Dr Fergus Connolly - Information & Technology in Elite Sport - Workshop Notes - BSMPG 2013

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Managing Information &

Technology in Elite Team Sport

What elite team sports must learn from the stock-market, Donald Rumsfeld, Moneyball, CSI, Dr. House, Vince Lombardi and the Renaissance

Key practical lessons from Applied Sports Performance in Elite teams in the NFL, NBA, Rugby Union & European Soccer.

This workshop was first delivered at the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Conference on the 18

th of May 2013, by Fergus Connolly.

Introduction

Much of today sports science, while incredibly interesting, is not actually

focused on or affecting winning.

This workshop is about applied sports science. Using sports science to win.

I’d you to leave with something practical, and useful. I’d like to present some

notes of caution on the challenges ahead, and some principles and guidelines

for you to use in your own clubs and organizations going forward.


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Matrix

Never before has there been so much information and so much data available

for coaches.

However, you’d be easily forgiven for thinking Team Sport today was perhaps

becoming more like the stock market than coaching, with such a focus on

numbers.

The danger is however, that the more numbers are becoming the focus, the

more coaches are becoming like traders or are living in the film “The Matrix”,

dealing in numbers and, not coaches dealing with athletes and people.

While at the end of the day, the only number that matters is the score, we

only get there with people.

Today, coaches deal in numbers, they often keep them in a job, but are

becoming more focused on the figure - than on the athlete.

“… the more numbers are becoming the focus, the more coaches are

becoming like traders or are living in the film “The Matrix”, dealing

in numbers and, not coaches dealing with athletes and people.”


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‘Sports Science’

If every team sport scientist was killed, or didn’t work for a season, would it

actually matter?

Do sports scientists make an actual difference?

Would the order of the league tables change?

What does the sports scientist offer or contribute in reality in an elite team

sport?

The point is that we’re not practicing theorectial sports science, we’re

practicing applied, action research sports science and the training for this is

much more complex.

“Sports science is arguably, in some cases, a disadvantage”


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Roots of ‘measuring people’ & MoneyBall – The American Civil War

We now can measure almost anything we want.

All this started a long, long while ago.

People like Eli Whitney, Fredrick Taylor and Frank Gilbreth have a lot to

answer for and in many ways, these were the forerunners for todays sports

scientists.

Their original concern was for measuring and then improving, human

performance in manufacturing. We measure and try to speed up and improve

human performance in a sporting context.

Back then initially in the American Civil War, where Eli Whitney got the credit

for inventing interchangeable parts for rifles, they were primarily concerned

with understanding how best to measure the speed of human performance in

manufacturing.


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Moneyball

So this is not a new concept ... just new to sport hence Moneyball.

Manufacturing, Trading and stocks, economics ... all these measure humans,

or human machine interactions.

But this is what we are doing - applying manufacturing principles to a

sporting environment and they are not the same thing.

“… applying manufacturing principles to a sporting environment and

they are not the same thing.”

However – and this is the important point.

Taylor, Gilbreth and others did make assumptions and failed to acknowledge

certain aspects ... first of all fatigue – A huge factor for us, they didn’t have to

deal with humans interacting with humans, only humans and machines (or

now just machines!) ... also they hadn’t a man in the middle – the REFEREE -

to work with!


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The Rumsfeld Rules

There are many things we don’t’ know about yet in human performance, but

few acknowledge this and assume that because we have so many numbers

we have them all and all decisions can be therefore made by numbers.

We don’t.

We can’t.

There are two conclusions to draw from this – we can’t measure everything

that happens and we need to have the humility to acknowledge we don’t

know everything about human performance yet.


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This isn’t Disney baby

MoneyBall is Hollywood, but team sport isn’t Disney and there is no fairytale

ending

Baseball is a relatively straightforward sport.

One guy stands still with a bat. The other throws a ball at him. And the guy

with the bat hits the ball. It’s a simple sport explained in mathematical terms

partially by sabermetrics.

Most Team Sports on the other hand are more complex.

In soccer, NBA, NFL or rugby for example however, you could have up to 15

men are passing the ball to each other – the catch is that the men are all

moving around, they have complex relationships to each other.


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And there is one more added complexity or variable – well possibly 15 of

them - there are up to 15 others trying to intercept the ball!!

"Game Statistics obey Newtons 3rd Law"

"Stat's are a Dance".

A pendulum, Balance, etc They do not happen in isolation.

The two teams work together to form game stat's.


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The move from Fitness testing to Athlete monitoring

The tradition has been for coaches to test players to see where they are in

relation to others, to themselves or in general.

But in Team sport we haven’t the time to do this.

In the NBA for example there are too many games, and this means

that fitness testing is impossible.

So too is periodisation, whether linear, conjugate or concurrent.

So the time to test isn’t there.

Now the challenge is to stress or train the athlete when they are biologically

ready to adapt to the stress, not just when the training program says so.

Technology though, as outlined earlier, speeds things up, it means that we

can now ‘test’ more regularly and faster.


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Testing has become monitoring. In a team sport scenario, if applied properly,

this ‘testing’ is incredibly effective and has a far greater impact since we’re

managing more players together more often.

This means that rather than testing, we’re now monitoring our athletes. We

can see even far more minute changes and identify adaptation when it

happens far earlier.

The future is not in testing but in player monitoring.


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Sports Science is a Dashboard

Those of us who drive, do it automatically.

We get in, look out the windscreen, turn the key, check mirrors, press the

pedals, move the gearshift and drive the car - mostly without looking at these

actual implements. We drive automatically.

Coaching is the same.

But as we drive we check the dashboard every now and again.

Sports science is this dashboard.

We never actually drive by the dials, we drive looking out the window, but the

dashboard is there to check and help us.

This is the proper way to approach the use and implementation of sports

science.

Coaching is the art of driving the car, sports science is simply the gauges,

dials and lights – the dashboard - we use when we need to.


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5 Information I’s

Coaches are experts

They rely on previous experience and 'gut feel' to make decisions.

A great coach with poor or incorrect information is useless. It's like painting

by numbers with no numbers.


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Instant

You need instant data and information to make proper informed decisions.

Knowing or finding out 4 hours after breakfast that a player reported a tight

hamstring when he came in is no good if the guy is lying on the Physio bench

with 2 lbs of ice strapped to his hamstring!


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Integrated

You need to have all the data from each coach or department integrated and

at your finger tips on one page or screen.

Seeing a players body weight going up with out the nutritionists bodyfat

scores alongside it or knowing what dietary plan he is on means you are

unable to draw proper conclusions.


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Important

Only present the necessary important information - not ALL the data.

Presenting all the data is lazy and time wasting for the coach must wade

through it to decipher the relevant information.

Only present as much information as is necessary - not as much as possible.


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Individual

The day of training team players all the same for optimal team sport

performance is long gone, the athletes or players must be prepared as

individuals as well as in a team context in order to perform optimally.

Therefore data must be individualised and presented on an individual basis so

that the players can be treated as individuals.


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Intuitive

Presenting the data to coaches (and players) must be done in a manner that

is easily understood.

The majority of players in professional sport today don't get a 3rd level

qualification and most coaches are more frequently coming from playing

ranks, so data presented can't be of a degree standard for fast digestion.

This must also be observed when questioning the players or coaches for

feedback.


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Conclusion

Finally, the greatest example or role model for a sports scientist was possibly

not even remotely interested in sport.

Leonardo da Vinci.


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Of all the people we could look to, da Vinci provides the best example of

someone who married science and art to produce enduring masterpieces –

which is essentially what we are trying to do.

The Renaissance was a ‘rebirth’ for art and the skills of the great European

masters.

Da Vinci was a wonderful example of a man who studied in multiple domains,

his legacy endures to this day.


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If you look at the Last Supper you see his study of science in the background

as the base for the painting.

You see his accuracy in the use of perspective, directing focus to Jesus in the

middle, the comprehension of depth and foreshortening of the arms as they

reach out to you drawing you in, his understanding of the science of shadow

and light all are demonstrated in the painting as art.

And all of this is ignoring the science and experimentation he went through

deciding on his painting approaches.


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He has expertise in so many areas, biology, physics astronomy, art and much

more.

His study and drawings of cadavers is so well known it was used until recently

as the basis for understanding anatomy.

But he also made mistakes and assumptions as we see in his appreciations of

female anatomy, but all coaches will make mistakes too as they strive to

learn.


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His sketches are like training plans, he drew before the actual main event or

painting. You see how he goes through and plans his paintings in great detail.

And finally, his finest work the Mona Lisa, like the great coaches, the

culmination of all his work in one enduring work of art – a masterpiece.

Da Vinci, the perfect blend of theory and practice in art.

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Dr Fergus Connolly - Information & Technology in Elite Sport - Workshop Notes - BSMPG 2013

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