Sport Informatics and Analytics/Performance Monitoring

Overview
Performance monitoring is presented as Theme 3 in this course. This is a time of rapid change on the quantification of one's own as well as others' performances. This theme: In addition to this introduction, the course includes these topics as part of this theme: It contains a discussion of the Expected Goals (xG) metric too.
 * Provides a background to performance monitoring.
 * Discusses the development of wearable technologies to monitor performance.
 * Explores motion and video tracking technologies.
 * The quantified self
 * Capstone

Video signpost
In this video, Jocelyn Mara discusses how she monitors athlete performance. Jocelyn is a graduate of the University of Canberra and was a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sport and Exercise at the University in 2015. She became a full time member of staff at the University of Canberra in 2016. She has been a postgraduate scholar in performance analysis at the Australian Institute of Sport. Her PhD research included working with the Canberra United football team to identify the physical and physiological characteristics of elite female soccer players. For examples of her research, see: the periodisation and physical performance in elite female soccer players (2015) ; the acceleration and deceleration profiles of elite female soccer players during competitive matches (2017a) ; quantifying the high-speed running and sprinting profiles of elite female soccer players during competitive matches (2017b) ; the accuracy and reliability of a new optical player tracking system for measuring displacement of soccer players (2017c).

Resources

 * Theme overview.
 * A slide presentation.
 * A mind map that includes resources up to 2015. For more recent resources, 2016 onward, see | this site.
 * Performance monitoring suggestions on the course wiki.
 * Video suggestions. (See slides 7 and 8)
 * Some additional resources.
 * A data file from women's football for you to investigate.

Wearable Technologies
Since this course started in 2015, there has been an enormous change in wearable technologies. In a review paper, titled Wearables for Integrative Performance and Tactic Analyses: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions Jonas Lutz (2019) and his colleagues examine the use of micro-electromechanical systems that "enable the capture of relevant physiological and tactical information in individual and team sports". Jonas and his colleagues focus in their paper on reliability and validity, challenges, and future directions.

Mike Butler and Paul Luebbers (2018) provide a summary of developments in health and fitness wearables.

André Henriksen and his colleagues (2018) report on the use of fitness trackers and smartwatches to measure physical activity. The The objective of their study was to examine the availability of wrist-worn fitness wearables and analyze availability of relevant fitness sensors from 2011 to 2017. Lynne Feehan and her colleagues (2018) investigate the accuracy of Fitbit devices in their paper. They conclude: Other than for measures of steps in adults with no limitations in mobility, discretion should be used when considering the use of Fitbit devices as an outcome measurement tool in research or to inform health care decisions, as there are seemingly a limited number of situations where the device is likely to provide accurate measurement.

An introduction to performance monitoring
Heidi Thornton and her colleagues (2019) note: Within professional team sports, the collection and analysis of athlete monitoring data is common practice in the aim of assessing fatigue and subsequent adaptation responses, examining performance potential as well as minimizing the risk of injury and/or illness. As you read the material shared here, you might like to consider Heidi and her colleagues' observation: Athlete monitoring systems should be underpinned by appropriate data analysis and interpretation, in order to enable the rapid reporting of simplistic and scientifically valid feedback. Using the correct scientific and statistical approaches can improve the confidence of decisions made from athlete monitoring data. Matt Taberner and his colleagues (2019) provided an example of the issues raised by Heidi and her colleagues. Matt and his colleagues conclude: In the present study augmented GPS technology (GPS-2) and the TRACAB camera system provided interchangeable measures of positional tracking metrics to allow concurrent assessment and monitoring of training and competition in football players. However, we recommend practitioners evaluate their own systems to identify where errors exist, calculate and apply the regression equations to confidently interchange data.

Case studies
We present sixteen case studies, from eleven sports, here to exemplify the range of approaches taken to monitor performance in sport contexts. Our first case study (association football) indicates the level of detail that can be used to discuss performance monitoring.

Athlete management systems
In recent years, there has been a growth in the literature about athlete monitoring systems.

Aaron Coutts, Stephen Crowcroft and Tom Kempton (2018) provide an overview of this literature in their discussion of the theory and practice of athlete monitoring. Their discussion includes a note of caution: despite a growing body of applied work in high-performance sport, there is still a relatively poor understanding of the most appropriate tools and methods that can be used to assess how individuals are coping with training.

In a study of fourteen nationally competitive swimmers, Stephen Crowcroft and his colleagues (2017) observed: Many monitoring variables are sensitive to changes in fitness and fatigue. However, no single monitoring variable could discriminate performance change. As such the use of a multidimensional system that may be able to better account for variations in fitness and fatigue should be considered.

We suggest that you have a look at a presentation by Todd Ryall and Ian Morrow (2018) that provides an example of the implementation of an an athlete management system over a five year period in collaboration with an industry partner in order to reflect on the relationship between theory and practice in athlete data management.

Two examples of proprietary system documentation illustrate the role athlete management systems are playing in sport. KangaTech reported their use analytics dashboards to identify risk factors in athlete preparation and maintenance. Catapult shared their observations about the process of athlete monitoring (August 2018).

A number of presentations from the 2018 Human Performance Summit were shared online as video presentations including overviews by Simon Harries (rugby union) and Lisa Alexander (netball).

Emma Neuport, Stewart Cotterill and Simona Jobson (2019) discussed the adherence of 9 female sprint water sport athletes to a training monitoring system and noted "perceptions of opaque or unfair decision making on training-program modifications and insufficient feedback were the primary causes for poor athlete adherence".