substitutes in for me?\u2019 because they\u2019re worried about their job, you might say, \u2018it\u2019s an interesting question and we can look into it but we should get your coach in on this discussion.\u2019 You don\u2019t want to be used as a pawn or a piece of leverage in some agenda and you need to be careful about that. Equally, an assistant coach could come and ask for data that directly undermines the head coach or the owner might ask you for data that gives them the excuse to fire the head coach. You have to be very careful about those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Sport Performance Summit London<\/strong><\/p>\n

Data & Innovation is one of the four key content pillars that will be covered at our flagship event this November 12-13 to prepare our members to out-think, out-prepare and out-perform the competition. Click here<\/a> to find out more about the event.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is room for subjectivity but avoid politically-charged scenarios, and here’s why you really shouldn’t avoid that low-hanging fruit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1078,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[23],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-1077","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-innovation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nData and Analytics: 10 Steps to Ensure Your Data is Hitting Home - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/data-and-analytics-10-steps-to-ensure-your-data-is-hitting-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data and Analytics: 10 Steps to Ensure Your Data is Hitting Home - 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