(Newswire.net — August 14, 2019) — Division I baseball in Oregon State is using in-game related data as a key part of athletic optimization and performance. Analytics is being used in real-time to understand a player’s potential impact on a given date.
The Oregon State University Beavers has integrated data into a central part of their coaches’ preparation for games. The data, according to team officials, is the key to the team’s success which led them to win the national championships in 2018.
Data has always been a part of the game, but as technology advances, teams are gaining access to new tools that allow coaches and players to quickly digest the data that’s available to them. The team uses Microsoft’s Power BI, a cloud-based analytics service, to be able to digest all of the data available to the team.
Power BI is used at OSU as a means of filtering and analyzing all of the data from the team’s athletic department.
Analytics is also being used to reduce the risk of injury at the University of Louisville. The University’s woman’s basketball team uses wearables, IBM Analytics and self-reports to help increase player availability. The availability for games and practices has remained at 95% since using analytics to monitor performance and injury.
Gymnastics, a sport where movements occur quickly and the smallest details matter, is now using analytics to understand the movements of players. Coaches and gymnasts are able to see aspects of their performance and routine that they were never able to see in the past.
Basketball teams have started to use analytics to teach coaches how to win. Butch Carter, a veteran coach and experienced NBA player, offers in-depth basketball analytics at all levels. The analytics determines what’s happening during key games that causes teams to lose.
NHL teams are preparing for a changing league which plans to track puck movement and players to provide better data to teams and fans. The NHL will use sensors to track player and puck movement. The tracking system was part of the NHL All-Star Weekend and will be used by teams to help determine what’s really happening during games.
Trackers will be placed in pucks and in shoulder pads. Antennas and cameras will be placed in the rafters of areas to yield more data. The Columbus Blue Jackets are one team that is trying to stay ahead of the game’s analytics, using the new data to adjust their game. The team has been using data provided by Sportlogiq to gain insight into matchup data, possession time and other key elements of the game.
The team claims that they don’t know how much value there will be in the new NHL data. The team’s analytics department has used analytics to evaluate prospects as well as the team’s training and performance on a day-to-day basis.
The team is also given a one-page analytics report after each game which focuses on key information about the game. Analytics has allowed the team to spot “red flags” during games and determine who is underproducing and who is overproducing during a game.
Analytics are becoming a major factor in professional sports, and these same data points are being used in sports of all levels.
Students are also gaining interest in big data and analytics. Engineering students at the University of Virginia are developing analytics tools that have helped the university’s football team to improve decision-making on and off of the field.
Commercially available products are being used across the country, at some of the top universities in the world, to provide a better understanding of everything from a player’s jump shot to the best defensive strategy to use against an opposing team during a soccer game.