Sports Analytics

Everyone knows how important statistics are for an athlete when it comes to points scored or mistakes made. It could make or break an athletes career. But they are also used for baselines and studies on injuries, bets and financing an athlete, and performance predictions. Statistics are used not only in young athletes but also while recruiting and can be a large determinate in scholarships or salaries as well.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about how the “game” has changed for many young athletes. The number of injuries has increased some being more serious than others. According to an article published by USA Today called, 1.35 Million Youths a Year Have Serious Sports Injuries. They state that the most common injuries occur in football with 394,350 and basketball with 389,610 injuries among athletes under the age of 19. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission conducted a report on 46.5 million child athletes that found that in 2012, 12% of the sample involved a concussion and that 47% of that were 12 to 15 years old. Those findings don’t seem to be too troubling at first until the article states that it takes a longer time to heal than those who are older. A childs brain is still developing at that time and having that many concussions during that process could hinder it. A second concussion could cause even more issues. Part of that same study found that girls soccer and basketball players have been diagnosed with a concussion rather than boys although a link in that has not been determined. Lastly, the study found that there was a significant number of overuse injuries and 25% of those ended up being rather serious. Some common areas of overuse that they found were in tendons, bones, and joints. The article concludes with that rest/recovery and preventative measures such as strength and stretching exercises is recommended following an injury or to prevent one. They encourage kids to speak up about an injury so that it does not worsen overtime and hinder their athletic career.

Most people have heard of the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt. In the film, the Oakland team scouts high school players since there are slim pickings in the major leagues. They use analytics to recruit the players and determine their salaries in order to gain a competitive strategy on the field. This is a very common strategy for any organization. They can type in a certain height, weight, and batting average into a system and individuals fitting that criteria will come up. The only issue with is that there could be other individuals that meet this criteria not in the system they have used. While the recruitment process is going on, usually some finances are worked out as well. Teams use statistics of a player to determine what they need to meet performance wise in order to retain a certain salary or payment that the player wants. This whole process about finding players and determining salaries and so on was found in an article on Analytics Magazine’s website. The article is titled Beyond Moneyball: The Rapidly Evolving World of Sports Analytics. In this article, the author highlights how the process of “decision making” comes into play with this diagram. The diagram sums up the determinants of recruitment and eventually salaries as well.

Finally, statistics can be used as predictors as to what a player could do in the future. Teams take past statistics and identify strengths and weakness and what could be improved by the player. And they use that to figure out if this player were to improve, how their improvements could play out in future games. But they use this process with other teams as well. Having another teams statistics could help pin point the best strategy in order to compete and win. Again this process in mentioned in the Moneyball article but also in an article about the Boston Celtics on boston.com. The article is Numbers Don’t Lie, Teams Use Advanced Analytics. The article talks about how the team uses previously obtained statistics to determine starting lineups, who will sub in and out for players, and the best strategy for competing against opponents. The Celtics have this individual named Michael Zarren who processes all the statistics of their own players and opponents. He is quoted saying, “If you're a Celtics fan, we’re doing everything we can to make the team as good as we can. if you're not a Celtics fan, maybe this is an interesting part of other sports that you don’t know about.” He goes on to say “It’s not stuff that everyone will be interesting in, but like every other field that is becoming more scientific, this stuff is not going away.” What he is saying is that all other teams use analytics and its becoming more of a need in order to win and improve. It may not be more interesting than the game itself but the whole game rests on analytics and predictions.

Statistics are more commonly known for involving probability. Probability is used for determining injuries and future performance, but there’s a lot more that goes into analytics with sports. The statistics on injuries could help prevent severe issues in the future and eventually hurting young athletes and older athletes careers. Most teams use them and those who don’t will begin to just because of how important it is for the game and for the basics of a team such as lineups or salaries.  It may not be the biggest and most exciting part of the game, but it ends up being one of the most important.