{"id":777,"date":"2020-06-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/what-coaches-and-athletes-need-to-know-as-told-by-data\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:16","slug":"what-coaches-and-athletes-need-to-know-as-told-by-data","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/what-coaches-and-athletes-need-to-know-as-told-by-data\/","title":{"rendered":"What Coaches and Athletes Need to Know, As Told By Data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jun 16, 2020 <\/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

What Coaches and Athletes Need to Know, As Told By Data<\/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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Practitioners from the San Antonio Spurs, England Netball, Wests Tigers, Tennis Australia and British Skeleton outline some of the ways in which data enable athletes and coaches to answer questions relating to their fitness, tactics and equipment.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Data must serve performance outcomes at every turn, which means it must meet the varying needs of athletes, coaches and performance staff alike.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

Here, our performance panel, which is comprised of sports scientists and a head coach, outline some of the ways in which data enable athletes and coaches to answer questions relating to their fitness, tactics and equipment.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Xavi Schelling, Director of Sports Science & Performance<\/span><\/span>, <\/span>San Antonio Spurs:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the captain of the\u202fship is the head coach. Our\u202fdepartment tries\u202fto reduce\u202fcomplexity and help the decision-maker, who is the head coach, to make the\u202fbest decision. It\u2019s\u202fnot on us\u202fto\u202fsay,\u202f\u2018he has\u202fto\u202frest today\u202fbecause he\u2019ll\u202fbe\u202fin\u202fbetter\u202fshape for\u202fthe playoffs\u202fand if you don\u2019t do it, you\u2019re doing it wrong\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We are giving the\u202fsimplest and most objective information to the coach and the coach will manage that information. He or\u202fshe will know if it\u2019s\u202fworth\u202fresting this\u202fplayer\u202ftonight and\u202fsaving them for\u202fthe playoffs.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s\u202fa third critical component: the player. You can have great\u202fideas,\u202fbut this\u202fhas\u202fto\u00a0involve the player at some level or point because it will\u202fbe\u202fthe player\u202fwho plays. They must buy-in. Even if you want to rest them and they want\u202fto play tonight, they\u202fhave\u202fto\u202fbe\u202fpart of that decision and it\u2019s\u202fon you to convince them that this\u202fdecision is\u202fin their best interest or\u202fthe team\u2019s\u202finterest.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In that decision there are three components: one\u202fsuggestion from the athletic performance department, which includes\u202fthe medical people, then the coach judging what\u2019s\u202fhappening, and then finally the player. Those three components\u202fmust find a collective agreement.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes\u202fit\u2019s\u202fthe other\u202fway around: coaches\u202fare more\u202fprotective,\u202fand the athletic\u00a0<\/span>department is\u202fsuggesting\u00a0to play\u00a0the player. But it\u202fhas\u202fto\u202fbe\u202fthe three\u202fsides\u202fin agreement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Jess Thirlby, Head Coach, England Netball Roses: <\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I enjoy embracing the analysis side, but always from a qualitative stance. I like working with our analyst and making sure that what we\u2019re doing is purposeful. I think it can be so easy to get drawn into having lots of stats, lots of numbers, and quantitative data and nobody really knowing how to use it to best effect in terms of how to affect performance.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of the team, we\u2019ve got some resource available to us and I encourage the athletes to be really informed and engaged in our platform on Huddle. It\u2019s got all sorts on there from the world of netball and is regularly kept up to date and current. I\u2019m a big believer in getting players to collaborate, present back, research, share with the group, present to the coaching group and vice versa.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our analyst in the last few months has certainly made a few comments to me about how engaged he feels they are; more so than ever they are using that resource to really good effect. It\u2019s a good way for me to check understanding from the group and it helps inform how to set direction and invest my energy when I hear the playing group back and they\u2019ve demonstrated really sound understanding of themselves and the opposition and, not only that, but coming up with ways in which we\u2019re going to pit strengths against their weaknesses.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of key areas that I probe more with the analysts and probably drive them mad with developing new tools is around momentum and, I guess, identifying that momentum shift earlier and then me, from a coaching point of view, knowing \u2018so what?\u2019 What do I do with that information?\u202fAlso,\u202faround what\u2019s the differentiator between us and another team? What tends to be the trend as to why we either come out on top or we don\u2019t? That\u2019s something that I\u2019ve certainly been reflecting on coming out of this last competition cycle. There are starting to be certain key trends about what we do well against a certain style of play and what we don\u2019t. That really helps to focus the mind and set the direction as to how and where to invest our time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also something that you shouldn\u2019t get so distracted by that you miss a trick about what those teams might look like in four years\u2019 time. I think doing some forecasting about what the backbones of some of these nations will\u202fbe, come\u202fthe 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. That informs what we want to do in terms of our research, how does that translate into the stats that we\u2019ve had recently and historically, and therefore, where do I pay most attention?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Machar Reid, Head of Innovation, Tennis Australia: <\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not so long ago, tennis was rated 24 out of 25 in terms of the professional sports on the planet terms of how effectively we were using data – essentially the second-worst out there. We were essentially using similar statistics to what we were using in the 1970s and the dial hadn\u2019t shifted in the best part of three decades. We were interested in partnering with a group to try and challenge the status quo in that regard. At the time, and till this day, partnered with Victoria University, establishing what we termed the Game Insight Group [a programme focusing on science and technology in tennis].\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of its remit is using data to help tennis players identify the best racket and string combination for them. Unlike sports say like cycling, or eve golf for that matter, where, over time, they\u2019ve refined their approaches to customising equipment for the individual player, tennis has fallen a long way behind and we\u2019ve got about 200,000 different combinations to choose from, which makes it a really vexed problem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the benefit and support of Vic Uni and the Game Insight Group, essentially established a set of algorithms to help the marketplace make more informed decisions regarding equipment. That\u2019s called Tennis Lab; that\u2019s proven very effective internally within the organisation to help\u202fourselves\u202fand the coaching group get their heads around how they can best leverage equipment for a player\u2019s benefit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Equally, in conversations with manufacturers, helping us to shift the conversation around how we can better customise equipment solutions for professional players and talented juniors.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew Gray, High Performance Manager, Wests Tigers: <\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rugby players have\u202fchanged over the past 20 years. We\u2019re\u202fcontinually trying to make our players take responsibility for their training, physical status and\u202fcareer. We have a real philosophy of trying not to use the word \u2018weakness\u2019; we\u2019re showing players, with the use of data, where their biggest opportunity to improve\u202fis because that\u2019s where they should be spending more of their energy on; the low-hanging fruit, they\u2019re the easiest things to improve.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the biggest data strategies that I\u2019ve used in my performance departments is \u2018here\u2019s what ideal look like; we know what ideal looks like across a winning organisation and here\u2019s where you are; these are the parameters and these ones here are where you\u2019re well below standard, advanced or elite or benchmark\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re scaling these things with\u202fcolours so that everyone understands where everybody is in every physical aspect; that\u202fcreates a fair bit of\u202fcompetition and nobody wants to be left behind! That\u202fcreates a bit of drive.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We also want to see our staff delivering the analysis, the education, the equipment and the opportunity; but to improve\u202fthemselves, the guys have\u202fgot to bring the drive to that and the discipline.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Danny Holdcroft, Head of Performance Innovation & Applied Research, <\/span><\/span>British Skeleton:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our purpose to is to use data to ask questions that one would not identify or ask questions to challenge what we\u2019re currently doing. One of the straplines to our programme is \u2018doing the impossible\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

People don\u2019t think we should be winning Olympic medals because we\u2019re not a winter nation and do not having a home track; and to make sure we\u2019re getting better we\u202fhave to\u202fconsistently innovate. In my eyes, innovation is not just thinking but having the confidence to implement it and try it; and to be able to work in that way and consistently evolve we have to do everything we can and data is a massive part of that; to ask questions that we hadn\u2019t thought of and we must be receptive to it.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Would we be successful without any data capture now? There would be some chance, but we\u2019re looking at Milano Cortina 2026 not just Beijing 2022, so we\u2019ve\u202fgot\u202fto evolve quicker than the Olympic cycles. We run almost two programmes concurrently. We\u2019ve got\u202four\u202f2026 athletes in the programme already so we need to be consistently evolving, so the more data and the more avenues we can explore, the better.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This chapter was taken from the latest Leaders Performance Institute Special Report, Analyse This: Managing Your Metrics<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It features a variety of sports organisations, from the San Antonio Spurs<\/strong> and England Netball<\/strong>, to the Wests Tigers<\/strong> and Tennis Australia<\/strong>, via British Skeleton<\/strong>. Download it now.<\/p>\n