Data v Insight: A Sport Science Approach
In the world of sport where numbers increasingly dominate our understanding and interpretation of the action we witness, how does anyone make sense of digits and data to provide worthwhile analysis and insight?
How does anyone make sense of digits and data to provide worthwhile analysis and insight?
Let’s rephrase that.
Coverage of sport has increasingly incorporated statistical analysis to tell the story of what we are witnessing on screen. This is not necessarily a new phenomenon, but it’s clear that the rate of momentum is increasing behind a new approach to analysis, whereby, in the eyes of broadcasters and rightsholders at least; data is king (or queen).
We are all familiar with in-play stats across multiple sports, especially as UK based media outlets follow the lead of their American counterparts, where sports such as Baseball, Basketball and American Football have long focussed on numbers to describe on-field action. Driven largely by the betting industry at the outset, statistics are now central to any coverage of major events or sporting moments at home and abroad.
But what do they matter and do they really tell the story they are looking to convey?
It's an age old question of data versus insight and it’s something that is clearly close to the hearts of everyone here at Sport Science Agency.
But as with all statistics, there are good numbers and bad numbers and we believe it is our job to help brands, broadcasters and rights holders to ultimately provide viewers with information that is both informative and crucially, insightful.
What is bad data?
In fairness, there is no such thing as bad data per se, so long as it is factually accurate but the question is where is its value.
For example, is 10km covered without the ball in football better than 5km of insightful runs and targeted passes? Is a 100% pass rate of 5 yards better than a 20% success rate in creating chances or carving open opposition defenses?
Of course not and this is why it’s not just about numbers, but about understanding how to add value to arbitrary digits to create tangible, relevant and ultimately, interesting insight.
The stats referred to above can be known as output data according to SSA Director, Alex Skelton, with another example being the famous England v Greece game in 2001, where, David Beckham covered an extraordinary distance in terms of kilometres ran on the pitch. But does that statistic alone hold any value?
The popular consensus was that he was ‘captain fantastic’ that day, and was everywhere working hard for his team, but is that really insightful? Did he have to run so much because he was out of position? To quote the great Italian defender, Paulo Maldini, “If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake...”
When data becomes insight
Take the sport of cycling for example, a sport where SSA has worked closely with the international governing body and Warner Bros Discovery Sports for several years to add value and interest to coverage of the UCI Track Champions League events.
Data is everywhere in cycling, with speed, power output, distance all common parlance amongst even the most amateur bike racer, but again, what value do those numbers offer without context, especially in an elite track racing environment.
Alex Skelton explains: “With the UCI Track Champions League we’re not just looking at isolated data, but looking at a rider’s power data compared to their max in real time and we're looking at it in a comparative sense, by assessing against the number of efforts that they have made. This means that we can then give a good indication of their potential to reproduce those efforts in a race situation, particularly where you have riders progressing through rounds.
“So if you've got a rider with a peak power of 2,500 Watts, and they've had to produce 1800 watts to get through a qualifying round, and you've got a rider with 2,000 watt peak power and they've had to produce 1800 watts to get through, one of them is significantly closer to the ceiling of their capability than the other and therefore with a little data about the rider’s current fitness level, you can accurately predict that one of them is going to be in better shape going into the next stage. This might seem like very basic data, but the insight it gives is much more powerful due to the context.”
Adding value
Another example where SSA is front and centre of the move to bring data to life in a way that informs and improves performance is in rugby union through working alongside the women’s Welsh Rugby Union team.
Alex adds: “We’ve been working with Vodafone and the WRU for eight months and with a focus on helping the coaching and performance teams get a more holistic understanding of each player and how to get the most out of them.
“We have developed a player welfare app which tracks menstrual cycle and player wellness providing insightful data to the players, coaches, sport scientists and medical teams about how the players are responding to training and recovery strategies. Adding insight into the players’ menstrual cycles has helped to provide context for their performances.
“The research is not yet clear on whether individuals respond better to different types of training during different phases of their menstrual cycles, but just knowing how a player is feeling during different phases helps the team to understand how they can be supported to enable each individual to perform at their very best on any given day.”
SSA’s work with Vodafone and the WRU is a great example of how the smart use of context and informed insight can help deliver performance gains, and with Discovery Sports Events and the UCI Track Champions League we have brought performance insights to the fans in a way that has enabled them to understand performance in a new way.
There is still so much more to do in this space, but with the nous and know-how to turn data into tangible insight for fans, teams and broadcasters alike we expect to see the levels of performance and understanding of sports performances improve in the coming years
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Sport Science Agency uses its insight and expertise to tell performance stories and unlocks their value for brands, broadcasters and rights holders. To see some of our work click here If you want to know more about what we can do for you, drop us a note via info@sportscienceagency.com and we can arrange to go for a healthy vitamin-packed drink.