It’s been a turbulent few weeks in the UK. U-turns and diversions have been front and centre of the news agenda. It seems U-turns come at considerable cost in many walks of life. In a sporting context, turning, particularly at high speed comes at a significant physiological cost. Fortunately, a new paper evaluating the turning demands of a Premier League team has recently been published and could help create a new understanding of this vital performance metric.
Son Heung Min accelerating into a turn during the Champions League
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the paper, published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, found that central midfielders do the most turns compared to other playing positions. As they are often involved in all elements of attacking and defensive play the finding seems logical. A deeper look into the measurement of turning reveals how the new technology used in this study could have major implications for both performance measurements and broadcast coverage in terms of new metrics and insights.
The top players in a host of sports seem to move with effortless grace. It is often the changes of direction that seem so incredible, the ability to turn at high speed, by rapidly decelerating and with equal measure accelerating leaving opponents trailing in their wake. Turning is important in football as it is often these moments of dynamic change which lead to key moments like creating, scoring or denying goals. The new research led by Thomas Dos’Santos of Manchester Metropolitan University emphasised the importance of greater qualification of these movements. The use of LiDAR technology is expected to help identify and quantify the different types and outcomes of turns that were previously open to human error and bias.
If turning and change of direction are so important in the context of sport, the ability to accurately measure and understand it seems incredibly valuable for a host of reasons.
The physical load of changing direction during a game is a major contributory factor to player fatigue. We are used to metrics such as distance covered and high-speed runs being used to showcase physiological output. For a young fit professional footballer, running 10 -15km in 90 minutes with a 15-minute half-time break wouldn’t be a substantial challenge. Additionally, if a series of high-speed but short sprints are conducted in a straight line, the physical demands are well within their capabilities. The physical impact comes when players, due to the nature of the game, have to accelerate, decelerate and turn in rapid and successive movements.
Understanding more about these key movement patterns is vital to a club as they develop playing talent. Tracking the ability to change direction at a greater speed will be seen as a key metric of improvement. An understanding of the turning demands at different levels of the game is essential. It will help strength and conditioning coaches build player's physical tolerance to help them excel and avoid injury. If players are returning from injury, being able to match previous turning dynamics offers a key measure of recovery, far better than simply examining top level speed, or general cardiovascular fitness metrics.
Additionally, we are all aware of players that seem to be able to create space, somehow make challenges or skip past defenders despite not being blessed with electric pace. Where they could well excel is the ability to change direction rapidly. Therefore turning capacity could be one of the ingredients of truly elite performance. Often these differences are almost unnoticeable to the eye. This leads many to describe these players as possessing natural talent or an ability to read the game. New technology could help identify turning metrics that can be trained to help others explode away from opponents or react defensively via enhanced turning mechanics.
During play, turning could offer analysts and coaches greater insight into player fatigue than any other tracking metric. Because of the relative physical cost of high-speed turning, the ability to decelerate into and accelerate out of a turn is likely to reveal a drop in physical output before discrepancies other metrics such as high-speed running have been spotted. Therefore real-time turning data could become the key metric upon in-game decisions such as tactical adjustments and substitutions are made.
Fans are now used to seeing metrics linked to players’ physical output. The total distance covered and the number of high-speed sprints during a game showcase player's output. However, to truly understand the value of this data, it needs to be put into context. Numerous factors will contribute to a player's stats. This can include the player's position, team tactics, playing style and of course the game situation.
Whilst turning data seems to follow a similar pattern in terms of situation specificity, the ability to track players turning metrics could offer a new area of broadcast evaluation. Decreases in turning speeds could be used to develop fatigue indexes showing when players are beginning to struggle before it becomes visible to those watching. Substitutions and in-game tactical changes could be explained via a greater understanding of a player's physical condition.
Imagine a pundit explaining during a substitution that a player being replaced has fatigued by 60% based on the live data they are seeing. Additionally, analysis between defending and attacking players could unlock greater insight surrounding game-changing moments. The new player entering the pitch is attacking a defender that is showing a 40% reduction in peak output.
New research examining 41,301 substitutions from across Europe's top 4 leagues shows that the most common substitution type is a like-for-like change. If managers want this to elicit a positive change, be that offensive or defensive, they are clearly hoping that the introduction of “fresh legs” has an impact. What does fresh legs actually mean in terms of performance? It is highly likely that it means the ability to turn with greater quickness than a tiring opponent and therefore exploit a performance deficit.
The use of new technologies like LiDAR now allows for the identification, tracking and quantification of turning metrics. As a performance component, turning efficiency is one of the most important. It is linked to key moments that often decide games. Yet it is rarely commented on when delivering live or studio analysis of player's skills and abilities. With tracking technology now available and portable enough to be easily installed within stadiums its insights could be brought directly to broadcast helping pundits deliver enhanced fan insight.
So U-turn if you want to, just make sure it's on the pitch and done in a way that leaves the opposition players in your wake…
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