Unexpected Attachment

Assalam,

Who would of thought that e-mail came all the way from India and offering me to be their supporting staff in fitting the PA roles. It was indeed a shocked and happy at the same time to been asked to play in that role. Well of course not a chance I am giving that up. It was the best platform for me to make my debut for an international analyst. Well I did follow them once in 2013 in Malaysia for the Asia Cup but that’s another story. This was something that I had to play it myself. Even so thanks to my “sifu” for introducing me to Neil, who is the India Hockey coach. Any how its been a privileged to have followed the team and a lot had been pick up and a lot more needed to prepared in the near future as an analyst.

More or less this trip had made me graded myself to where I stand as a future analyst. My studies and attachment in Cardiff Met surely have taught me few bits and pieces in being an effective analyst. To define effective is not easy, it can be define in many ways, it has to fit a big spectrum and of course being consistent.  What we learnt does not necessarily mean it can be effective until it has been tested. So I considered the trip as a test of how much I have learnt and how effective I can be for the team.

Hence, considering what I had with me were still not good enough. There are things that I had to learn along the way, as some of the things were definitely new to me. Observing was my key weapon in gaining any information. Identifying and formulating ideas I managed to catch had given me some information to do what I needed. Luckily, field hockey has always been a fan of statistics and video feedback. So a lot of the analysts are well experienced, some of them had been in the role for more then 5 years. This has given me a spot where I can learn from what they are doing. To be honest observing has been the most contribution of how I learn myself. Even so, without understanding the whole picture, observing it self would not have much effect.

"always expect the unexpected"

Data @ Dashboard

As a performance analyst we don't just provide video and statistics. obviously there is a larger roles in what we do. One of these is how we can present our analysis. It’s a process of designing a feedback method so that it is understandable for both coaches and players. Questions that i think we need to ask ourselves is, how can we help to make information less boring and more effective in decision making and learning.

The data that I have collected might not be as meaningful as I think, until I have reorganized and shaped the data to look more meaningful. As to this, one of the ways that we as analyst answer this is by designing a so called “Dashboard”. I am sure to some this word is not new and it has been explained and talked by other analyst blogged as the popular way to provide feedback. Well to me for now it is becoming one of the best ways to visually attract the audience which in this case is the coach and players. Looking at the trend nowadays, through my reading and observation, I feel that this solution provides the answer for that meaningful data representation. 

According to the research in data visualization the reason to present in dashboard presentation is that it shows all the important data in a compact representation. This gives coaches less time to analyze but effective.

The diagram you see below is how I started from tables and numbers to a version of my dashboard for Cardiff Met Ladies 1st Team. The diagram is placed from the start of my dashboard to how visually I came to changed it to become more meaningful to the coaches and players.  


-1st Phase

This was done using the code window in Sportscode. A simple presentation of the data where I had used the statistical window to produced this output sheet. Basically it shows the individual score, individual total and total performance indicators. 

    Individual Scores

                                    

Individual Zone Entry

Schematic diagram of the field hockey pitch

The above table is a description of the field that is refer to the hockey pitch, otherwise it looks meaningless. The objective of this data information is to have a view statistically to where the possession is being played most.  

- 2nd Phase

From the table it is transform into this dashboard that holds the information that segregate from frequency to bar graph to total in pie charts. This gives a clear visual of how the individuals and teams are performing. These are the few things that I have managed to start with and indeed there is a lot more room for improvements.

Turnover Dashboard

Pass Dashboard

Second Phase

Assalam,

Hi all,

Hope all is well, it took me a while to draft this and finally post it, the last post was my first meet up with the coach. We had our second meeting on what will be the start for the first game. We start to drew and making diagrams on what should we start to look for in a match. Brainstorming do help a lot in explaining what and how. Coach was interested in having both team and individual analysis of his players. so we start listing down on what can we do with individual analysis. so, the listing of what we can do just keeps on popping out until we reach to some sort of idea for the initial start.

Turnover

- mid trap
- contact (getting tackled) 

Opp turnover (win possession) 
- tackle
- intercept
- pressure (forcing mistake) 

Outcomes 
- 25 entry
- D entry
- shot
- goal
- PC
- free hit (dotted line) 

Structural categories
- sideline (where? 25s) 
- 16
- long corner 
- free hit dotted line 

I was happy to make a kick start with what the coach wanted and made a start in developing the system.

“Success is not just winning, but the journey to success that counts.”

    

Team Attachment

Assalam,

Hi all,

It has been almost 7 month my involvement in the Masters program in Cardiff Met. Although this post was meant to be 6 month ago as now I am half way through my course. Even so, this post is intended to recap of my first meet up session with CardiffMet 1st team Hockey Ladies coach Luke Hawker and Toby Nichols. Before that, as part of my course in Msc, I am to attached with any of the sports club as the analyst. Which in this case i have chosen to join the CardiffMet Hockey team.

It was a short meet up just to brief in on how the analysis will be carried out. Although it is a work in progress and it is about getting started. Questions on how and why is chucked in to formulate some kind of idea that can assist the coaches in delivering their feedback. We came to agree that both ideas from the coaches and analyst are needed to compliment the outcome of the analysis. Which personally i believe that the outcome of the result will be even stronger. As to the objective of this course is to create the role of analyst working together with coaches providing effective information to support the coaches and players rather then just providing stats and videos.

The understanding we developed got us started in the right foot. Hopefully the end result will too.

“good feedback derived from good information and can produce great results.”