Put Performance Data in the Hands of Athletes to Give Sport Technology a Human Touch
By Rapha Brandon
Our director of performance science in Europe recently attended the Football Innovation Summit in London. He shared his thoughts in a LinkedIn post, which we’ve repurposed below.
I was lucky to attend the 4th annual Football Innovation Summit last week; it was lovely to hear presentations, talk about sport, see some old faces, and make new connections.
Throughout the full programme, there was as much (if not more) discussion devoted to people and psychology as there was to data and technology. Mark Warburton and Jack Ade both emphasised the importance of high player standards. Danny Kerry MBE spoke about the need to promote rather than stifle player resourcefulness, and the importance of support staff understanding what information players give the most meaning towards, for their performance. Joe Shulberg was open about wanting to promote player discussion and encouraging self-driven young players, whilst Guy Branston asserted that players need to take responsibility for themselves rather than waiting for things to be done for them. Andrew Meredith shared more on the importance of emotional intelligence and information delivery from analysts to coaches and players than he did on systems and tech.
Data and technology are only as good as the people implementing it and interpreting it. The very best athletes I have been fortunate to work with always take control, set their own standards, and filter information themselves.
None of this will surprise anyone working in high-performance sport. It is not that data and technology were being ignored. Data is undeniably and fully part of elite football. But data and technology are only as good as the people implementing it and interpreting it. The consensus of the presentations and conversations was that data needs to be used thoughtfully, with proper context to effectively deliver meaningful insights.
All of which resonated with my past experiences in Olympic and professional sports. The very best athletes I have been fortunate to work with always take control, set their own standards, and filter information themselves to make sure what others are telling them serves their needs.
Which is why I am lucky to be involved with BreakAway Data; it’s our mission to make things better for athletes. Our app gives athletes control of their data, which means they have the ability to see everything whilst being able to focus on the data that they care about the most.
As I reflected on the Football Innovation Summit over the weekend, I realised that those different conversations—the people element versus the tech element—shouldn’t be on opposite ends of a spectrum. They can happen in lockstep, because the best way to give technology a human touch is to put performance data directly into the hands of the athletes who create it.