Coach Kylie and I were lucky enough to get an invite to the recent Sports Analytics Conference in Melbourne, courtesy of the awesome team at Red Bull. Now...I’m definitely not a data nerd but I am intrigued by the use of technology in running, triathlon and other sports. To be honest, I am less intrigued by the technology itself, and more our use of it and the interpretations that come from it.
There were hundreds of people in attendance from all over the world and presenters from professional sports organisations in the USA, Spain, Sweden, UK, Australia and beyond. Some of the most recognisable names of clubs in sport were on the attendee lists and it was a great opportunity hear some of the themes and debates and potentially apply these to the everyday runner.
So, what did we learn?
Data is Big Business
I wasn’t really sure what expect when I walked into the Convention Centre in terms of attendees, but at a certain point I realised that there were enough people, firstly to justify the conference and secondly to introduce me to whole new range of jobs in sports organisations. At the elite end of the sports we love, it's no longer just athletes and coaches. There are people who are in charge of management of data, management of athletes, brand management, sports science, data science, coaches, academics, marketers, entrepreneurs and the list goes on….
Too much data, not enough interpretation?
Sport is now led by data both at the elite level and in the amateur ranks. Think of what your Suunto or Garmin watch can do, compared to a few years ago. Think of all the health or running stats that you can get easily on your phone. And that’s just me and you… Now Imagine working in Formula 1 racing, where everything is measured to the thousandth of a second, and where tenth’s of seconds cost millions of dollars! Imagine the amount of data there...
In a presentation from AFL team, Carlton FC, it was interesting to hear that such a professional AFL club felt overwhelmed with the sheer amount of raw data and they had to find better ways to manage it. Too much data, too many platforms, not enough integration was their story, and they were not alone in struggling with this issue.
As an individual runner, sometimes we think that if we could only have that one more missing piece of data, we would get the performance gains that we are looking for. Actually maybe we already have too much data and that actually its our filtering, interpreting and managing of that data which needs to improve?
Injuries cost us.
If i had a dollar for every time i heard, “well, normally I start training and then i just get injured” I would be a very rich man. The cost of injury across sport is ridiculous. There was a slide put up showing that in major league baseball, the cost of injury was $700,000,000 PER YEAR!!! Thats one sport. In the NBA it was $350,000,000 p/year and in the Premier League it was $300,000,000 per year. Whilst these stats are unbelievable, they are only one side of the story. The other ‘cost’ to injury is when those teams lose championships because they can’t field their best players. Put simply, the less injuries, the more likely you were to win championships. Pull this into the world of running and the connotations are obvious…. Less injuries = more consistency = more growth = more ‘wins.’
Stress is at an all time high.
I have seen over the past couple of years, an increase in the number of people who run specifically for stress relief to keep anxiety in check. They are not chasing numbers or podium places, simply keeping healthy in their body AND mind. To me this is a good thing, but as with everything else in life, beware of the flip side. What happens when there is an over reliance on running for that balance in life?
Now imagine the professional players who grew up playing their sport at the local field and playing with their friends. No stress, no pressure, mostly fun. Now, as adults, the pressure, stress, expectation placed on them is far beyond anything they had imagined. Whether it's the financial cost of missing out on the football World Cup (Estimated to be worth over $1 billion to Italy’s economy) or the anxiety provoked by the media following them and scrutinising constantly, sport is no longer just sport and these are the new realities. As a result, there isn’t a professional team out there who doesn’t collect data on stresses, have a psychologist on call or a health and wellbeing component to their training.
Context and education is everything
I have to say, I didn’t expect to hear this message as loud and clear as it was delivered throughout the conference, as this is something that I talk about regularly with coaches and runners. For example, heart rate training is great but if you have been sick for a week, then your heart rate will be naturally high, so you have to take that context into account. This might be a simple example, but how many times do we ignore context??!! Have you been injured? If so, then you will know that the context shifts and you have to recover and build back slowly to your previous performance levels. Ignoring that context, is likely to result in another injury.
In the professional realm, with so much data available to clubs and individuals, there is a danger of taking some of these metrics out of context. The recognition of this has meant that education around these tools and the data that come from them has been stepped up. The general consensus seemed to be that there was a genuine danger of overwhelming athletes and creating solutions to problems that didn’t exist in the first place. Several presenters were encouraging the use of tools like heart rate monitors, power meters and ‘wearables’ to be conversation starters which ultimately should end up educating and empowering players to improve themselves and their performances.