{"id":910,"date":"2020-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/is-your-data-interpretation-process-up-to-scratch\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:22","slug":"is-your-data-interpretation-process-up-to-scratch","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/is-your-data-interpretation-process-up-to-scratch\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Data Interpretation Process Up to Scratch?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Mar 05, 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

Is Your Data Interpretation Process Up to Scratch?<\/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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We bring you three considerations from the worlds of Team Porsche and Manchester City.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Think of data and innovation in sport and the mind quickly wanders to motorsport and, perhaps, the tricks and tips you may be able to pick up.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

As a technology-based pursuit, motorsport, in all its guises, has long promoted innovation. Take the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the annual endurance racing showpiece that takes place at Circuit de la Sarthe in north-western France, where competitors were experimenting with aerodynamic bodies as far back as the mid-1920s.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a century to the era of sequential paddle-shift gearboxes, cutting-edge tyre technology and increasingly efficient brake materials, and you will find competitors backed by teams of mechanics, engineers, and various driver support staff who all study and interpret data on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Stephen Mitas<\/u><\/a>,<\/u>\u00a0the Chief Engineer behind Porsche\u2019s three-time success at Le Mans between 2015 and 2017, says that data is not the be-all and end-all, even in a data-heavy sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think data only complements the decision-making process,\u201d he told the Leaders Performance Institute in 2019. \u201cIf there\u2019s an issue with the decision-making process it probably means the process itself needs to be reviewed. The data only validates your conclusion – or invalidates it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the sophistication of video and data-based software across sport has increased, sports such as soccer, are adopting a similar approach to that of Porsche, Mitas and their racing counterparts.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Leaders Performance Institute last year, Nick Chadd<\/u><\/a>,<\/u> who is currently the Lead Sport Scientist at City Football Group, appeared to share Mitas\u2019 outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cData is great but it can also be difficult to interpret and understand,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can all put the same set of data in front of everybody but it comes down to the person interpreting that and then translating that into what I would call meaningful interventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I\u2019m big on is making our data live because there\u2019s no point in collecting all this data, having it sitting in a databank and it not informing anything or not living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are three considerations for data scientists and coaches alike when it comes to the processes behind your data collection.<\/p>\n

<\/b>1. At competition time data takes a backseat<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

However good your numbers, the half-time interval or the free practice session is not the time for radical change. \u201cData during the race weekends is primarily used for validation purposes,\u201d said Mitas, adding, \u201cwe do a lot of testing, a lot of training. We learn more in those phases; we learn our processes, how to use data to train the drivers, how to use data to identify problems and help to optimise the car. Normally, when we get to a race weekend it\u2019s about execution; so we take all that preparation work and we\u2019re trying to validate all of those things that we prepared prior to that event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chadd, who previously worked with the Manchester City Academy, said the approach was similar. \u201cA lot of my data conversations start with the sentence \u2018we already know this but this confirms what we\u2019re thinking\u2019,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat\u2019s not a bad notion because that means we\u2019ve got people with this skill for picking up certain things; every now and again the data will throw up something that maybe someone hasn\u2019t picked up or something that someone highlighted or just sometimes just having the opportunity to step back and have that helicopter view; as we know when you get into the day to day task you can sometimes miss the bigger picture and that\u2019s where the data can come into play as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/b>2. Clear reporting lines are essential<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, motorsport leads the way in its chain of command, as Porsche and Mitas demonstrate. \u201cWe have experts assigned to different aspects of the analysis and those experts are extremely talented at what they do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have some very clear reporting lines depending on what\u2019s at hand; if it\u2019s a performance-related issue, a problem with the car, or what have you. We tend to minimise conversations during the race \u2013 the conversations tend to happen before and after.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Manchester City Academy, alignment is equally important, with the club\u2019s overall coaching philosophy providing the central guiding force. \u201cI think we\u2019ve put some systems in place that ensure we use the data,\u201d said Chadd, who at the time oversaw the data collection of nine teams, from Under-9 through to the Under-23s. That means 200 players and nine different head coaches trying to make sense of the numbers in front of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have regular reviews, which isn\u2019t ground-breaking by any stretch of the imagination, but we have regular six-weekly training reviews. The data that comes out of those reviews is aligned so that we can compare between teams as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest challenges I find is aligning our system across multiple teams to ensure that the athlete is getting a progressive and continual pathway and they\u2019re not chopping and changing the pathway as they go from one set of coaches and practitioners to another. It\u2019s really important to me that they have an experience that is progressively challenging but all in line with the methodology we\u2019re trying to put in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/b>3. Allow for emotion<\/b><\/strong>s<\/b><\/strong>but never step away from the facts<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tension and conflict are inevitable across sport so plan for both without losing sight of your objective goals. \u201cDisagreements are part and parcel of the day to day and there\u2019s the hard conversations that come when let\u2019s say certain high performance members or drivers have a differing opinion to the team based on emotions,\u201d admitted Mitas. \u201cWhen emotions come into it you just have to take a step back, let things calm down, then try to have a conversation based on the facts. As an engineer the facts are important, but you\u2019ve also got to pay attention to the emotional side, so that the human aspects are respected even in the cold, hard light of day,\u00a0and the facts are being observed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a football academy where the athletes are teenagers, cultivating such a mindset takes some education and instruction. However, therein lies an opportunity, as Chadd explained: \u201cPlayers are very integrated into the process of our data collection and what it tells them, but if they have the capacity to understand we let them know the pitfalls of the data as well, that it isn\u2019t the be-all and end-all, that there is error in the measurement. I think once you get the player onboard and integrated into that, they certainly have the capacity to understand that and it can become a very powerful tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What else does a winning team need in 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We answer is question in our latest Performance Special Report: The High Performance Manual: Winning in 2020<\/em>, which features sports organisations as diverse as Red Bull<\/strong>, the Brisbane Lions<\/strong> and the Royal Military Academy<\/strong> discussing the pertinent topics across Leadership & Culture, Coaching & Development, Human Performance and Data & Innovation. Download it now.<\/p>\n