{"id":19878,"date":"2023-09-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=19878"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:09","slug":"why-being-able-to-action-your-teams-data-quickly-can-give-you-a-critical-performance-edge","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/why-being-able-to-action-your-teams-data-quickly-can-give-you-a-critical-performance-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Being Able to Action your Team’s Data Quickly Can Give you a Critical Performance Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 4 Sep 2023 <\/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

Why Being Able to Action your Team’s Data Quickly Can Give you a Critical Performance Edge<\/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\/why-being-able-to-action-your-teams-data-quickly-can-give-you-a-critical-performance-edge\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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Crystal Palace and Royal Antwerp have developed data storage and visualisation systems that increase athlete availability, enable smarter recruitment, and ensure more efficient workflows.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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An article brought to you by our Partners<\/p>\n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
\u201cIf you want to be successful in this industry you really need to make sure that you have data-related skills alongside your sports background.\u201d<\/h6>\n

Dr Cedric Leduc, a sports scientist at English Premier League club Crystal Palace FC, is sharing his experience with practitioners working in athlete monitoring.<\/p>\n

It is a natural enough recommendation for a sports scientist to make but the case Leduc makes to the Leaders Performance Institute is compelling. \u201cIf you aim to work in a sports club as a practitioner,\u201d he continues, \u201cone of the key things when considering your own learning and development journey is to integrate some of those data skills that will help you to understand what is actually required by an organisation when it comes to data and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why a data infrastructure is important<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leduc, who has been at Crystal Palace for almost two years, addresses that question on a daily basis. \u201cHow can I refine a thousand possible metrics on the market into a presentation or construct of what I am seeking to present?\u201d As he sees it, there are two viable approaches; firstly, by calling upon his own experience and relationships with colleagues, coaches and athletes; and secondly, by running statistical analyses that enable those selections to be made in an objective way.<\/p>\n

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Crystal Palace and Royal Antwerp track Player Availability using Smartabase, which enables performance staff and coaches to make informed training and performance decisions. Image: Smartabase<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cA combination of both works,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you have to turn things around quickly, you might actually use your experience, but when you have time and access to a good historical database, you might be able to run those analyses. There\u2019s a trade-off between short-term actionable points and more long-term objective decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leduc and Crystal Palace use human performance optimisation platform Smartabase<\/a> as a data storage and visualisation solution for all players and staff, from the academy to the first team.<\/p>\n

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“In a way, building the system from nothing was an advantage because you can build it the way you like and set up the structure” – Peter Catteeuw<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To operate without such a system puts a club at a disadvantage, as Dr Peter Catteeuw, the Head of Performance at Belgian Pro League champions Royal Antwerp FC, explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived at Antwerp in 2017 there were no records of injuries, records of tests with the players, no records of training sessions and so on,\u201d he tells the Leaders Performance Institute. Mindful of how well Smartabase had served him in his previous role at Racing Genk, he began to use their technology at his new club, building a monitoring system for a second time with the help of Smartabase\u2019s agile customer success team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, building the system from nothing was an advantage because you can build it the way you like and set up the structure,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s still changing every day and getting better, helping players from the academy to the first team. The team\u2019s management and administration is also coming onboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a product of the latitude afforded to Catteeuw and his ability to scale the system. \u201cWe needed time to build the system to our own needs and it continues to develop. On the other hand, we can implement changes immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Smartabase enables the collection of both objective and subjective sources of data relating to athlete wellness. Image: Smartabase<\/p><\/div>\n

Of advice he would give a team who are starting from scratch, Catteeuw says, \u201cYou can easily start with a smaller group within the club, say the academy, and then progress through the organisation as you build the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

How accessible and actionable data can improve workflows<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alignment and accessibility are critical for new members of staff. When Leduc arrived at Crystal Palace, his first question was: where is the data and can I access it easily? \u201cThen you start to realise that you have multiple data sources like in any sports organisation,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat\u2019s important, if you want to make practical use of that data, is to first make sure they are stored in one secured place so that it can be easily accessed \u2013 then you can turn that into something actionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“We have a holistic view of the players; what they did in training, what they are doing outside of training, how well they are recovering every day and if they are ready to train or take on more load or not, and if they are ready to play games or not\u201d – Peter Catteeuw<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At Royal Antwerp, Catteeuw welcomes the ability to tailor the club\u2019s data management platform to his wishes thanks to Smartabase\u2019s hands-on approach to customer success. A response within hours is the norm. A solution often follows in a day or two. \u201cMost systems are fixed but Smartabase gives you the tools to create your own club system to enable you to work the way you like with physios, strength & conditioning staff, the technical coaches and management. Most companies only make it if it\u2019s interesting for other teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Injury Risk Profiling is an essential area of Catteeuw’s work at Royal Antwerp. Image: Peter Catteeuw \/ Royal Antwerp FC<\/p><\/div>\n

Leduc has witnessed the benefit first-hand at Crystal Palace. \u201cA new player signed this summer and the head physio asked me if he can integrate the profile of that new player so that he can start adding notes,\u201d he says. \u201cAnother example from pre-season was the request to implement a new technology, integrating its data with their Smartabase storage system.\u201d The organisation was able to facilitate the club\u2019s request. \u201cThey are very reactive in trying to understand your needs and not simply relying on what already exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Royal Antwerp, Catteeuw was able to make the API work in linking the sleep tracker Whoop and Smartabase. \u201cNow it\u2019s up to me to pick the right data, the data we want to see, and make clarifications if necessary,\u201d he says. \u201cI will make the first simple dashboards for ourselves, the medical staff or the coaches to have a quick view every day. In the next days, I will try to combine data we have now from Whoop with the players\u2019 wellness questionnaires and with all the training and game data we collect so that we have a holistic view of the players; what they did in training, what they are doing outside of training, how well they are recovering every day and if they are ready to train or take on more load or not, and if they are ready to play games or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agility is critical to data-informed decision making<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is the imminent possibility that this process will lead to red flags with some of the players. Perhaps they have not slept well on a consistent basis. This will, however, not lead to an overreaction from Catteeuw and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to take drastic action right away. These alarms just let us say \u2018let\u2019s first talk to the player and see what\u2019s going on\u2019 and then maybe check with the physios. Is there something else from the medical staff? Is there something from the training pitch that also raises an alarm?\u201d<\/p>\n

Catteeuw recalls an illustrative example from last season when Royal Antwerp used NordBord, ForceFrame and ForceDecks in strength testing. \u201cIn every first training session after a match, we ran tests. The data gives us a signal i.e. it\u2019s too slow for these players, the difference between left and right is too large. We won\u2019t pull them out of training immediately but we\u2019ll check the player and see if there\u2019s anything too serious to let them train. But most of the time it means we maybe have to adapt a little bit of training or we need to get an additional session in the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Having access to the original data enables you to be very agile with the data you\u2019re collecting” – Cedric Leduc<\/h4>\n

Access to the initial sources of raw data has enabled Leduc at Crystal Palace to streamline some of his processes. \u201cThe initial data collection with a given technology can be pushed into Smartabase in the right format,\u201d he says. \u201cI can then push it to get the right visualisation or run some analysis on it in a very straightforward way. You limit human interaction, which decreases the risk of errors. Having access to the original data enables you to be very agile with the data you\u2019re collecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

However you use your databases, the important thing is to understand the needs of your organisation. As Leduc says: \u201cDo you need a storage or visualisation solution? That will depend on your organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Crystal Palace and Royal Antwerp use Smartabase to track player soreness on a daily basis. Image: Smartabase.<\/p><\/div>\n

The data landscape is changing and the days of teams failing to track even basic performance metrics are largely consigned to the past. In addition to Crystal Palace and Royal Antwerp, Smartabase clients include both Arsenal and Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, Stoke City in the English Championship, to AS Monaco in the French Ligue 1, Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie and SL Benfica in the Portuguese Primeira Liga – all clubs looking to make a real difference both in training and in competition by developing a data infrastructure that enables coaches, practitioners and the players themselves to make faster, smarter and better informed decisions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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