Sports Science: Week in Review, Dec 5-Dec 11

This was the week that many of the world’s machine learning experts met in Barcelona for the annual NIPS conference (Neural Information Processing Systems). Stephen Zheng, Yisong Yue and Patrick Lucey had the one sports-related conference paper: Generating Long-term Trajectories Using Deep Hierarchical Networks (pdf).

Sports analytics has past the point of spreadsheets and databases. The complexity is too great and the data capture devices are highly sophisticated. Statistics by themselves are proving inadequate to capture and then communicate the complexity of sports. Even artificial intelligence (like machine learning) which can take advantage of enormous data sets to produce useful insights suffers from the lack of trust non-experts have in these black box results.

To effectively communicate analysis of complex phenomena, in sports or any field, the computation often keeps complexity in data structures. Data structures are how data is organized in active memory before, during and after the computer operates on the data. Data structures are critical elements for visualization and for interaction design, which are crucial tools for presenting complex realities to non-experts.

Increasingly sophisticated analytical methods are showing up, often (like the NIPS paper) originating from PhD-level knowledge:

  • Soccermatic | David Sumpter (YouTube, TEDxUppsalaUniversity)
  • La Trobe University to offer Australian first masters degree in data analytics for cutting-edge sports technology (Melbourne Herald Sun)
  • Using Gameday Data for Fatigue Modelling (Mike Sonne)
  • 2016 Disabled List Information and the Future of Injury Analysis (The Hardball Times, Jeff Zimmerman)
  • How Daryl Morey used behavioral economics to revolutionize the art of NBA draft picks. (Slate, Michael Lewis)
  • Is Your Favorite Ballplayer Hitting When It Matters, or Just Padding His Stats? (Johns Hopkins University)
  • And analysis that uses biometric data from athletes is playing an imcreasingly important role in professional sports. See:

  • Players’ heart beats helping Arizona Coyotes manage schedule (AZ Central Sports, Sarah McLellan)
  • Insider: Nate McMillan alters Pacers’ travel itinerary to maximize rest (IndyStar.com, Nate Taylor)
  • A 45-Second Self-Test for Cardiorespiratory Fitness: Heart Rate-Based Estimation in Healthy Individuals (PLOS One; Francesco Sartor et al.)
  • How Wearable Technology Got Quietly Into Major League Baseball (Forbes, Maury Brown)
  • How sports analytics helped the Seattle Sounders make it to their first-ever MLS Cup (GeekWire, Taylor Soper)
  • WHOOP and MLB Conduct Largest Performance Study Ever in Pro Sports (WHOOP, The Locker blog, Mark Van Deusen)
  • The Influence of Changes in Acute Training Load on Daily Sensitivity of Morning-measured Fatigue Variables in Elite Soccer Players. (PubMed, International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance))
  • There have also been emerging standard practices in some sports that are rooted in analytics:

  • Under the Influence of Moreyball (The Ringer, Kevin O’Connor)
  • Survivorship Bias In Coaching (FastModel Sports, Randy Sherman)
  • Winning in MLB is harder when everyone is smarter (ESPN, SweetSpot blog, Dave Schoenfield)
  • Inside the NFL: Finding right GM, coach can be a science (The Buffalo News, Vic Carucci)
  • Influencing from within (The Opta Blog, Rob Mackenzie)
  • New, emerging technologies with new user interfaces are also playing increasingly important roles in high-level sport:

  • NFL touting advances, but needs to put innovation to better use (All 22, Will Carroll)
  • PlaySight’s SmartCourt Expansion Into Basketball Starts With Golden State Warriors (SportTechie)
  • Halftime helper: Will the locker room of the future be cognitive? (IBM, THINK Leaders blog, Noah Syke)
  • Smart Camera Software Monitors Vital Signs By Looking At You (Digital Trends, Luke Dormehl)
  • Sweating Big Human-Body Data Challenge (EE Times, Junko Yoshida)
  • What’s ahead? The convergence of substantial analysis and substantial computation in ways that capture and communicate sports’ complexity. You can see organizations trying to get out in front:

  • Welcome | Sports Innovation Lab (Sports Innovation Lab)
  • The NFL, the NIH, and the Complications of Public-Private Scientific Research (VICE Sports, Aaron Gordon)
  • NFL Players Association Launches New Business Accelerator Program (Fortune, Polina Marinova)
  • Broncos’ Russell Okung takes tech to heart, has high hopes for NFLPA’s accelerator (The Denver Post, Nicki Jhabvala)
  • Sports science is getting increasingly technical. Top-tier college strength coaches have seen their pay climb according to USA Today, and not on the basis of any specific technical skill set. How long until these elite sports science jobs ask for education and credentials in engineering and computing? Sports science has its frontiers but it’s not a chaotic Wild West, not if you understand the computing and engineering that is going on and not if you can see how technology links analysis and athlete performance.

    More things that I read and liked last week:

  • Players’ heart beats helping Arizona Coyotes manage schedule (December 11, AZ Central Sports, Sarah McLellan)
  • Assessing the effectiveness of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS™) in predicting non-contact injury rates in soccer players. – PubMed – NCBI (December 07, Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research)
  • Insider: Nate McMillan alters Pacers’ travel itinerary to maximize rest (December 08, IndyStar.com, Nate Taylor)
  • Inter-Individual Variability in the Adaptive Responses to Endurance and Sprint Interval Training: A Randomized Crossover Study (December 09, PLOS One; Brendon J. Gurd et al.)
  • Soccermatic | David Sumpter (December 10, YouTube, TEDxUppsalaUniversity )
  • Flexible Device Captures Energy From Human Motion (December 09, Michigan State University, MSU News)
  • A 45-Second Self-Test for Cardiorespiratory Fitness: Heart Rate-Based Estimation in Healthy Individuals (December 13, PLOS One; Francesco Sartor et al.)
  • Women are missing in sport leadership, and it’s time that changed (December 11, The Conversation, Johanna Adriaanse )
  • Under the Influence of Moreyball (December 08, The Ringer, Kevin O’Connor)
  • Inside the NFL: Finding right GM, coach can be a science (December 09, The Buffalo News, Vic Carucci)
  • Iowa strength coach is highest paid and set to make more (December 08, USA Today Sports, Steve Berkowitz)
  • The truth about high-intensity interval training (December 11, Vox, Julia Belluz)
  • NFL touting advances, but needs to put innovation to better use (December 08, All 22, Will Carroll)
  • PlaySight’s SmartCourt Expansion Into Basketball Starts With Golden State Warriors (December 09, SportTechie)
  • Halftime helper: Will the locker room of the future be cognitive? (December 08, IBM, THINK Leaders blog, Noah Syken)
  • How Wearable Technology Got Quietly Into Major League Baseball (December 08, Forbes, Maury Brown)
  • Survivorship Bias In Coaching (December 08, FastModel Sports, Randy Sherman)
  • How sports analytics helped the Seattle Sounders make it to their first-ever MLS Cup (December 09, GeekWire, Taylor Soper)
  • La Trobe University to offer Australian first masters degree in data analytics for cutting-edge sports technology (December 09, Melbourne Herald Sun)
  • Winning in MLB is harder when everyone is smarter (December 09, ESPN, SweetSpot blog, Dave Schoenfield )
  • How Nicolas Lodeiro’s Uruguayan roots define him and his play with the Sounders (December 09, The Seattle Times, Matt Pentz)
  • Jhabvala: Broncos’ Russell Okung takes tech to heart, has high hopes for NFLPA’s accelerator (December 09, The Denver Post, Nicki Jhabvala )
  • Smart Camera Software Monitors Vital Signs By Looking At You (December 08, Digital Trends, Luke Dormehl)
  • Sweating Big Human-Body Data Challenge (December 07, EE Times, Junko Yoshida)
  • WHOOP and MLB Conduct Largest Performance Study Ever in Pro Sports (December 07, Whoop, The Locker blog, Mark Van Deusen)
  • NFL Players Association Launches New Business Accelerator Program (December 06, Fortune, Polina Marinova)
  • The Influence of Changes in Acute Training Load on Daily Sensitivity of Morning-measured Fatigue Variables in Elite Soccer Players. – PubMed – NCBI (December 05, International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance)
  • Subjective well-being and training load predict in-season injury and illness risk in female youth soccer players. – PubMed – NCBI (December 05, British Journal of Sports Medicine)
  • [1612.02307] Over-the-air Function Computation in Sensor Networks (December 07, arXiv, Computer Science > Networking and Internet Architecture; Omid Abari, Hariharan Rahul, Dina Katabi)
  • The Two Friends Who Changed How We Think About How We Think (December 07, The New Yorker, Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler)
  • Using Gameday Data for Fatigue Modelling (December 05, Mike Sonne)
  • 2016 Disabled List Information and the Future of Injury Analysis (December 07, The Hardball Times, Jeff Zimmerman)
  • Green Bay Packers GM Ron Wolf’s Draft, Free Agency (December 07, The MMQB with Peter King, Emily Kaplan)
  • The NFL, the NIH, and the Complications of Public-Private Scientific Research (December 07, VICE Sports, Aaron Gordon)
  • Is Your Favorite Ballplayer Hitting When It Matters, or Just Padding His Stats? « News from The Johns Hopkins University (December 05, Johns Hopkins University)
  • How Daryl Morey used behavioral economics to revolutionize the art of NBA draft picks. (December 06, Slate, Michael Lewis)
  • MLB device aimed at improving performance (December 07, USA Today Sports, Jorge L. Ortiz)
  • What’s a strength coach worth? It can hardly be quantified (December 08, USA Today Sports, Paul Myerberg, Steve Berkowitz and Christopher Schnaars )
  • Khalil Mack’s unlikely road to becoming one of the NFL’s most dominant players (December 06, The Washington Post, Kent Babb)
  • Bridging the Gap: Improving the Coach-Analyst Relationship (Part 2) (December 05, Dr. Bill Gerrard, Winning With Analytics blog)
  • Generating Long-term Trajectories Using Deep Hierarchical Networks (December 05, NIPS 2016; Stephen Zheng, Yisong Yue, Patrick Lucey)
  • Welcome | Sports Innovation Lab (December 05, Sports Innovation Lab)
  • Influencing from within (December 05, The Opta Blog, Rob Mackenzie)
  • Clippers continue to search for consistency (December 05, NBA.com, David Aldridge)
  • Leave a Comment

    Your email address will not be published.