Interview with Matthew Egan, First Team Analyst at Bath Rugby

Matt Egan is a First Team Performance Analyst at Bath Rugby focusing on Attack and Backs. He previously worked for the England RFU and Leicester Tigers. Matt tells us about his experiences and what it is like to be an analyst at Bath Rugby.

Tell us about your background. What made you want to become a Performance Analyst?

I am from Northamptonshire, a small town called Corby. I went to Loughborough University and ended up doing a Sport Science degree there. When I was at Loughborough, the university had a mentorship programme at Leicester Tigers, so for my Performance Analysis module I would go work at Leicester Tigers with Simon Barbour, who was my first boss. He was unbelievable, one of the top in Performance Analysis in Rugby Union.

I was working a Leicester Tigers throughout my final year of university. Obviously, I would learn the theory at uni and then go do the hands-on experience at Leicester. The way Leicester works is that, when you are an intern, you can also go and work for Nottingham as well. I would work at Leicester Tigers under Simon and some other analysts, and then also when there was a game at Nottingham I would do that by myself. It was really good learning.

After university, I decided to go travelling. I went to New Zealand to play rugby out there for the season. I loved it. Then, while I was in New Zealand, Simon contacted me about a job that came up with England. It was through Insight Analysis, formerly PGIR when I first joined. The job came up with PGIR, did the interview on Zoom from New Zealand and then got the job. I had to come back to England in two weeks time, which meant my travelling was cut short, but it was too good of an opportunity to refuse. There are not that many times an opportunity like that comes up, especially in a professional environment.

At England I was working directly with Mike Hughes and Duncan Locke, the two England Senior Analysts at the time. They were my bosses and I worked directly with them. I also worked with Kate Burke, who is also in the RFU, and Austin Fuller, who is now at Hudl. They were the senior characters in the environment at PGIR at the time. I started doing all the individual coding for the English Premiership squads each week. I also filmed and coded the Championship. I did the Bedford Blues and loved it there. The coaches there are unbelievable, really good guys.

After working on that for a while and as I progressed, Mike and Locke kept introducing me more and more into the senior work. After a couple of months, I was there in camp doing all the Six Nations, Autumns and Summers. I became heavily involved. I was also in the 2015 World Cup, which started off as a highlight but did not end as a highlight (England did not reach the knockout stage). After that World Cup, Eddie came in and there was some change in personnel. Locke left so I then stepped up and went to the Australia 2016 tour with Mike. It was an unbelievable experience.

As I was in Australia, the Bath Rugby job came up. Speaking to Mike, it was very much that he was not going to be leaving England anytime soon, so for me to get more experience the idea was to go elsewhere and work at a club for however many years and then potentially return back to England. I joined Bath Rugby and worked with Dan Cooper, the Head of Performance Analysis at Bath Rugby and who had previously done the England 7s and the Olympics. I also work with Matt Watkins who has been there at Bath pretty much all his career. The two are very good analysts. Both have different traits and are very good people to work with.

What does a typical day as a Performance Analyst at Bath Rugby look like?

As a First Team Analyst at Bath Rugby I specialise in attack. Since there are three of us within the first team, we would split the game up. I look into attack with the attack coaches Girvan Dempsey and Ryan Davis, Dan Cooper will do defense with Neal Hatley, and Watkins will do set pieces (lineout and scrums) with Luke Charteris and Mark Lilley.

A day at Bath Rugby usually starts with an early morning meeting, which can be as early as 7am. We are in for the first meeting at 7am to review the training session from the prior day or the game, depending on the day that we come in. We start off with that and then we start looking at how we can review it back with the players, whether that is through a meeting with the coaches or straight onto the pitch to do walkthroughs. After that, we start designing the training for the day. We go through the training, looking at what outcomes we want to get from the session. We then just look through the list of players to see who is available and who is not. My role within that meeting is usually to provide some stats and some visuals, some sort of evidence-based opinion of how the training was and to back it up with what we try to get from that session to see if we achieved our goals. We tend to look at things against our principles. Any aspects of our game that we monitor regularly to check whether we are still developing in those areas. After that part of the meeting is done, I just make sure that I connect up with the coaches or whoever is in the meeting to make sure that we have clips available on the points that we want to get across to the players and to understand what the plan for training is, what filming requirements will be needed and what we are looking to review post training. The meeting starts at 7am and usually is done by 8am or 8:30am.

Once the first meeting is done, we have a moment to get coffee and a little bite to eat. Then usually we have back units training in the morning, which can start at 9am or 10am. That is the first meeting out on the pitch with a big screen to go through clips with the players. I normally just run the laptops while the coaches speak through the clips and direct me through it. Then we go straight into some back units training, where I would film and clip it up afterwards to send it to the other analysts to have a quick review with the coaches and see if there is anything that we need to pick up with the players before the team session in the afternoon.

Once backs units training is done we start planning for the team session. We start thinking about what we are going to need for filming and so on. At the moment with Covid-19, we are not in contact as much with people, so we have to start planning and start identifying what we are going to need beforehand. Also, our pitch at Bath Rugby is not great so we are actually training in a different facility. We start in the morning at our usual base and then have to travel in the afternoon somewhere else for our team session with all the equipment, making sure it is all running. You’ve also got to be prepared for any weather, since you can see, like lately, that it can be sunny in the morning and then start hailing in the afternoon. Your car is usually full since we pack a lot of stuff.

We usually have a couple of hours between sessions. Team training could be at 1pm or 2pm. Within those hours, the big thing for me is to start trying to get ahead of what I need to do. I start looking at the opposition for the week after. If there are any trends in the last couple of games, I get that across the coaches and any of our leaders within the team that need to see them. There is a big emphasis in our club that analysts should not be looked at just as coding monkeys. Analysts have to be present and they get asked questions, making sure we engage with the players, go around chatting with them, not just about rugby but also to get to know them. That is a big emphasis at the club, which makes the rugby chat with the players a lot easier later on.

Bath Rugby is a really good club in that way. You hear stories from players that come to our club and we ask them about an analyst at the club they have just come from and they say “oh, spoke three words to him in 4 years”. For us, as a group of analysts, we are actually really sociable with the players. We make sure we connect with them, get in and around them and we can go through clips with them with honesty. Players then open up to us. If there is anything they don’t see or agree with they would open up and they would trust us quite a lot to pass on that information or not. Those couple of hours in between sessions are good in that sense, to make sure you are not just sitting behind your computer but getting to know the players.

For the team session, we get down there with all our equipment and just film it. Then we clip it up, get it online using Hudl for everyone at the club to see, and send it out to the coaches to start the review process. Then it is Groundhog Day again, the next day is the same.

We are always looking directly at the next game. As an analyst, we’ve got to make sure we don’t get distracted too much with other games. You’ve got to make sure that you are still engaged in the week ahead. This weekend for instance, we are playing Newcastle, so I need to look at the game plan for Newcastle and see how it matches to our principles. That is what I’d be reviewing in each session during that week. In-between that, I may get down at looking at the following fixture against Worcester and making sure I’m taking on that end because we might review them at the end of the week. But I need to make sure I’m ready for that without disregarding the game against Newcastle this week.

What is the main highlight of your Performance Analysis career so far?

My two highlights involve England. The first one is the 2016 tour in Australia. It was the first time the England team went to Australia and won 3-0. It was an unbelievable experience doing something you love while being there and it being a success. It was unbelievable being involved in the games and being trusted with live feeding information to the coaches. We were looking at work-rate of certain players, so I was coding it live, feeding it live to the coaches and then substitutions were made on that data. It was an eye-opener and a really good feeling. You can really have a real impact depending on the coaching squad you work with. I’m not saying that whatever I did could have changed the game for the better, it all depends on how responsive and how much your coaching groups trusts you and how much they look at the right things. But you can actually really have a real impact as an analyst and for me that was one of those occasions.

My other highlight was the 2019 England vs Barbarians match. I got invited back to do the match for England. The thing I loved the most about that experience was meeting so many different people. It was a really good highlight being back in camp and everybody there just wanted to enjoy it. It was just a really good week meeting new coaches and new players, something you don’t really ever get to do because once you are in a club, you are in a closed club environment. It was really nice and refreshing to speak with different people, seeing different faces and ending up beating Barbarians at the end as well. From that experience, I’ve built some really good relationships. I am still in contact regularly with one of the coaches and a couple who I still speak to often. It is a nice highlight in a different way.

What are the most challenging aspects of being a Performance Analyst?

One of the most challenging aspects of the role is that when you first come into it, you are really hungry and fresh so you work every hour under the sun and do everything. But then, it is actually one of the most challenging things to pull back from that. You’ve got to be able to pull back from that starting pace, taking out the information that is not being used by coaches. You need to have those conversations with your coaches, making sure that as a squad you know exactly what you are looking for. In the worst case, you are going to spend 9 hours on a review and none of it is going to be used.

That is something I have definitely done, even had it at parts of this season. I was spending 3-4 hours reviewing something and ended up producing nothing that just watching the video wouldn’t have already told the coaches. It is really challenging to realise at the time and have that difficult conversation with the coaches. You just tell them that it takes you 4 hours to produce one single number that they use and ask them if that one number is that necessary or could we trim that time down so you could look into something more valuable. Thankfully, the coaches at Bath Rugby are actually really understanding of the timescale of analysis. Although, don’t get me wrong, when the pressure comes, the pressure comes and you get asked to do lots of different things regardless. But the coaches here do ask how long do things take and whether we use them. Sometimes, it is actually down to me to bring it up and I’ve still got to get better at it and bring up things that we produce that I’m not really sure that they get used. It’s a tough one because as an analyst there is a mix of things where you have that drive to make sure you are covering everything because everyone out there is looking for that golden nugget. But it is never out there. There is no winning formula, but we are still searching for it, so you end up digging into things probably far too deep.

The biggest thing is to make sure you take a step back and have a look at what you are working on. The thing that definitely helps is if your club, sport or coaches have a clear idea of how they want the game to look and how they expect it to be played. Then, you can really start narrowing down the areas to look at. But if you don’t have a clear goal and understanding of the principles or the framework, you end up just bouncing around week after week looking for something different each week and produce reports without knowing if the team got any better.

What are the most important skills to have as a Performance Analyst?

I would never underestimate the basics: being able to film, code and distribute information. You would never get told “that’s really good footage” or “that’s really good camera work”, but as soon as you do it wrong, you will get told. You never get told “that is really good coding”, but as soon as you do a mistake in your code, you get told. You always need to make sure you have your Performance Analysis basics right. If you have your basics right, everything else on top is just a bonus. At the moment, a lot of coaches as long as you give them the film and the code that they want they are able to use Hudl Sportscode to do their own little clips. As long as you can supply them with the basics, they are usually quite happy. Giving that extra 20-30% of your own individual skill on top of that is what makes you different from everybody else. But as soon as you don’t hit those basics, you are going to get told.

Another thing is building relationships. You have your technical skills on one side: making sure you know how to work a camera, capture video and, if it goes wrong, problem solve to make sure you always get the footage and work back from there. But on the other side, building those relationships with coaches, with the team, the players is important. You’ve really got to build that trust in the bank for when that one time when it does go wrong and you can’t fix it. Then, the coaches would be “actually, it’s the first time that he got something wrong in about 3 years”. It is going to happen, everyone makes mistakes, but building that relationship and trust can make that conversation more human and understanding.

How is data and analysis being used and perceived at Bath Rugby?

At Bath Rugby, particularly on attack analysis, we use analysis in two ways. We use data for check-ins, to see if we are hitting the targets that we want to hit against our principles each week. We look at metrics over a period of time and see whether they are dipping or getting better and then do work off that, always comparing it to our principles. Then we also have the visual and video side of things. There needs to be a really good blend between the two. If I’m looking at something, you cannot only use video because then you will never identify any sort of trend or pattern and you will never have any weight behind what you say, since you are just showing the instances happening in one game that may change in the next game. Whereas, if you make sure you have your principles right and you are tracking data against them, you can then attach video to it.

We also look at wider trends. We’ve always got an eye out on what is happening within our league and other leagues. We use larger datasets using Opta to do little check-ins with that data every so often. All three of us analysts are quite experienced and we can pick up on things in the game quickly. Between the three of us, one of us will pick up on something that they’ve noticed and then we’ll dig a little bit deeper into that using a larger dataset. Once we’ve identified it, we will start looking into the footage of that area.

What are the main tools and technologies used at Bath Rugby?

The obvious things like cameras and so on. We have a variety of cameras, the usual recording cameras and then we’ve also got some of the higher poles, small cameras with higher viewpoints. To be honest, those are probably one of the best things we’ve bought. They make it so much easier to film on whatever angle we want. We also use drones, GoPro and also try to capture some audio using some of the small USB audio devices.

In terms of software, we use Mac applications and Hudl Sportcode. We also use CoachPaint quite a lot. It is really good and looks very professional. We’ve got a few touchscreens, but with Covid-19 we cannot use them at the moment. They are very similar to Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher’s Monday Night Football where you would be able to get a few movies on there, add a few clips, get the coaches and a few of the players and then just ask them questions to get them to start drawing on the screen and start building their understanding of the game around that. They are really good and I look forward to start using them again soon.

When it comes to footage, within the league everyone uploads to Hudl. We just download the four camera angles off there, which makes it handy. If there are not there we just grab them off Opta. We use Opta's SuperScout to get the codes as well. Opta has done a really good job at being able to pull the data off their platform. We are able to pull out some stats and compare week on week against oppositions to see if there is something different. We then do our own individual analysis, coding on top of the Opta data to look into how we can apply our game against them.

How do you see the field of Performance Analysis evolving in the next few years?

In terms of technology, I see that with some sort of AI technology or similar you will be able to put the players and the coaches into game situations without them having the physical demands of playing the game and then see what decisions they make in different situations. Simulation devices like VR will allow you to just put the device on and be realistic enough that you really start feeling the heart rate go. You will be able to put players in pressure situations where they will have to make instant decisions in the moment. I believe that is where the future is heading.

I also feel that Performance Analysis is going to split into two areas. You are going to have the data side of things and then you are going to have coach-analysts on the other side. Data analysts or scientist are going to be doing all the trends and work on big datasets, looking at data from games everywhere in the world and producing insights from those. Whereas, the coach-analysts are going to be the coaches’ right-hand men to turn the data into common sense. They will be almost like a translators, since it doesn’t matter what figures you pull out, if nobody understands them they are not going to have any impact.

Coaches are actually becoming more proficient with tech. You see some of the older coaches now come in and when they don’t know how to use Hudl they soon feel embarrassed. All the younger coaches that have come through the academy are all proficient with Hudl Sportscode. They all know what they are doing. They pull up organisers, they do the drawing on them, they’ll have their meetings sorted with all their clips ready. Some of the older coaches at times ask about how to do things in Sportscode. It’s really good to see. It is modern-day coaching and as a coach you need to be able to do that now.

What advice would you give to someone looking to become a Performance Analyst?

The advice I’d give someone looking to start is to jump in and get involved. Start getting the basics right. The sooner you can start getting the basics the better. The domain knowledge of the sport is not crucial. To work in rugby as a Performance Analyst, you don’t need to go into it as a rugby expert. You can go into it as a rugby novice and just have basic understanding of the game, but if you can do the basics of analysis (filming, capturing, coding, work to the timeframes, work under pressure) you then learn the knowledge of the game as you do it. You need to make sure you understand that as a Performance Analyst you have to make sure you can film, capture, code and work long hours. If you can do that, then everything else you will pick up naturally.

Once you get the basics right, you need to start working on some emotional intelligence aspects. With coaches, egos get damaged quite a lot and sometimes you have to be there to pick them back up. At the end of the day, even though you are working as a team, the coaches are the ones who get fired if it’s not going well on the pitch, so they have immense pressure. You are there to support them. You need to make sure that you are there as a support mechanism for coaches. You need to challenge them in a supportive way. Ultimately, they are the face of it and the ones who take the brunt. As frustrating as it can be at times in a high-pressured environment, actually all the pressure is on the coach and we are there to support them.

That’d be my advice. Make sure you learn the basics and then start being able to understand the people by building that emotional intelligence and the relationships with the coaches. Emotions run high in professional sports. When they are high they are really high and when they are low they are really low. It jumps between those two states each week and is never stable.

Interview with Alex Scanlon, Men's Performance Analyst at The FA

Alex Scanlon is a Men’s Performance Analyst at The Football Association, where he has been working with development groups since 2017. Alex joined The FA as part of the 2016 initiative to invest in winning England teams by significantly expanding the technical groups that support the various squads. Prior to that, he was a Performance Analyst for Everton’s first team before spending three and a half years working across most age groups in West Bromwich Albion’s academy. Alex tells us about his pathway to become a Performance Analyst for England.

Tell us about your background. What made you want to become a Performance Analyst?

I never really played football recreationally or at a higher level growing up. Only at times, but I never played at a club standard. When I went to college I did play in a national college league, but even though I played often and enjoyed it, I was never that interested in or loved playing. I was always more interested in the other side of the game; the coaching side.

I took my first coaching session when I was 14 years old, when I was still in school. My dad was a primary school teacher and I helped him out a few times at first, then started helping him out more regularly. By the time I was 16 I had my first little under 7s group of players that I would coach every week. I started doing lots of coaching and really started to enjoy the coaching side of football.

I live in Liverpool, where there are two big clubs around. The recruitment of players at that young age is quite tight. Most people from these two clubs are after the same players all the time. Somehow, we managed to get a good group of young lads in our team. Everton asked us to scout for them, gave us a kit and said “if you get any good young players, can you send them to us?”. So I started doing that as well. I managed to get into Everton’s academy and did a bit of development-centered coaching there.

I left school at the start of six form. I hated academics at that age. I wanted a to be more practical, so I left school and went to college to do a Sports Performance course. It was ok. Then off the back of that, I went to Liverpool John Moores University where I did their Science & Football course. It was only there that I started to see the opportunities in football. I got my first role holding a camera and filming games through John Moores University, filming Premier League tournaments. In my final year of the three-year course, I did a part-time internship at Everton with their first team. I was lucky to get that role and do it alongside my third year of studies.

Every year, John Moores University places an intern at Everton’s first team through their programme. I was working with Steve Brown and Paul Graley, who is still at the club. It wasn’t really working at the frontline; it was more working in the background supporting databases and doing that sort of work. It was still within the team’s environment where you could listen to the conversations and see how Steve and Paul worked and got involved on match day. I was also able to travel with the under 18s. I got to travel to a couple Youth Cup games. It was a really good experience, although I think didn’t maximise it when I reflect back on it now. I didn’t get as much out of it as I probably should have. I didn’t put enough into it as I was also trying to do the third year at the university at the same time. Maybe I wish I had asked more questions, studied the work a lot more or reflect a little more about things when I was at Everton. But it was a really good experience at the same time, I took lots from it.

After Everton, an opportunity came to work at West Bromwich Albion via the person that had done that same role at Everton two year prior. They had managed to get a job at West Brom and they knew that the pathway I had been on through John Moores University could be trusted. They knew the type of person that Everton would employed and that John Moores University educates, so they trusted that pathway. The role at West Bromwich Albion was a full-time internship. I moved down there and was living on small wage.

West Brom are really good at moving people up. You start at the bottom and work your way up very quickly. They don’t tend to replace; they try to promote from within so that when someone leaves they bump up from inside the club. For the first 5 to 6 months, I started my weeks doing the under 9s on a Monday, then under 12s on a Tuesday and he under 17s during the day if they were out of school. Eventually, the under 18s analyst moved on and I was given the opportunity to move up quite quickly. I went from doing under 9s to the under 16s programmes, to then do the under 18s and then being the under 23s analysts quite quickly. For most of the 3 and a half years I was at West Brom, I was working with the under 23s team, which is a bit like the first team these days. It was a very good experience, different to Everton as I was in the frontline delivering every game to coaches and players. Another good thing about a club like West Brom is that you end up doing a little bit of everything. You can do some first team stuff, or you can do some support work with the under 18s if they need it. It is quite a small staffed club. I ended up doing a lot of work, which was great for a first full-time job to get that kind of experience and it gave me a good skillset.

After 3 and a half years at West Brom, an England role came up. I applied to it and was successful after the second interview. England were expanding at the time. In 2016, their technical director said that as part of a new strategy everything that looked after the football side (coaching, education, team operations, performance, etc.) was expanding massively with big investments into that area. Winning England teams was a big objective, and putting the structure and the staff around those teams was part of that expansion. As part of that initiative, I applied to the role at the FA and have been there since the start of 2017. The England teams’ development staff was expanding massively. Rather than England using 5 or 6 analysts who go on the road all the time with different teams, they now have an analyst with every age group who can really get down into the detail on that age group, as well as working in other projects.

I am now a Men’s Performance Analyst. I work primarily with the development teams, but the role evolves all the time. The last 12 months we have barely been away with the teams. The senior team have played a lot of games, so instead we’ve done a lot of background work for them. Previously, the first 2 to 3 years I was here, we were on the road with the teams quite a lot. That was our primary focus. I’ve done camps with the under 17s, under 18s, under 19s, under 20s and I also did the under 21s European Championship. I’ve also done lots of background and support work for the seniors. That’s what the resources that we have in our department now can afford to do. Even though we try to fix an analyst with an age group to try build relationships with the coaches, if the under 19s were at a final of a tournament, any analyst that is free because, let’s say, the under 18s haven’t got a camp, those analyst would focus on supporting the under 19s at that tournament. If the under 21s are on a tournament we would put the support that way instead, behind the analysts that are on the ground with that team and support them with opposition analysis, game reviews and all of that.

That’s my pathway. I was always interested in coaching and education to develop players rather than playing. The two main parts of my pathway are the work experience from college and university experience and then the coaching side of things.

What is your main highlight in your Performance Analysis career?

My main highlight is the first 12 months that I was at England. We had an unbelievably successful 12 months with the development groups. I was lucky enough to go to 3 of the 4 tournaments that we won. That year, the under 20s won the World Cup, the under 17s won the World Cup, the under 19s won the European Championship and we had a hybrid under 20s groups also won, and I managed to go to three of them. That was definitely an unbelievable year in terms of results and emotions. Professionally for me, it was also an eye opener. I developed a lot that year. I learned how to work differently and in an international setting. It was not only successful for the teams that I worked with but my development and experiences went through the roof.

You may look at international football and think that it has only got 10 games a year, but that year I did 3 major tournaments, about 27 games along the road for 200 days of the year. There was so much to learn from that year. I developed a lot mainly around the analysis process. Working in a club is a different kettle of fish. You’ve got your equipment at the club and you just take what you need to the game and then it comes back to the club. Whereas with England, we went to India for 5 weeks with the under 17s and we had to take everything that we might need with us. Logistically it was a big planning operation. We also were two analysts that went out to India so we had to plan how we would work together, how we would fit in the tech groups in the squad, how we would work every day, how we would provide information to the players, how we would get the players to think about what we would want them to think about, how we would get them to talk, etc.

At a club, you get stuck in the game cycle. You are constantly preparing for the next game. Whereas for India, we were able to plan 2 to 3 months in advance and get really into the detail of what we were going to do and how we were going to work. That level of detail that we went through was a massive eye opener for me. We were very well prepared and missed no training sessions. We were so ahead of the curve in terms of preparation that the next morning after the game we could watch our game back, we could feedback and talk to the players and coaches and we could then watch the next opposition very quickly, also because we had that support coming from back home. We were able to do matchday+1, so that next time we train with the players we were preparing and learning way ahead of schedule.

At West Brom, I was delivering stuff on a Thursday afternoon for a Saturday game, which when I look at it now, I think “how did that ever work? It is too late to deliver something”. England was a big jump in level for me. At West Brom, you work day to day, game to game, but you don’t get a chance to take a step back and think “are we doing the right thing? Is this the best way of doing things? Are we maximising what we’ve got?”. Whereas with England you definitely get that opportunity to reflect. You definitely have to prepare and make sure you are on it, because you will get tested. Operationally, England was another level.

The intensity with England peaks and drops a lot more compared to a club, where it is a bit more levelled. At a club, you have a more stable level of intensity and get by and have an impact game by game, week by week. However, the intensity during a tournament with England goes through the roof because you are still expected to deliver at a high level. The intensity is mad on camp, specially the turnaround. It is so important for us to be ready for the next game having learned and reviewed the previous game. You don’t get 6 or 7 days that you would get in a club. Instead you get 2 days in between games. If you win the semi-final you’ve got to prepare the final straightaway, on top of the travel to change venues and locations. We were flying across India in our travel days and had to think about how we maximise that travel time. The intensity at international level when it peaks, it really peaks.

What are the most challenging aspects of being a Performance Analyst?

For us with England we try to change the way analysts are viewed. We want to come away from just doing the clips, the codes and the filming to really have a real impact. That is not to say that analysts don’t have an impact, of course they do. We just wanted to shape our roles to come out of that traditional view of an analyst a little. When previously there were 5 or 6 analysts constantly going around the different age groups, we now want to have a real focus and build a technical group of staff that include coaches, analysts and performance coaches to really have an impact in each group. We don’t want to just provide information to coaches, we want to challenge them and give them more informed insights. We give them better information, and if they disagree with it, it is fine. If you disagree with them, it is also fine. With England there are no hierarchical considerations when it comes to analysis.

Getting that message across the line was the main challenge for us. We were trying to change the culture around analysis while changing the way it operates. We wanted coaches to be similar to what you see in Rugby, coaches that take a lot of ownership of their content, letting them study and teach them how to produce their own clips. Educating coaches on how we work and explaining how they could take some of that work themselves became a big part of our role. Getting the coaches buy in and getting the shift towards coaches taking a lot more ownership over the analysis-type of work has been the biggest challenge of our role up to now.

What are the most important skills as a Performance Analyst?

It is important to be good with key analysis technology, to be efficient with your work and to make sure you are having an impact with the level of detail that you are offering coaches and players. A massively important skill that could often get overlooked is being a good communicator. You have to be involved in the conversation and make sure you are able to judge a room and a set of coaches. It is important that you build those relationships with coaches where you can, so that you can challenge them and comfortably say “I disagree, I think there is a better way of doing this, I think this is more important for this next game as oppose to that”. You definitely need to build your credit by being good at your job. I don’t think you can get away from that. What takes you to the next level in Performance Analysis is that impact, the communication, the clarity, the detail and making sure you can get your point across in a concise way.

How is data and analysis being used and perceived today at The FA?

At The FA, we would try to get the coaches to do a lot of the subjective analysis, where they look through clips themselves without needing an analyst. Analysts would then bring objectivity to that meeting. We would bring the objective angle by bringing the data, whether we are coding it ourselves or bringing it from a third party. We may also provide subjective opinions too when we are trusted with that, but we would primarily want to provide that objectivity. That is the piece that we are responsible for in that setting. Coaches are responsible for the technical and tactical stuff, but we would provide our input by supporting or challenging their message with data.

Data is the biggest thing that is coming in sport. There is so much of it. The most important thing for an analyst is to be a translator of data. You need to be good at the software that looks at data, writing scripts or designing outputs. It is important that you can look at data and translate it into something meaningful. We are in a place where so much data is available that the real skill is to find the good bits from it, being able to find a pattern that you can trust and that has an impact on how you work and what you do.

In terms of how data is delivered to the coaches at The FA, it is really difficult to do it on the road but it is definitely in our processes. Even though we try to incorporate our data on the road, it’s one of those situations where it is really challenging to find the right time and the right way to do it. We try to do it subtly, for example, we try do it one-on-one with the coaches or players. We never really put up charts of data on the screen. We don’t dissect information in that way as a group. If there is a point to be made about something that will support or challenge a decision, then we would make it with either data or footage.

Data has more of an impact off-camp, when we can get into the numbers, study them and build analysis to tell a story with it. You don’t really have that time when you are on the road. When we do, we look for key indicators that we can trust and compare them with the metrics that we normally use and benchmark with. We have some Tableau outputs that we use to visualise data. We are able to use tools like that, but the challenge is finding the right time. You also don’t want to be a person that produces a graph and that’s it. You want to have an impact by providing more meat on the bone. We have way more impact with data when we are off-camp and we can do projects, study and do really good comparisons. However, we do have the tools to be able to use it on-camp if we want to have a very quick look on specific stats. That is the way we use it when on-camp.

In general, we tend to use more video than data. This is probably because it follows the flow of how we give feedback to players and what we show them. We are normally going to be showing them some video examples and talk about the game rather than get into the mud with the data with them. Having said that, data tools are there for us to use as analysts, and the coaches do listen to the data. They are receptive to it if they can see the value and is communicated well and it is translated into their language. That is why translation and communication is massive as an analyst. 

What are the main tools and technologies you use in you analysis?

At The FA we utilise Hudl. We use SportsCode and Hudl’s online platform to house and share video with players and coaches. We also have Hudl Replay for live video in the game. We utilise Hudl packages quite a lot. All the coaches have SportsCode licenses on their laptops as well as the analysts. We try to include SportsCode into coaching education courses and give coaches some licenses so that they can get on their laptops and use it as part of their development. We also use CoachPaint if we want to do illustrations, since it has various ways of doing them. We also collaborate online by sharing documents and game plans. We used to use Google to share documents online but have now moved on to Microsoft. We also use Tableau to manipulate and present data.

In terms of footage, as much as we can we try film ourselves so that we know we can trust our own footage. The level of support in international football is quite mixed. You have some teams that don’t have an analyst at all and just have someone filming the game for them for the day and that’s it. Then there are other nations that are similar to us and are heavily resourced. So as much as we can we try film ourselves. Although, UEFA do a really good job at trying to provide footage for the tournaments, same as FIFA, but it is not always reliable and you are not always playing in a UEFA or FIFA competition either. In the cases where we can’t film a game, we’ve got good relationships with some nations who we exchange footage with. We are really open to sharing because we’ve got nothing to hide in terms of footage. The good thing is that we get a wide angle from most of our opposition teams.

What does the future of Performance Analysis look like?

Data is the next big thing in Performance Analysis. There is lots of it at the minute but we only use a fraction of it. There are lots of companies and third parties that are doing very cool stuff. Some organisations code in-house like we do. The skills needed will be people who can refine it, study it and pick out useful information from it, as opposed to just collecting it and looking at it.

Finding useful information from the data is key. If you are not skilled at Python or R, there is still a place in the translation of the data and the presentation and delivery of it to coaches and players. The role of an analyst will need to evolve that way because a lot more coaches, especially the younger coaches that are coming through now and managers at the top level are all proficient on their laptops. Coaches don’t need an analyst just for the clips because they now can do that themselves. Analysts need to add value in a different way and data analysis is where I see it going towards.

What advice would you give to someone looking to get into Performance Analysis?

There are so many ways to get into Performance Analysis. There is not just one way of doing it and I don’t think there is a secret to it either. As much as you can, get out there. If you are at university, just offer yourself. You might have to do work free of charge just to get that experience at first. A lot of people have done that and will carry on doing that. It is how you make yourself stand out as a candidate for when you do look for your next job and get the opportunity.

There is nothing stopping you from watching football on TV and doing tactical reports. There is also nothing stopping you from getting hold of data, there is so much free data that is out there if you’ve got the skills to use it. Nothing stop you from getting hold of that data and doing some work with it. There are enough platforms to get data out there and there is a big community online, like Twitter. You’ve got to put your work out there and when the opportunity comes, take it and don’t look back.

The one thing that I’d take from my career so far is when I was very split of whether I moved down to Birmingham and work for West Brom or not. The money wasn’t great to live on but it was a good internship. I ended up doing it and that decision paid off in terms of the pathway that then followed because of that. You don’t get many opportunities so if you get one, take it.

Interview with Tom Johnson, First Team Analyst at Crystal Palace FC

Tom Johnson is currently the First Team Performance Analyst at Crystal Palace FC. He joined the club 4 years ago as the Head of Academy Performance Analysis, having previously been a Senior Academy Analyst at Derby County FC, where he started his career as an intern. Apart from being an analyst, he is also an under 13s coach. Tom tells us all about his journey in Performance Analysis and what it is like to work in a Premier League club.

Tell us about your background. What made you want to become a Performance Analyst?

It originally started when I was at college. I had finished school and always had an interest in football. I played recreationally but was never at that level to make it as a professional, which I had already realised when I was a child. But I always wanted to stay in football, I love watching football, love being part of football, so I decided to make the decision to study Sports Science and coach at a higher level other than just part taking.

When I was 16 or 17, I decided to enroll in a course at a local college, where I grew up in Essex, to study Sports Science and Coaching. In that time, I started coaching part-time at a grassroots club helping with the development centre in a local team Southend United. There I was getting some experience as a grassroots coach to try to learn the craft. I was then able to get into university. I enrolled in a course at Nottingham Trent University to study Coaching and Sports Science with a view to get down the coaching pathway. At this point, I had already completed my Level 1 and 2, which was the aim, and then to get my UEFA B as soon as possible.

It was whilst at uni that I was introduced to Performance Analysis. This was in about 2012 or 2013, when Performance Analysis wasn’t anything new back then. However, the publicity that it has nowadays, with the online community and how much more you hear about it now, wasn’t prevalent at the time. My first introduction to Performance Analysis was through a lecture at university, where a member of staff at Derby County talked about an opportunity that they had at their club to come in and learn and get some experience on Performance Analysis. The opportunity meant filming and analysing the academy games at the club. When the Derby County staff member spoke at the lecture about looking at football from a tactical side of things, working with coaches, working with players, it ticked the boxes in my head as that was the side of coaching I loved doing - speaking with players, talking about the game, etc - not so much on-field coaching but more like off-field coaching. I was intrigued about what it could be like so I applied to the internship. The word “internship” sometimes has negative connotations. It was more of a studentship really. It was part of my course as I was using the hours I was doing at Derby County to put towards my work-based learning.

Long story short, I gained 18 months experience from halfway through my 2nd year of university all the way through my third year. I was volunteering my time at the weekends, mainly Saturdays and Sundays. One day of the week I would also go along to the academy and learn the job. That is how it all started. At the end of my internship, I was in a really lucky position that after 18 months of volunteering, Derby’s academy went from Category 2 to Category 1, which actually meant that there was a position available in the analysis department in the academy to become full-time. I applied for the role and was able to get it.

So, really, my journey to become an analyst was pretty smooth. I was volunteering my time and showing my skills and ability on the job to eventually be able to get it. When I talk to people I say it is like an 18 month interview. The internship and the volunteering at Derby was all about meeting the coaches, getting that relationship with them, with the academy manager, with the analysis staff so that when it came to my interview I knew the guys interviewing me anyway, which was really fortunate.

How did your current role come about?

Essentially, I spent my first full-time role at Derby working with younger age groups. I had already being doing that as an intern, so the transition into start working with coaches in the foundation phase (9s to 12s year-olds) and the youth development phase (up to under 16s) was smooth. The actual analysis that was taking place at the time was quite broad. You worked across lots of age groups so you couldn’t really go into too much detail. You could go into detail but obviously not as much as you would go if you worked with just one team. It is about giving the players, especially younger players, an introduction into analysis and what it is like to watch yourself back. In academy football, they put a lot of pressure on young players to succeed, so hopefully through the use of analysis we were able to give them a football education outside of the football pitch. We had a day release program whereby the lads would come in and train in the morning but in-between sessions we would put on some analysis and hold educational sessions working on the development of individuals, getting them to set their own development tasks. That was mainly my role with under 16s age groups.

After 2 seasons, I moved up to work purely with under 18s age groups. This role is a little bit different because now you are working with an emphasis on the Saturday game, doing things like building up the opposition analysis. It looks a little more like what analysis is like in a first team level, but you still have a massive emphasis on developing the individual players. As much as you want to win games, the aim is to develop the individuals in the team to hopefully help them become professionals and play in the first team. I really enjoyed that role, working with some great coaches. For example, Justin Walker, who is now one of the first team coaches at Derby, and Rory Delap, who is also an ex-Premier League footballer. I worked with lots of them whilst they were starting or in the middle of their coaching journey. We were all on a similar position, they were developing their skills as coaches and I was developing my skills as an analyst.

We also had a really good analysis department at Derby working under Steve Doyle, who is now working for Rangers FC. At the time when I eventually moved on, we had a department of about 4 to 5 full-time members of staff alongside about 6 to 7 students who came in and supported the department. I was loving working with Derby County and loved the work we were doing. We worked very closely with the first team staff, so I learned a lot and was able to bounce ideas off them. It was a great environment to work in. We shared a big office so we could constantly ask questions and bounce ideas off each other.

However, it came to a point when I was looking to progress professionally in my role. I felt that at the time my boss at Derby was comfortable in his role so I couldn’t move up within the club, so I had to look elsewhere. I grew up in the south of England, in Essex, in and around London, and an opportunity came up to work at Crystal Palace as the Head of Academy Analysis. The role meant working with the under 23s age group while also working as the Head of Analysis for the academy. This meant having a more managerial role that looked after the full-time staff and students at the club. Also, at the time, Crystal Palace were a Category 2 academy, so they were below Derby in terms of academy level. But in terms of players that they had at their disposal, South London is a hotbed for talent. I didn’t really notice the difference with Derby. If anything, the players that we were developing and were coming through the system at the time were at a higher standard at Crystal Palace.

My move to Crystal Palace was 4 years ago now, at the start of 2017. During that time, I was able to build the department which at the start was just myself and another colleague as the only full-time analysts. Crystal Palace’s academy were also going through a big push to try to get to Category 1, and I already had that experience of transitioning from Category 2 to Category 1 at Derby, which meant I was able to use my experiences. Together with the other coaches and members of staff at the academy at Palace we had a really good working environment to really push the academy along.

During the two years I worked in the academy at Crystal Palace I worked with some really good coaches with the under 23s, some of them really experienced ex-players and coaches. For example, Dave Reddington, who I am working with now in the first team, or Richard Shaw, who is now working with Watford. It is really important as an analyst to work and bounce ideas off ex-players and current coaches because that is where you really develop as an analyst. You can learn so much out of a textbook, filming and watching games, but getting that experience when talking to coaches, what they are thinking of, you start gauging where they are at in terms of tactical side of things. It is always interesting to get their ideas and their views on things.

I worked on that role for 2 years and in that time was able to develop the department as well as my role with the under 23s. In terms of how I got into my current role, the first team analysts at the time Charlie Radmore got the opportunity to go work for West Ham so he transitioned from club to club. There was then an opportunity for me. My current boss Ben Stevens asked me to move up and work with the first team. I got a call from the Sporting Director and Ben and they said that they were looking to bring me up to promote within, so I grabbed it with both hands.

I suppose that the end goal at the start of my career was to work in a first team environment, to hopefully work in the Premier League, which I think is one of, if not the best league in the world, and use all my experiences in the last 5 to 6 years to analyse games in the Premier League. I’ve now been in this role for 2 years. It was a big step up for me in terms of the intensity of the work and the pressure that the first team environment brings. Even with the under 23s age group you are looking to develop individuals. No matter if you win, lose or draw in the game day you are still trying to look at the individual performance and the development of the players. But now when you lose or draw a game on a Saturday it means a lot compared to that. There is more focus on the team performance and what that brings.

That is a whistle-stop tour on where I am now. I suppose that when I speak to other people about it now it sounds like a smooth transition. I’ve been very fortunate to be in the position I am now, but without lots of hours of volunteering initially to get to that position where I am now it wouldn’t have been possible. As lucky as I’ve been to be at the right place at the right time, you need to take some risks. If you want to succeed in anything you need to take a bit of risk. My risk was to move to Crystal Palace out of the comfort of that role I had at Derby Country. I thought “ok, I’m going to do this”. I trusted myself to be able to do it and was lucky enough to succeed at it. 

What is the main highlight in your analyst career?

If you talk to a player or a coach they will always say that their main highlight is winning a trophy or a certain game that sticks out. For me, the highlight of my career is obtaining the job I’ve got today. It doesn’t happen overnight. Winning a game of football, or if you are lucky enough to win a league, cup or trophy is such a big thing and could definitely be a highlight, but it has so many different variables that go into it. For me, to be able to do the job I’m doing now is the highlight of my career.

I enjoy working with the elite coaches and players. I’ve come from first starting to work with players under 9 and under 10, and while that is enjoyable it seemed so far away from the top, a little detached. That’s not to say that those young players are not going to go on and be professional. So many of the young players I’ve worked with are now playing at a senior level, which is a massive highlight for any analyst or coach working in grassroots or even academy level. The highlight is seeing them 4 or 5 years on making their first team debut and playing in the Premier League. That was definitely the highlight of when I was working in academy football, seeing players flourish and develop. However, by no means I’m saying that I had a hand on what they’ve done, they’ve done it for themselves, but you feel part of the process. As an analyst, you are a small part of that process and it’s great to see these players flourish and kick on. It’s a holistic process and you can’t pin it down to one person that has made that player’s career possible, but I feel that as a whole you are part of that process.

At Derby County I was very lucky. In the current first team squad they’ve got probably 7 or 8 players that were in the under 15s, under 16s and under 18s at the time when I was there. They’ve had an amazing list over the last couple of years. They’ve really pushed lots of young players through. For example, Jayden Bogle and Max Lowe have gone on to play for Sheffield United. Derby currently has got Jason Knight who was also only 15 when he came over from Ireland when I first started working there. There is also Max Bird. Also young players like Kaide Gordon who has just left Derby and gone to Liverpool. It is a real big pool of players that Derby are pushing through, which is excellent to see. I speak to some of my ex-colleagues now and they are saying that the talent they had in across those age groups is second to none. It is great to see. You see all these players and remember watching them when they were 12 years old. That is probably the biggest highlight having worked with younger players.

At Crystal Palace now, I’ve been lucky that when I first joined the club Aaron Wan-Bissaka was already playing in the under 23s. He had just transitioned to start playing right back. When I joined 4 years ago they had just had a discussion that he had been a wider player, a winger, but that they should transition him to play right back. To be honest, I can’t say I had any impact at all, it was the coaches just before I arrived that made that move. Then for the first year working with the under 23s he was a great asset to have in that group. He was training with the first team most days and then the rest is history. He made his debut and never looked back and now he’s gone to Man Utd. Also, currently at Crystal Palace we’ve got Tyrick Mitchell who has come on to the first team at the end of last season / start of this year. He’s another full back who is doing very well. Similar story with Tyrick, he was on the under 18s when I first joined and it has been great to see his pathway come through.

These are players that when you work with them in a younger age group and you then see them come through you talk to them outside the game and see how they are getting on. No necessarily put a shoulder because the coaches and the rest of the staff do that, but you just have a conversation and see how they get on. I would say that the biggest aspect of the role having worked in the academy is seeing younger players come through, make their debuts and hopefully go on to have careers. There are plenty of other examples out there. I am currently working as a coach with the under 13s as well and we tell the players that the chances of you becoming a professional in the Premier League are so slim, but what we really are there for is to make these under 13s footballers, or whatever age group, better people outside of football. Hopefully we can do that. If they then get a career in the game that’s even better, but it’s making the person as much as making the footballer. It’s great to see that I’ve been part of so many success stories, and there are other success stories that have gone on to make it at other clubs, gone out on loan or maybe stepped out of academy football and play in non-league. I see those as much as a success as some of the top names I’ve mentioned before. 

What are the most challenging aspect of the role of an analyst?

Other analysts that I speak to and some good friends and ex-colleagues of mine who are now working in the Championship have ridiculous schedules of 46 games. For me, the biggest challenge I found from stepping from my previous role into this role working with the first team is the intensity of it. It’s almost like there are no days off. Not in terms of physical days off but almost that you are always watching, always focusing on the next game. One game is finished and you are onto the next one. The intensity can be quite stressful. You can’t have a day off or have a day when you are not on it because of the type of content that we are having to produce for the coaching staff and players, if you do you are going to get found out straightaway. For me, the most challenging aspect was that intensity and having to pretty much bring myself up to speed. To make sure to work and produce every single day and that the work is of certain acceptable standard that the coaching staff want.

I’ve been in my current role two years this month. I came into the role at the end of the 2018/19 season. There was a handover period with Charlie who later moved clubs but from the start of the 2019/20 season it became my first full season in the first team. I am always learning, that’s a given. You are always learning from other people. My colleague Rob Weaver has been working for the club for about 5 years, so when I first moved here I learned so much from him because he was so up to speed with the way coaches wanted to work. I think that is so important as an analyst. You almost have got to be their go-to person. They always come to you or you go to them. You have got to know what they are thinking before they are thinking it. Rob had all of that knowledge from the 3 years he had worked previously with the current staff before I joined the first team, so it was me bouncing off him and the coaches to get up to speed. I definitely feel I’ve progressed in the last two years, but there is no slowing down. You are constantly learning, taking different bits of information from them to develop yourself as a person and an analyst.

What are the most important skills for an analyst?

First and foremost is organisation. As an analyst you cannot do the job if you are disorganised. If you are not organised you can miss deadlines, and you can’t afford to do that unfortunately, it’s a simple as that. We are quite lucky in that in this job you know what you are working towards. You’ve got a game day, you know that the game is on a certain date, so you’ve got a timeframe to work towards. When you are playing every Saturday, the schedule can be quite simple. But when they chuck in a mid-week game, or when you’ve got the Christmas period, that always condenses the timeframe right down. Because of that, organisation is massive.

Communication in terms of speaking to people like the coaches and other colleagues is important. Constant communication, whether talking about the game or talking about the plan, is very important. I don’t think you could do the role if you are a poor communicator. You’ve got to get your ideas across. You’ve got to listen as well. Communicating is a big part of the role.

Finally, the ability to work under pressure. With the intensity of the role and the level of detail you are having to produce, the ability to work under pressure is massive at this level. Even with condensed schedules, expectations don’t change. We’ve just had the Christmas period and we’ve had the January fixtures as well. I am also hearing they are moving a fixture next week to compensate for the FA Cup. It doesn’t really slow down. Also, this year is unique in the sense that we missed a few weeks at the start of the season because of coronavirus. It’s a unique situation and because of that we’ve had so many games in such a short time. But the quality of the work cannot dip just because you’ve got two games in a week. It always has to be to the same standards.

What data and analysis do you use and how is it perceived at the club?

It is an interesting question because whoever you speak to will have so many different answers. Every single coaching staff and club have a different process in the way they perceive data and the way it is used in their processes each day. Currently, I’d say that my role, and it will likely stay like this, is video analyst. My colleagues and I work 90% of the time with video. That’s how the current staff want to work. They do not rely on the data, which is not to say we don’t use it. We currently use more video and really just back up what we are saying with the data. We won’t necessarily go to the data first and come up with our game plan or analysis off that. We would do the video side first and if there is any data that backs up what we are trying to say we would input it there.

That’s not to say we are neglecting it, we are very much in touch with what is going on with data analysis. At the club we have two Data Analysts that primarily work with the recruitment side of things. However, they also work alongside our team producing some of the data for the opposition reports we do. Any kind of bespoke analysis we need, whether is looking for a certain team and run some data on them that is outside of what we already collect on every team, then we would go to the Data Analysts for their expertise. At the moment, some of the algorithms and processes they use are way above my head but as an analyst I want to develop those skills over the next few years so that I can have a better understanding of how they get to their final conclusions. I understand the data once it’s given to us, but it’s the how they get there that is the interesting part for me.

In terms of how data is perceived at the club, like I mentioned, the current regime are heavily video based. You find that a lot of coaches and ex-players would always tend to gravitate towards video because that is what they know, it’s the game, it’s how it looks like. Some coaches you may hear them talk about data in the press conferences and in public, but our current regime is heavily video based. This suits the way Rob and I work at the minute, but if we had to use data more, if that come into our workflow, we are ready to incorporate it.

What are the main tools and technologies that you use in your analysis?

In terms of the technologies we use, Hudl SportsCode is my best friend. There is not a day that it is not open on my laptop. We are heavy users of the Hudl umbrella of companies. We use Hudl SportsCode, Hudl Replay as the technology on a match day when we send the stream down to the bench, and the Hudl online platform to share clips with the coaches and players. We heavily use Hudl platforms and systems every day.

The illustration tool that we use at the club is CoachPaint, which is a big part of our workflow. Once we have decided the clips that we want to show to coaches and players we then paint the story and put any kind of detail onto the clips with CoachPaint. Also on our day to day we use Keynote to produce presentations and dossiers because we work on Macbook applications to produce our work. We use Apple products to do that rather than PowerPoint and Word.

We also use other platforms to get our footage. We use DVMS, which is the sharing platform for the Premier League. The Premier League provides us with the footage of each game. Once you are a Premier League club you get access to every single game in the Premier League from 8 different angles. We also use Wyscout for video footage, mainly for anything outside the Premier League that we need to collect.

In terms of data, we also have access to Opta. We use their different platforms, like the query tool or the portal. We are able to get all our data that we need from Opta. Also, Scout7 is also used quite a lot as well, which is part of Opta. That is more for our scouting systems and to do reports on players or if we ever need to read up on players that we have not seen before. For example, a new signing from abroad. We use all of these different types of platforms to come up with the final product for coaches and the staff.

What does the future of Performance Analysis look like?

Analysis has come a long way from when I first started. For instance, things like SportsCode or the ability to have an iPad on the bench was unheard of before. You would always have to do stuff post-match and now so much analysis is done live. Where do I see it going? I definitely see that as a profession you will have a lot more coach-analysts. It is not something that is not out there already. In a lot of clubs you have coaches that are watching a lot more video and you’ve got coaches that are doing the analysis themselves. Coaching staff are coming with manager, assistant manager and first team coaches who are essentially analysts that also coach on the grass. I think there is definitely a shift in the role of the analyst.

Where I see the processes going? I suppose AI is being spoken about in terms of the coding process. There will be less emphasis on having to watch games and sit there picking through what things you are looking for. If you are looking for certain trends in the game you will be able to use the data and AI to do that for you. Still, I don’t know where I sit with that. Of course, having an analyst sitting there and watching the game is important. I will still go back to the eye and always want to watch it for myself, but we’ll see. Things have accelerated so much in the last 10 years, it’s been amazing. In 5 years time we might go back and think “remember what I was doing in 2021?”. I feel that’s constantly what we are doing. It’s exciting but it’s also difficult to keep up with technology at times. Keeping the finger on the pulse is difficult, but it will continue to develop as long as the game is being player at top level.

Another aspect is that when you go back 2 or 3 years you had Hudl, SportsCode and Nacsport, or other kinds of secondary platforms, but now you’ve got more and more technology companies trying to push different technologies and platforms to compete with these. It’s a good and healthy thing not to have companies monopolising the industry and the more options we have to go off the better.

What advice would you give to someone looking to get into Performance Analysis?

I’ve got many people asking me whether I’ve got any opportunities. It is difficult to get that first foot in the door, but there are also many things that as an aspiring analyst you can do to get into the industry. First and foremost, it is important to invest your time. That may be going out and volunteering at your local club. To become an analyst you don’t have to be working at a Premier League club, or even at a football league club in this country. You can go and work at your local grassroots team as an analyst. You also don’t need Hudl SportsCode to be an analyst. You can literally go back to basics and get a notepad and a pen out and stand at the side of the pitch and provide some sort of analysis. Now, obviously if you wanted to work at a club level and a professional level you are going to have to learn the technology at some point, but getting that kind of experience at grassroots or even academy level, if you have the opportunity at your local club, is invaluable.

I’ve also talked about communication and organisation skills. That’s where you learn that kind of thing, on the job, to then apply the experience later. Even though you might not be learning the technologies or intricacies of analysis, by working at a local club and with coaches, you are building the key foundations to become an analyst. Then, once you’ve got a foot on the door, say at a local academy side or with a college program that has funding and access to video cameras, you can start producing some video analysis.

I think it important to ask questions. You need to use your experience and your volunteering almost like a job interview. You use those to become full-time employed if that’s what you are aiming for, or part-time employed if that’s possible. Treat every experience you are doing as an opportunity to learn and develop yourself. For me, that is the most important advice. Not every opportunity you are going to get is going to be paid. See every opportunity like an internship, even if it’s not officially an internship or a studentship. Make some phone calls to your local grassroots club and say “can I come along with a camera?”. Nowadays, even an iPhone has the ability to film a game of football. You don’t need a top of the range camera. You probably just need an iPad or an iPhone if you’ve got one and start filming games and producing some sort of analysis to then build up from there.

I’ve been lucky enough to study at university. I did Coaching and Sports Science and then went on to do a Masters in Research in Performance Analysis. If I’m honest, I’d say you don’t need to be Masters degree educated to be an analyst. I know a lot of jobs say that they require an MSc or a BSc to do the role. I disagree with that in a way. They probably do it to vet the field of applicants. However, there are definitely examples of analysts out there that I know that haven’t had their education through university. They’ve come from a practical side of things, where they’ve been a coach and then gone on to become analysts. Don’t get me wrong, you probably need more experience to do it if you are not coming through university because university is where the opportunities open up to you, but don’t see it as a ‘be all or end all’.

Coaching certificates are also becoming more and more apparent. I am currently doing my UEFA B now. The reason I wanted to do that is that I have been coaching previously and I saw it as a bit of CPD for myself. I think they are definitely going down the route where analysts are going to be judged on their ability to deliver and coach off the field, so coaching badges can be important. Even by doing your Level 1 or Level 2 coaching badge that is definitely going to get you recognised within the football environment, as they can see you’ve got some sort of understanding of the game. Whereas if you have just done the academic route, people within football could question whether you have an understanding of the game. You might do and might be well educated in terms of football, but having both the academic and the coaching badges will always help.

Communication With Coaches As A Performance Analyst

Performance Analysts are responsible for producing quantitative information that allows coaches to quickly identify areas requiring attention. This information is primarily delivered through the provision of objective statistical and visual feedback. It involves the selection of video clips that coaches can use to engage in detailed discussions with players, identifying performance areas that need improvement and making training decisions. Video feedback technology has become a major resource as more coaches now rely on video highlights as a guide to enhance training of their players. The introduction of technology in these informative and constructive interactions in recent years has made the role of the performance analysis field a critical part in coach-athlete communication.

Unlike in other sport science disciplines, the role of a Performance Analyst is extremely ingrained in the coaching process. Analysts have become the technology translators between coaches and players. They aim to provide coaches and players with an immediate performance advantage through the delivery of accessible video feedback and targeted data reporting. Inevitably, the success of the coaching feedback process in developing athletes and improving team performance heavily depends on the communication between coaches and analysts. In order for such delivery to be successful, it is important to understand the way coaches and analysts interact as well as create and maintain working relationships.

Why Do Coaches Need Analysts?

Analysts provide coaches with objective quantitative and qualitative information to fill in the gaps left by the natural limitations of human cognition. Studies have shown that elite coaches can only recall an average of 59% of critical events in a match when assessing their team’s performance (Laird and Waters in 2008). On top of that, their judgement may also be influenced by bias triggered by emotions that influence the accuracy of their evaluations and affect the extrinsic feedback they provide to their players. Performance Analysts attempt to solve for these qualitative and subjective observations made by coaches by complementing them with additional feedback based on a more systematic and objective analysis in the form of videos, images, quantitative and qualitative findings.

How Do Analysts Deliver Information?

Technology developments over recent years have brought new ways for analysts to communicate key performance insights to coaches in more graphical and visually impactful forms. However, the method used to deliver such information may vary with the context of the situation and the style of the coach at the club. A coach may change their coaching and leadership style between training sessions and competitive matches, ranging from a more democratic, person-centered approach to a more authoritarian or autocratic one. This coaching style may also be influenced by the type of sport, gender, age and level of the athletes. An analyst should carefully judge the preferences and character of the coach and the context of the situation in order to decide when, where and how to deliver the information to the coach. The system used should also be dictated by the information needs of the coach. In competitive sporting environments, most communication takes place verbally. Therefore, coach-analyst interactions usually take place by briefing the coach or face-to-face discussions in which verbal communication skills are key.

Some examples of delivery methods employed by analysts include:

Quantitative information (frequency counts)

An analyst’s main objective is to gather as much intel by observing, recording and analysing different events that take place on the playing field. This may include pre-match insights through objective performance profiling that expose the strengths and weaknesses or players and oppositions. This quantitative information, such as match statistics, may be presented as tables, charts or diagrams of the playing field, showing the location of events, while clearly indicating how the team is playing and highlighting areas where performance can be improved.

Qualitative information (context through video)

Video analysis packages are created to provide detailed qualitative information to coaches, where they can interactively view video highlights on specific areas of interest. By providing videos to coaches, analysts ensure that the context lost from simple frequency counts can be recovered. With this additional context from the video replays, coaches can have a more in-depth evaluation of performance issues, understand why certain problems occurred and make adjustments to enhance future performance. During the delivery of these video highlights, analysts may want to point out specific features that they want coaches to notice to prevent overwhelming them with too much information and keep them focused on the most relevant points. Once a coach is able to gather enough information from both quantitative and qualitative information, they may want the analyst to produce a video package with a shortlist of selected clips to use in discussions with players.

When Do Analysts Deliver Information?

Pre-match

Data and video can be collated on opponents prior to facing them to highlight areas of strength and weakness and provide a comprehensive picture of what can be expected in upcoming matches. It enables coaches to formulate a strategy to counteract the opposition and exploit their weaknesses. Some analysts also analyse training sessions to assess the effectiveness of aspects of performance being tested in training and evaluate behavioural aspects that could influence team selection.

In-game

Performance analysts often code matches live, with statistical information and specific video instances shared between devices for review by coaches in real-time, and players at half-time. They generate continuous feedback for coaches to make timely changes during the course of the event. Video feeds and statistical data can be made immediately available in a coach’s iPad device or laptop, which is then reviewed by a coach prior to giving a half-time team talk. Alternatively, analysts may also go to the dressing room and show a coach clips and stats in person.

Post-match

Analysts often review team and individual performance in detail after the match has ended, allowing coaches to evaluate performance and plan future training. Post-match analysis feedback sessions play an integral role in the coaching process and analysts tend to be at the core of the information used in these sessions.

Fostering A Coach-Analyst Relationship

The most essential skill a Performance Analyst needs to have a successful performance impact in a team is their ability to be integrated within the coaching environment - to be the “right hand” of the coach. Analysts should focus on understanding the requirements for successful coaching practice and becomes an asset for the coach to succeed at their role. They should continuously seek opportunities to engage and connect with the head coach and the rest of the coaching staff. One of the most frequent opportunities to do so that are presented to analysts are during review sessions, where analysts sit down with coaches to discuss and assess the analysis together. It is then that analysts have a great opportunity to gain the trust of the coach and offer their own independent assessments to show their value. By gaining the coach’s trust, analysts are more likely to be consulted about team and player performance more regularly, thus obtaining further chances to demonstrate their value to the team and coaching staff. Trust can work in both ways, for the coach to know that the analyst is giving them relevant and valuable information but also for the analyst to know that the coach is going to understand and use that information in the correct way. It can also give the analyst a boost in confident to know that their coach considers them a competent and valuable member of staff. However, this trust can only be achieved by successfully fostering a positive working partnership with the coach through, amongst others, mutual respect, openness and honesty.

One of the first steps an analyst starting in a new team should aim to do during the building phase of the relationship with the coach is to clearly understand what the expectations of working practice and hierarchies are at their new club. By establishing an early understanding of the coaches’ methods and cementing the status of the relationship, the analyst can adapt their work to suit the preferences of the manager and start delivering positive results and gaining trust. Only when that trusting relationship has been established is the analyst able to adequately offer improvement to processes, such as tactical suggestions or offer new ideas for ways a coach could engage with their players. However, while there is sometimes room for negotiations around the design of analytical processes and defining the measures of successful performance, the common perception within most coach-analyst relationships is that the analyst is often limited to purely collecting the information as directed by the coach. This is especially the case with experienced coaches, who know what they want and how they want it, leaving analysts little room to deviate from the direct instructions on how analysis should be performed and delivered at the club.

Authoritarian coaches

A coach’s leadership position in the club’s hierarchy provide him or her with recognised power over their subordinates. They are perceived as experts thanks to their experience and knowledge, their status of role models awards them with referent power towards their players and staff, and their social status within the club is elevated providing them with legitimate power to reward or discipline others’ behaviours based on conformity or outcomes.

Unfortunately, in situations where coaches exert an authoritarian leadership style, an analyst’s expertise may be overshadowed by the legitimate power of the coach. The analyst’s scope is therefore reduced to carefully listening to requests and producing exactly what the coaches want. Often, these authoritarian coaches impose high workload levels and demand numerous resources from the analyst to support their needs when making reliable technical and tactical appraisals of performance. The domineering power exerted by these coaches over their athletes and backroom staff can truly shape the nature of their working relationships, including those with analysts. Analysts may feel that new ideas are at risk of falling on deaf ears or being shot down if the right relationship has not been reached with the head coach.

It is important that the analyst acknowledges the working environment in front them and learns to navigate the politics involved in succeeding in an elite sport environment. For instance, studies have shown that coaches often place significant importance to social interactions with other members of their backroom staff as they perceive them as a mechanism to maintain and control the balance of their status of power. This is why social gatherings, even when portrayed as non-work related, are often compulsory events for analysts to attend. Not only end of season awards or team meals during away travel but also get togethers or socials may often be considered obligatory socialising for an analyst. These situations often present opportunities for analysts to interact with coaches outside of the pressures of the competitive environment. A game of pool, a football kickabout or a round of golf removes everyone from the daily working environment and puts them in a relaxed situation in which social interactions can help build a more co-operative relationship between analysts, coaches and the wide backroom staff members. Even when at work, analysts should sit at the coaches table at lunch, be there for team meetings, and involve themselves where they can.

Managing conflict

A great challenge for analysts is to be able to effectively manage this coach-dominated relationship. However, the reality is that, due to factors like job insecurity, most analysts feel that the way to gain respect and trust from the coach is to offer their unconditional support to the coach, as they ultimately hold a position of maximum authority. They perceive success as their ability to anticipate a coach’s needs before being asked, proactively seeking new ways to understand the team’s performance.

Analysts are highly dependable on the relationship with their coach. Establishing a connection early on may be critical in dictating whether the coach would want the analyst to continue in the team, even before the analyst has had a chance to demonstrate his or her skills. In some cases, personality clashes with coaches may be decisive in the analyst’s future. This is why establishing and maintaining a positive relationship with coaches should be one of analysts’ top priorities. Whether there is true appreciation and respect towards the coaches and their decisions, or whether the analyst is struggling to find motivation when in a difficult working environment, being respectful at all times is key to survival in a dynamic, competitive and pressured industry. Similar to what happens with athletes, any conflicts against the coaches could jeopardise an analyst’s future career within elite sport. For instance, conflict may occur if an analyst continuously fails to meet a coach’s expectations. Even when pressure rises, analyst should be able to remain calm under this pressure and not let emotions interfere in their communication with coaches.

Unfortunately, since the hierarchical coach-analyst relationship is dictated by the coach, analysts will often see themselves on the losing end when challenging a coach, even when the coach is in the wrong. For these reasons, conflict management, both proactive and reactive, together with openness, positivity and motivation, become crucial elements in maintaining a positive working relationship between analysts and coaches. Any concerns or issues from analysts should be raised and communicated in the right way, at the appropriate time and providing adequate solutions.

Approachability and getting to know the individuals

Moreover, building strong working relationships with other cooperative and supportive colleagues can be extremely beneficial to analysts. An analyst should be able to navigate the micro-politics prevalent within high performance teams by establishing himself or herself as the expert in their field and within their remit of work by producing high quality work in a timely manner that contributes to a harmonious working environment. An analyst’s role is not limited to helping the team perform on the pitch but he or she should aim to help everyone in the club be better at their respective roles by leveraging their analytical expertise and enthusiasm in the sport to provide them with useful and valuable insights. They also need to be approachable to allow them to really engage with their coaches and peers and get to know them well at an individual level. Getting to know the coaches as individuals can make the analyst more sensitive to the ways in which each coach likes to be approached and given key information.

Analysts should be able to listen effectively and adapt their communication style not only to fit coaches but also with the wider backroom team and players. They should listen twice as much as they talk to be able to clearly understand and translate coach directions into numbers or quantifiable information. They should know when they have the coach’s full attention and if so, explain themselves in an easily understood manner, ensuring that the coach has understood, believed and accepted what the analyst is trying to communicate to them. Coaches are busy people. Therefore, analysts should be mindful of a coach’s time by being concise, clear, constructive and complete in their communication. Coaches do not always have time to drill down into the data, so it is important that they are presented with key insights that give a good indication of player performance in training and matches. Moreover, analysts tend to not have played the sport professionally before, therefore their opinions should always be backed up with evidence.

Motivation

Performance Analysts operate in a highly pressured and competitive industry. To succeed in such environments, motivation plays a key part in ensuring that the analyst is continuously giving 100% to their team and coaches. They are expected to be willing to go the extra mile to meet their coaches’ needs and expectations. This usually translates into not working set times but instead working unsociable hours around the schedule of the team, the coaches and the competition. For instance, analysts will frequently need to work long hours into the night to produce match reports of last night’s game. This setup requires analysts to have a strong sense of commitment to the overall team performance that motivates them to produce valuable information for coaches regardless of the costs in workload.

An analyst needs to be pushing their own boundaries and those of their coaches beyond the current knowledge. Coaches will not ask for something that they did not know could be done, it is for analysts to be motivated enough to continuously come up with innovative solutions to deliver performance insights. However, at the same time, analysts may be heavily dependent on the coach’s ability to clearly articulate and operationalise what they associate with success in the sport. This tricky situation may become a cause for frustration amongst analysts. It may happen that an analyst is asked to produce reports that never get used or materials for a meeting that never happens. Even in these situations when the analyst is sure that the work will be redundant, an analyst should be aiming to deliver on the work expected, as the risks of the work eventually being required but unavailable to coaches may seriously damage their relationship with the coach. Moreover, they need to be prepared for all eventualities. Coaches do not understand and do not want to understand why something is not working or why it may take so long. Analysts need to prepare for failure – both in equipment and analysis – and be prepared for last minute requests at all times.

Motivation is easier to find when there is a mutually respectful relationship with the coach. There needs to be a sense of ‘togetherness’ in the working environment that makes all members want to work towards a common goal. Good coaches foster these environments by making analysts want to work for them. They empower their backroom staff through willingness to listen to their inputs. However, analysts should reciprocate the coach’s willingness to listen to their inputs, as well as their respect and trust, by meeting their high standards through hard work, good time-keeping and good quality of work produced. They should always be meeting the specified deadlines at the highest possible quality of work. A hard-working ethos, underpinned by honesty and being approachable, leads to the desired productive coach-analyst relationships. Portraying motivation to coaches and other colleagues can lead to more supportive relationships in the whole. On the other hand, failing to meet deadlines will inevitably lead to losing the trust and respect from the coaches. Coaches may then begin to rely less on the analyst for decision-making and ignore their work and value.

Future opportunities

The relationship between the analyst and coach is so important that coaches would attempt to recruit analysts that they have worked with in previous roles when they gain new employment. This networking aspect to an analyst’s role expands beyond their current role. Maintaining previous relationships with past coaches can be beneficial to their long-term career. Future opportunities may arise where the analyst may be directly contacted by a former coach to join them in a new venture. This can become an extremely motivating experience and provide the analyst with greater job satisfaction and feeling that they are valued.

Citations:

• Bateman, M., & Jones, G. W. (2019). Strategies for maintaining the coach-analyst relationship within professional football utilising the COMPASS Model: The Performance Analyst’s perspective. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2064.

• BBC (2020) Performance feedback in sport. BBC. Link to article.

• English Institute of Sport (2020) Why is there a Performance Analysis team at the EIS? Link to article.

• Future Active (2020) How to become a Sport Analyst. Future Active. Link to article.

• Haines, M. (2013). The role of performance analysis within the coaching process. Mike Haines Performance Analyst. Link to article.

• McGarry, T., O'Donoghue, P., Sampaio, J., & de Eira Sampaio, A. J. (Eds.). (2013). Routledge handbook of sports performance analysis. Routledge.

• Sprongo (2020) The many benefits of video analysis. Sprongo. Link to article.

Working in Performance Analysis: Roles, Skills and Responsibilities

Types Of Roles In Performance Analysis

Depending on the size and organisational structure of the sporting club or institution, the range of responsibilities and job title of a Performance Analyst may vary significantly. Most Performance Analysis roles, particularly in smaller teams or lower divisions, continue to encompass a generic list of responsibilities across the different areas that make up the discipline, from handling filming equipment to performing data analytics and managing databases. These roles, usually titled Performance Analyst, often provide the analyst with a great level of autonomy by relying on them to effectively manage all processes, equipment and communication related to the analysis of performance within team. In these roles, often supervised by senior peers or team leads, the Performance Analyst is responsible for successfully executing the existing filming, data collection and analysis delivery processes already in place at the club but also for helping to shape and improve the practices of the team in respect to the analysis of team and player performance.

In elite sporting institutions of medium to large size, Performance Analysis departments are considerably more established within the structure of the backroom staff than in lower-tier clubs. These Performance Analysis departments may be composed of a larger number of analysts, with each analyst’s role and responsibilities focused on a particular team or area of the club as the wider responsibilities of the Performance Analysis department are more clearly divided amongst its staff members. In these organisations, Performance Analysts may be given more specific job titles to reflect the team or area they support, such as Academy/Development Performance Analyst, Women’s Performance Analyst or First Team Performance Analyst. The level of experience in the role, club or field may also define an analyst’s title, ranging from Performance Analysis Intern, to Performance Analyst, to Senior Performance Analyst. Furthermore, these wider Performance Analysis teams are often overseen by a Head of Performance Analysis or a Lead Performance Analyst that defines the strategy to follow by the team and ensures consistency of practices and transfer of knowledge across all analysts.

Top-tier elite clubs, such as leading Premier League football clubs, benefit from much larger analysis departments, where the responsibilities of a Performance Analyst are often sub-divided into further specialised roles, such as Data Scientist, Recruitment Analyst, Opposition Analyst or Match Analyst. As technology and the reliance of data analysis to clubs’ success has grown over the years, the function of Performance Analysis has dramatically grown in size and importance within top-tier clubs, who increasingly want to achieve more through data to obtain a competitive edge over rivals. This phenomenon has given rise to a number of specialised roles focusing on narrower elements of the analytical process of a team’s or player’s performance. As technologies and analysis processes become more complex, the range of skills and responsibilities of a Performance Analyst is increasingly becoming more convoluted and varied. Different specialised roles may require different experiences and may place different emphasis on some skills over others, whether those are highly technical skills (i.e. programming languages like Python or R), knowledge in the sport (i.e. coaching certificates) and/or filming and video editing experience.

Responsibilities As A Performance Analyst

As mentioned in the previous section, the responsibilities of a Performance Analyst may vary between club to club, team to team and role to role. However, ultimately, all roles of a Performance Analyst share the common goal of providing objective feedback to coaches and players on performance. Therefore, there is a shared set of responsibilities present in most Performance Analysis roles that represent the core nature of the field of work. These include:

Filming:

Filming team training and home and away matches is a key responsibility of most Performance Analyst roles. This involves the handling of camcorders, tripods, SD cards and other necessary filming equipment and software while ensuring its maintenance to a high working standard. In some clubs and competitions, matches are recorded by TV camera operations and footage is sent to the respective Performance Analysis teams. However, clubs may require Performance Analysts to film additional angles or film during matches that are not broadcasted in order to obtain the footage for later analysis. When footage is obtained by Performance Analysts, certain competitions follow footage exchange rules amongst teams to ensure the same video material is available for both the home and away team.

Data collection:

Video-analysis software is core to Performance Analysis. A Performance Analyst is required to use tools such as Sportscode, Dartfish or Nacsport to record key performance indicators (KPIs) and collate event data from training and match footage. They are responsible for developing new techniques, protocols and systems to gather event data on relevant actions that take place on the pitch. The collection of such data allows Performance Analysts to produce statistical and video-based feedback to be shared with the coaching staff and the wider department. Analysts are also responsible for managing the various statistical databased containing player and team data. These datasets may be complemented with external data obtained online or from data providers, such as Opta.

Data analysis:

Performance Analysts are responsible for producing detailed team and opposition analysis, as well as readable match reports, in both written and video format for coaching and technical staff to interpret. These tasks may also involve the creation of team and individual KPI databases, used for trend analysis of performances over a period of time. The reports produced by Performance Analysts help coaches make informed decisions on a variety of areas, from tactical decisions to team selection and player recruitment. Analysts in roles focusing on player development, such as Academy, also produce individual player analysis with educational programmes and content for players to review their individual progression.

Delivery of analytical insights:

The distribution of the work produced by Performance Analysts may take different forms. Often coaching staff require Performance Analysts to edit and distribute relevant footage, such as key highlights of a training session or match, to key members of staff or players. For example, a Performance Analyst may create a summary clip of all positive actions a player has made during a game together with one of those instances where the player may have been caught out of position. These clips, together with additional analytical reports, may be used in appropriate meetings between coaches and players. A Performance Analyst is often required to attend, contribute and provide high-quality presentations using video and key statistics at such meetings to aid the feedback process. Furthermore, Performance Analysts in Academy roles may also be required to facilitate appropriate communication methods, such as workshops, to inform and educate younger athletes and their coaches in the effective use of performance analysis insights.

Some specialised roles, such as Academy Performance Analysts, may include additional responsibilities, such as ensuring that a consistent approach to analysis of player performance is maintained across all age categories. In these roles, the focus of coaches may significantly differ from those of the first team coaching staff, as priorities are shifted to the individual development of players rather than the competitive success of the club. Therefore, more focus is placed on the progression and monitoring of players and the creation of individual development programmes to aid player retention decisions. These priorities mean that analysts need to maintain slightly different video and statistical databases that emphasise on specific development KPIs, as well as create age and learning style appropriate educational content for young players to understand their performance against their individual goals.

Moreover, data-focused roles within the analysis of team and player performance have started a transition into the field of Data Science and Machine Learning. For instance, the role of Data Scientist is increasingly emerging in player analysis, scouting and recruitment. These positions differ from the conventional role of a Performance Analyst as they require a higher degree of technical know-how. Data Scientists or similar positions are often responsible of developing statistical models and metrics to identify talent and opportunities across global markets using specific programming languages and analytics solutions. They heavily focus on the collection, analysis and visualisation of data and intelligence from vast internal and external data sources and databases. In some cases, their responsibilities also include the development of data-driven tools and platforms to help maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of the department and club.

Lastly, as a wider member of staff in such a competitive sporting environment, a Performance Analyst is required to follow certain procedures to adhere to a strict code of confidentiality in respect of any information relating to their club’s operations, as well as any other regulations and standards. For instance, while working in certain sensitive positions, such as an Academy, Analysts are required to strictly follow safeguarding (child protection), health, safety and equal opportunity procedures and practices dictated by their club. These roles involving young athletes often require a DBS criminal record check prior to commencing employment. Other procedures often expected to be followed by all members of backroom staff in a sporting institution include attending continuous personal development events, arranged by clubs to enhance personal knowledge, skills and expertise amongst their staff. Nevertheless, successful Performance Analysts often keep themselves up-to-date with current research, technology and the latest developments in Sports Analysis practice and bring ideas to assist with continuous improvement of its club.

Other non-role related responsibilities include mobility and unsocial hours of work. Due to the high mobility of teams during competition, most clubs expect their analysts and members of backroom staff to have a driving license to be able to travel to matches and training grounds. Also, since matches are often played outside the standard office hours, Performance Analysts are expected to be able to work evenings and weekends, when most of the sporting action takes place. This may also include overnight stays at certain locations during away games and competitions.

Skills Required In Performance Analysis

The skills demanded for a specific role will depend on the various responsibilities of the position, as well as the level of experience and specialisation required to carry out the role (i.e. Data Scientist may require a higher level of technical skills). Nevertheless, there are set of common skills often looked for by teams when recruiting for a new Performance Analysts. These include:

Experience:

Most vacancies in Performance Analysis look for candidates with an undergraduate degree in a sports-related field at 2:1 or above. Some may even prefer a Masters qualification. Aside from academic qualifications, most full-time roles will require prior experience supporting athletes and coaches to improve their performance through the provision of performance analysis or similar multi-disciplinary analytical support using sports data within an elite or high-performance sport environment. For Senior or Lead positions, clubs may look for candidates with experience in developing and implementing innovative Performance Analysis programmes and ideas according to the results of needs, assessment and feedback from coaches and other support staff. For other roles where Performance Analysts may be required to perform a wider variety of roles supporting the coaching staff, they may be required to have some generic sports science knowledge and, in some cases, coaching experience to demonstrate good knowledge of the tactical aspects and other fundamentals of the sport. For example, a Performance Analyst role in a top-tier football club may demand an excellent understanding of football tactics, game management and talent identification.

Technical Skills:

Technical demands of Performance Analyst roles continue to evolve as technology advances in the field. However, the ability to use videoanalysis software packages (i.e. SportsCode, Dartfish, Nacsport, etc.) is a must for any role in the field, as they represent a critical component in the process of data gathering and analysis of team and player performance. This also means that Performance Analysts need to have the ability to operate filming equipment to obtain and handle sport footage and be highly proficient in Performance Analysis computer equipment and software to collect, transfer and store relevant video files across systems. Furthermore, the analysis process of the collected data requires Performance Analysts to have experience handling datasets with analytical software (i.e. Microsoft Excel) and have proficient data analysis skills to produce performance profiling, trend analysis, data mining and managing large longitudinal datasets that systematically track, monitor and objectify performance. Lastly, the outputs of the analysis work need to be effectively presented using data visualisation systems and reporting tools, such as Tableau, for clear and easy interpretation by coaches and relevant parties.

For roles involving aspects of data science and machine learning, skill requirements tend to vary from those of conventional Performance Analyst roles. These roles involve the automation, development and delivery of complex data-driven insights. Vacancies for these types of roles tend to look for knowledge of certain programming languages, such as R or Python, as well as a good understanding of querying and management of databases (i.e. SQL, PostgreSQL, etc.). Other technical skills required may include the ability to work with Rest APIs, JSON scripts and manage certain AWS or cloud-based solutions, due to the greater involvement in processing and dissemination of large datasets using the latest data science technologies and processes. Analysts in these positions also need to effectively distribute analytical insights using a variety of BI tools, such as Power BI, Tableau, Domo or Looker, therefore an extensive knowledge of such systems is often a requirement.

Soft Skills:

The role of a Performance Analyst demands certain personal abilities, or soft skills, in order to be successful at navigating the intricacies of a competitive, high pressure sporting environment where staff are often required to work under pressure to meet deadlines. While the core analytical responsibilities of an analyst demand a degree of passion about providing insights based on data and being naturally inquisitive about gathering new intel for the team, being able to effectively deliver such insights is critical to the role. A Performance Analyst needs to be able to effectively communicate and present complex data in terms that are easily understood by a wide variety of audiences. This effective communication not only involves the clear articulation of complex analytical ideas but also the clear understanding of the needs and what is important to elite athletes and coaches in a high-performance environment. This understanding can be obtained by having robust interpersonal skills that enable the fostering of productive relationships that allow analysts to successfully communicate with the wider team, coaches and during individual player interactions. Understanding each player and coach needs through strong relationships with them can help analysts become proactive and innovative at solving specific problems that help the team succeed, influence their peers toward positive change, and show willingness to work as a part of the team working towards broader team objectives. Lastly, under such a high-pressure environment it is important that Performance Analysts successfully and independently prioritise their workload and allocate time to their own professional development. As a rapidly changing and evolving field, analysts need to be constantly learning and researching new scientific methodologies, new data practices and innovative approaches towards intel and data insights that can provide their team with an extra competitive edge over rivals.

Certificates/Accreditation:

While accreditation is not required in order to undertake a Performance Analysis role, unlike in other sport science disciplines, there are clubs that recommend their analysts to obtain an ISPAS accreditation. While ISPAS has not yet been widely established as an official accreditation for Performance Analysis roles, it can be used as a way of demonstrating verifiable experience in the field of Performance Analysis. Additionally, certain roles may also request coaching and talent ID accreditation depending on their responsibilities. For instance, a Performance Analyst role for a first team position may require the analyst to obtain a Level 2 coaching certificate, while a Recruitment Analyst may require a FA Talent ID Level 2 accreditation.

Types Of Employment Offered In Performance Analysis

As a highly competitive field with a limited number of sporting clubs offering vacancies on a regular basis, most Performance Analysts get their foot in the door through season-long work placements. These opportunities are often offered in partnerships with universities across the country as part of graduate or post-graduate degrees in the field. For example, Reading FC recently offered a 2020/21 season-long work placement with their First Team Analysis department in partnership with the University of Worcester, as part of their MSc (Hons) Applied Sports Performance Analysis programme. The majority of these work placements are unpaid, and only include limited travel expenses. Others offer either a small compensation or a partial or full contribution towards the tuition fees of the MSc programme. This contribution may also be offered in the form of a bursary by the university themselves rather than by the club. However, these opportunities are not perceived as employment but instead act as a work experience opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills required to work as a performance analyst in elite sport. They simply offer a high-quality learning experience for future employment.

Part-time vacancies are the next most common offering in the field of Performance Analysis. These are usually task-specific and demand a very precise set of skills for a short period of time. For instance, a football team may need a Performance Analyst to code a number of pre-season friendlies and provide match analysis reporting for a limited set of matches. These services may be paid per match (i.e. £30 per match) or at a pre-agreed hourly rate. Sport betting agencies also offer this type of data collection roles, often supporting the match coding and analysis of a specific league or competition with fixed hourly contracts. On the other hand, an alternative form of part-time employment can be carried out through contracting/freelancing, where analysts are contracted on a project basis based on the changing needs of a club or set of clubs at a given time.

While less common than the prior two forms of employment, full-time opportunities in Performance Analysis have been increasingly growing over the years thanks to the development of the field and the growing reliance on the effective use of technology within numerous elite sporting institutions. Full-time roles tend to come on fixed-term contracts, similar to other functions in a club’s backroom staff. However, these vacancies often require extensive experience in a performance analysis function within a high-performance environment or a similar sport scientist role that shares common responsibilities. As more and more clubs make use of the system and process in Performance Analysis, full-time employment opportunities will most likely continue to grow, as well as evolve into their own sub-functions within the data science and technology space.

What is Performance Analysis in Sport?

Since the early-2000s, the analysis of performance in sport has seen a dramatic transformation in both its methods (i.e. incorporating advanced statistical modelling and new analytical frameworks) and technologies (i.e. GPS tracking, time-lapsed notational analysis software and a large variety of tracking sensors and other tracking equipment). What started as shorthand notations with pen and paper has since evolved to advanced computerised systems and technologies that collect vast amounts of performance-related data.

The rise in lucrative financial opportunities in most major sports thanks to the ever-growing revenues from broadcasting deals and the rising global audiences have inevitably raised the stakes of winning. Consequently, sporting organisations are now turning to more scientific, evidence-based approaches when managing their institutions and developing their athletes. Standards in elite sports to achieve and maintain success are continuously being raised, placing increasing pressure on clubs, coaches and athletes to develop more efficient training structures, enhance athlete development processes and gain better understanding on the factors that determine success in major tournaments.

The highly competitive environment with constantly narrowing margins have triggered the emergence of Performance Analysis as an independent, yet interdisciplinary, backroom function that specialises on the objective, and most often quantitative, evaluation of performance. This relatively new field aims to support coaches in identifying key areas of performance requiring attention, evaluating the effectiveness of tactical and technical performance, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of upcoming oppositions. Its purpose is to provide valid, accurate and reliable information to coaches, players and any relevant stakeholders to augment their knowledge on a particular area of the sport.

Traditionally, Sports Performance Analysis has been defined as an observational analysis task that goes from data collection all the way to the delivery of feedback, and aims to improve sports performance by involving all coaches, players and analysts themselves. The observation of performance is carried out either live during the sporting event or post-competition through video footage and gathered statistics. Performance Analysts can now be spotted in stadiums, whether in the coaching box or a separate good viewing location within the stands, notating events and actions from the match using specialised software, such as SportsCode, Dartfish or Nacsport. In this process, they develop statistical reports that can be sent in real-time to the devices used by coaches (i.e. iPhones or iPads) and display to them a summary of key performance metrics, as well as short video feeds of key highlights. However, the additional time available in post-match analysis allows for a more detailed evaluation of performance using additional complementary sources of data. The data used during post-match analysis can come from sources beyond the analyst’s observations, such as qualitative data, video sequences and even measurements athletes’ exertion, heart rate, blood lactate levels, acceleration, speed and location metrics collected through wearable devices. Some of these data will often be sourced internally within the club but external sources, such as that of data provides like Opta, are often utilised across multiple sports to complement internal databases. Training sessions are also subject to analysis, with continuous monitoring of players to inform debriefing sessions by coaches and help plan the next session.

Research in the field has also emerged as its own specialised field. The International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport now regularly publishes studies on key sports analysis research areas, such as the identification of key performance indicators, injury prevention through work-rate analysis and physical analysis, movement analysis, coaches’ behaviours and feedback processes, effectiveness of technique and tactics, normative profiling, overall match analysis and even the analysis of referees’ performance.

Performance Analysis As Its Own Backroom Function

Over the last two decades, Performance Analysis has established itself in many top sporting clubs and organisations as a pivotal element in the extrinsic feedback process that coaches use to accelerate the learning process and assist athletes reach their optimal performance levels. It is now considerate its own separate function within the backroom staff of a team, having differentiated itself from other sports science disciplines its core focus on quantitative performance evaluation, yet with a high degree of cross-functional aspects requiring it to maintain a close relationship with wider sports science disciplines. For instance, a work-rate analysis performed by a Strength & Conditioning department may complement the work of a Performance Analyst team on informing player selection based on both performance metrics and player fitness.

The Purpose Of Performance Analysis In Sport

The large volume of quantitative and qualitative information produced from the complex and dynamic situations in sport needs to be carefully disseminated and clearly presented – using clear visuals such as tables, charts or special-purpose diagrams of the playing surface - to allow coaches to obtain quick insights on areas requiring their attention. Performance Analysis enhances the coach’s ability to ‘feed-forward’. It aims to anticipate an opposition’s strengths and weaknesses by performing thorough opposition analysis to produce acquired knowledge that allows the team to rehearse appropriate plays and improve those individual skills that would aid to outperform the upcoming opponent.

The insights generated through Performance Analysis work such as opposition analysis help coaches make informed decisions on tactical choices and squad selection that would better exploit the weaknesses and overcome the strengths of a given opponent. Traditionally, these decisions were made in its entirety following a coach’s acquired wisdom through years of experience in the sport, often having previously played at elite levels themselves. However, studies have repeatedly proven that coach recall capacity of critical incidents that take place in a sporting event is limited to between 42% and 59% of events. On top of that, the events that are remembered are prone to incompleteness, emotional bias, inaccuracy and misinterpretation due to the natural flaws in human perception and cognitive capacity. Cover for these limitations in an increasingly more competitive environment coaches have turned to technology and analytics to have immediate access to both objective information of past events as well as instant video footage to review specific events they wish to recall and re-evaluate. For this, most top-level coaches now benefit from their own Performance Analysts departments that provide them with the necessary data collection, data manipulation, analytical and video analysis skills to allow them to take advantage of the vast amounts of information generated from their sport, yet receive those key elements most important to them in a clear, timely and concise manner.

The Scope Of Performance Analysis In Sport

Technical Analysis

The development of better athletes, from elite levels to grassroots programs, has been a key focus of the field of Performance Analysis in Sports over recent years. The mechanical detail of skills performed by athletes are carefully analysed to detect flaws in technique, monitor progress and identify changes during preparation or even assess rehabilitation from injury. The effectiveness in which an athlete performs specific skills or a broader passage of play is measured, compared and classified, either positively or negatively, against a predetermined expected outcome. For example, a coach may expect a minimum passing completion rate from its midfielders or a minimum speed from its wingers in football. Often, these measurements are presented as ratios or percentages of successfully performed skills, such as the percentage pass completion or tackling success. They are then used to develop performance profiles of players that are used to benchmark and compare them against teammates or rival players.

Tactical Analysis

Similarly, tactical analysis carried out by Performance Analysts help coaches better understand the impact of their tactical decisions. It can also help identify specific tendencies and preferred tactical setups by opposing teams. By leveraging the latest video analysis and player tracking technologies, Performance Analysts are now increasingly more capable of evaluating patterns of play in conjunction with skills performed, location on the field, timings and players involved to draw an accurate representation of tactical variances given particular match scenarios.

Physiological Analysis

Player movements are also carefully assessed to ensure they achieve positions of advantage, as well as desired velocities, distance covered and speed ranges. This line of work by Performance Analysts is closely complemented with the work by a Strength & Conditioning team. The aim is to enable the athlete to achieve their optimal physical condition by providing performance analysis on areas relating their strength, power, endurance, agility, stability and mobility. Injury prevention is also a priority, especially in sports with intense physical contact where likelihood of injury is high. GPS trackers and other wearable technologies are combined with video analysis to understand the physical efforts that players go through during training and matches and allow coaches to better manage the intensity of sessions.

Psychological Analysis

Psychological training is a key element of the coaching process when it comes to mentally preparing athletes to the pressures of a sport and the challenging conditions that may impact their motivations and ambitions of reaching their desired goals. Performance Analysts are able to support coaches through the evaluation of an athlete’s discipline, exertion, efforts and other fluctuations of work-rate that could be associated to mental factors it an attempt to minimise effects of negative mental influences and positively influence athletes. Most often, Performance Analysts use their video analysis abilities to create motivational clips and video highlights that can support coaches with the mental preparation of their teams and athletes.

Equipment And Technologies In Performance Analysis In Sport

Today, most Performance Analysis departments at elite clubs start their analytical process by recording video footage of training sessions and competitive events. Often, more than one HD camcorder is set up at high viewpoints on the sidelines of training pitches or stadiums to collect footage in various angles, whether is at a closer angle capturing just a few players or a wider angle of the full sections of the pitch. In some instances, drones are also used to capture an even wider angle from above the players on the pitch to be able to clearly identify gaps during plays or structural setups and formations. Certain actions during training sessions may also allow for the Performance Analyst to get physically closer to the play and use a handheld camera, such as a GoPro, to capture an additional angle that shows closer movements and player technique. The footage from the camcorders is captured into SD cards inside the cameras or directly into a laptop using media management software, such as Media Express from BlackMagic Design. Often both are used in conjunction to act as a backup of each other. Alternatively, Performance Analysts may also obtain video feeds for certain matches or competitive events that are broadcasted from the broadcasters themselves, freeing up their time to perform additional real-time data collection and analysis during the event.

Once the video footage is gathered, Performance Analysts leverage the capabilities of time-lapsed computerised video analysis software, such as SportsCode, Dartfish or Nacsport, to notate key events and actions and generated meaningful data for later analysis. These solutions allows them to replay the training session or match and tag key events to construct a database with frequency counts, length of specific actions and supportive contextual information of each individual action (i.e. whether a tackle was successful or a missed opportunity). Coaches and players can later go through the coded timeline of the event and view specific video highlights automatically generated by the software. Analysts would then export the frequency data into data manipulation and analysis software, often being Microsoft Excel, and perform further analysis on the data and combine it with historical datasets, data from wearable tracking devices - often players wear GPS trackers, such as Catapult, StatSports or Playertek - or even data obtained from external sources and data providers, such as Opta.

The insights generated from the analysis are then delivered to the interested parties, coaches or players. The method of delivery varies greatly from club to club and depends greatly on the audience receiving the information. Summary reports may be printed and distributed amongst players and coaches with key statistics and areas requiring attention. In other occasions, data visualisation software such as Tableau may be used to interactively display charts and other visuals of team and player performance. Most often, coaches and players get a great deal of value from watching replays and highlights of the areas being analysed. Therefore, analysts often create short highlights clips using video editing tools, such as CoachPaint, KlipDraw, Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro, or simply Apple’s iMovie application, to produce a combination of notated footage that clearly displays the information they want to portray to the coaching staff and team.

What Is Next For Performance Analysis In Sport?

As technology continues to evolve and data-related solutions increasingly bring new functionality to the field, the field of Performance Analysis will continue to grow. New technologies will bring new opportunities for sporting organisations to become even more competitive and better maximise their athlete’s potential. Inevitably, as a club’s main goal is to outperform and outsmart its competitors, this will continue to raise the standards of success in all major sports, where investment in solutions and human resources that allow them to exploit these new opportunities will continue to increase overtime, given that the financial incentives of winning will remain lucratively attractive to owners and investors.

However, further advances in technology and the sophistication of processes will also bring new complexities to the environment that Performance Analysts will operate in. This will place additional pressures to the skills demanded in the field, where not only a good acumen of a sport and coaching processes will be needed, but also highly technical skills to effectively navigate a growing data ecosystem will be essential. Inevitably, some of the current manual and repetitive tasks will be automated using modern solutions. For instance, analysts often make use of video analysis software to manually code every single event as it takes place in the footage. However, computer vision could eventually replace these repetitive and labour-intensive tasks during data collection from video footage by automatically detecting and tracking players and moving objects (i.e. the ball) in the field and performing frequency counts using pre-programmed functions. This automation enable clubs to free-up resources from the Performance Analysis departments and allow analysts to reallocate their time into generating insights through deeper analysis of the collected data.

The field of Performance Analysis is, today, at its early stages. Different sports are at different stages in their adoption of this new and critical function inside their backroom teams. Some are not yet considering Performance Analysis a priority when hiring and developing such teams. The novelty of the field, a limited understanding of its use and benefits by owners and club decision-makers, as well as the competitive labour market, where wealthy companies from other industries are also interested in hiring individuals with an analytical and technical skillset, has challenged the consolidation of Performance Analysis in certain sports. However, not all sporting clubs and institutions have been slow at their incorporation of specialised analysis of performance. Wealthier and more established clubs have been able to experiment and appreciate the benefits of investing in the skillsets that have allowed them to better understand key factors of success and develop their athlete’s performance through acquired knowledge that has placed them above their rivals. These innovative actions taken by top-tier teams have usually had an effective trickle-down effect on the rest of clubs within a sport, where the rest of rivals follow suit in order to remain competitive. As the field continues to grow in line with technology, we will undoubtably see an exciting evolution in the composition and structures of coaching teams and sporting organisations as a whole.

Citations and useful resources:

• Laird, P., & Waters, L. (2008). Eyewitness recollection of sport coaches. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 8(1), 76-84.

• McGarry, T., O'Donoghue, P., & de Eira Sampaio, A. J. (Eds.). (2013). Routledge handbook of sports performance analysis. Routledge.

• O'Donoghue, P. (2009). Research methods for sports performance analysis. Routledge.

• O'Donoghue, P. (2014). An introduction to performance analysis of sport. Routledge.

The International Society of Performance Analysis in Sport

What is ISPAS?

The ISPAS was founded with the objective of improving global cooperation in the field of performance analysis. It was created as a platform for experts and practitioners to exchange their ideas, set global standards and collaborate in common research areas. It provides a shared forum to distribute scientific knowledge and disseminate information across the different types of individuals and groups in performance analysis, from academic researchers to club-level practitioners.

ISPAS’s current executive committee is consisted by five members: Prof. Nic James, Prof. Derek Peters, Prof. Mike Hughes, Dr. Hyongjun Choi and Dr. Nimai Parmar, with the former three teaching in the field of Sport, Health and Exercise Science at different British universities. As of June 2018, the society has accredited a total of 243 members and continues to grow its member base every month. Aside from joining a community of performance analysts for networking purposes, once accredited there are also various discounts and offers when purchasing analysis software available to accredited members, as well as discounted registration fees for ISPAS workshops and conferences. Accreditation comes in 5 different levels, with 1 and 2 being generic and 3 to 5 specialized in two verticals: a Scientific Route and a Applied Route. Once you submit an application for accreditation with supporting evidence, the panel will make a decision whether the level of accreditation applied to based on experiences and knowledge is approved.

Source: ISPAS.org

The society also organizes yearly World Congresses with rotating locations around the world. In September 2018 the World Congress takes place in Zagreb, Croatia with a number of Professors from various countries in Europa and Asia taking part as keynote speakers, as well as practitioners in sports such as Rugby Union. These congresses tend to cover a wide range of topics around the area of sports performance, from analysis of technique and tactical evaluation to biomechanics, work rate and physical demands. 

Learn more about ISPAS in their official website here.

The role of a Performance Analyst in Sports

What is the role of a Performance Analyst in Sport?

Performance analysis is the process of assessing performance in a sport to develop an understanding of actions that can inform decision-making, optimize performance and support coaches and players in their journey towards optimal results. In many team sports this would consist on tactical assessment, movement analysis, video and statistical databasing and modeling and coach and player data presentations.

A few years ago, the role of a Performance Analyst simply consisted on recording a training session or game and creating video highlights to provide to managers and players for review. Video recording and editing constituted the large majority of an analyst’s role. Today, the role of Performance Analysts has evolved where analysts now require a lot more expertise in numerous tracking hardware and software that the advances in technology have brought to the industry, allowing for more sophisticated data collection, storage and increased coaching demands for data presentation. With the growing phenomenon of ‘big data’, the large amounts of data collected in the world of sport requires analytical experts to handle, disseminate and generate insights from this data.

Performance Analysts are like any other member in the backroom staff of a sporting team. On game day, analysts require to capture all the actions happening on the pitch to later tag and create video playlists of each player for the following day. They would then have one on one sessions with players led by the management team to present and discuss clips showing mistakes and any positives from the match. Team sessions are also held to show the team video analysis of the game as a group, discussing offensive and defensive formations, tactical analysis and any relevant actions that need consideration by coaches. Players and coaches may also ask for one-off clips and analysis as they find appropriate to review specific areas relevant to them to focus their development and learning.

Through both notational and motion analysis an analyst is able to provide stats and recording to coaching staff about areas such as position of the ball, player movement and involvement, fatigue, work rate, time of a particular action and the outcome of such action. In recent years, tools such as Sportcode, Dartfish or Coach Paint, as well as third-party data and statistics companies such as Opta, allow analysts to retrieve, capture, code and analyse the necessary data point in the most effective way for their reports. These tools and the vast data now available through different sources have allowed analysts to better observe their team’s performance and identify strengths and weaknesses, analyse opposition performance to counteract strengths and exploit weaknesses as well as evaluate effectiveness of training programs in improving match performance.

Within the context of football, most Performance Analyst roles will consist on responsibilities such as:

• Record matches and training sessions

• Pre-match team and opposition analysis production

• Live match-day coding and editing of match footage post-game to produce post match reports

• Update statistical and video databases for trend analysis

• Update training databases and logs post each sessionProduce content for classroom sessions (usually for Academy) and team de-briefs

• Ensure the upkeep of all filming and video capture equipment

• Analytical ad hoc duties as requested by the team’s Management

• Delivery of feedback to staff and players

• Creation of reports on various aspect of performance

• Interpretation, analysis and dissemination of performance data

As modern-day performance analysis departments grow within clubs and sporting organizations, analyst roles are becoming more and more specialized in a subset of the functions a traditional analyst would have undertaken in the past. Roles such as scouting analyst, tactical analyst, research analyst, technical scout, training analyst or even goalkeeper analyst are emerging positions in the world of performance analysis within a modern sporting organization and while the reflect the importance of such roles in competitive sporting teams, they are also fading the previously clearer definition of the role of a performance analyst and its duties.

Why is a Performance Analysis function important for a team or sporting organisation?

Research has shown that coaches and players, like any other humans, recall fewer than half the important actions and movements that happen on the pitch. Emotions may run high and the more extremely positive or negative events may overshadow other tactically relevant insights that occurred during the game. Collecting match information through video recording helps remove those biases and provide a more objective view of what happened on a game. Performance Analysts collect data from all the events happening on the pitch and create relevant metrics, either through coaches’ requests or by their own assessment, to show players and coaches on what went well and what went wrong.

The basis of coaching consists on assessing athlete performance, identifying areas of improvement, feeding back information to athletes, managing practices to convert the weaknesses into strengths and reassessing performance after a certain period of time or number of practices. With a Performance Analyst by their side, a coach can obtain the right level of information and performance insights in the early stages of the cycle to help them manage team and player development a lot more effectively. The work of a Performance Analyst can surface much sooner improvement areas and strengths of a player and team to allow coaches provide feedback to the team with a deeper level of understanding of how each individual in their team is performing. A good partnership between coaching staff, players and analysts can develop a player to their full potential and make a coach become a better coach through structured training sessions and more informed decision-making.

As technology and analytics advances in today’s society, so it does in the sporting industry. Data availability is growing rapidly with company’s like Opta offering third-party data and statistics on every game and player in major professional sports, allowing more and more teams to obtain access to their opponents recent performances, tactical decision, player profiles and more data points to enable them to generate a competitive advantage over opposition teams. In this new era of data, coaches and teams need analyst to help them navigate through all the information, manage and maintain the team’s databases and use performance analysis software to code the games, edit footages from the camera, extract data from providers like Opta and more technical skills that they would have imagined in the past. Failing to do so could mean that your team’s next rival might know more about your strengths and weaknesses that you might do about theirs. Your club could also fall behind in the advancements of performance optimization other clubs in the same competition are following to succeed.

The outcome of a good performance analysis means a well-defined coaching plan to improve a team’s or individual athlete’s performance. A coach can interpret a report or piece of analysis from its Performance Analyst to make adjustments to the team’s practices and tactical structure depending on the findings discovered. These pieces of analysis are intended to act as a valuable asset to coaches or players to make any decision for the following match, and have now become a strict requirement for any elite sporting organisation.

What skills are required to be a successful performance analyst?

The nature of a Performance Analyst in comparison to any other analyst role in a different industry is the sport element. Sports operate within extremes by default, and this is reflected in the day-to-day life of an analyst. The highs are higher and the lows are lower than many other  analytical positions. Long hours, short turnarounds, last minute requests and high standards and expectations are the norm in a field were everyone in a team, from players to any member of staff, is expected to give 110%.

Having said that, there are certain traits and hard skills a Performance Analyst is required to have to succeed in the field:

Knowledge of the sport. A key difference between a statistician and an analyst is the use of contextual information in order to generate insights. As a Performance Analyst you need to understand what’s important and what’s not in the sport you are analyzing, not only for the team to be successful but also for the particular coaching style of the team management. What is the coach aiming to get out his players? Tactical awareness, players, other coaches, club philosophies and history can help the Performance Analyst successfully contribute to the team’s success.

Building relationships with coaches. An analyst is part of the backroom staff of a team. This means that, like with any team, having a good relationship with coaches and players is crucial to gaining their trust and receiving credit for the work done, or even being heard. It may take up to 4 years for an analyst to appropriately settle in an elite professional team. An analyst needs to perfectly understand what the coaches want at every time and be able to accurately give them insights and information in a timely manner. Most of today’s analyst work consist on supplying whatever information the coaching staff is requesting for.

Effectively reacting to feedback. In line with building relationships with coaches is the ability to adapt the work produced to the needs, or even tastes, of the coaching staff and players. An analyst might spend hours immerse in in-depth data analysis and may produce very detailed pieces of analysis. However, coaches and other staff need insights in an understandable and useable way that is easy for them to apply during planning and decision-making.

Data consciousness. With numerous sources of data available, whether is from a third-party or collected internally, an analyst needs to be able to identify which data points are useful and which ones are redundant for every piece of analysis or report being produce. They also need to be able to assess the accuracy and reliability of such data by having an advanced level of knowledge of how the data used has been collected, stored or retrieved. Mishandling data sets may lead to inaccurate reports being produce that can mislead coaches and players.

Presenting your analysis reports. Depending on the club’s philosophy or coaches’ trust, analysts are required to provide a walkthrough explanation of their findings to coaches, players or team manager. Being able to clearly articulate the finding to a coach can give an opportunity for analysts to generate trust and establish themselves within the coaching team. Being a good communicator is essential for an analyst to demonstrate their work to players and coaches.

Analytical hard skills. Needless to say an analyst needs to be equip with enough technical knowledge on various analytics software and programming language, from basics like Excel to more advanced SQL, R or Python coding. Maths, IT and research and analytical skills to produce and understand complex data is essential Data visualization is also a key part in the role therefore proficiency in tools like Tableau are crucial to present findings in a easy-to-understand manner.