New Indian Express: Teams embracing use of data, wary of repercussions

By Swaroop Swaminathan

CHENNAI: At the recently concluded Junior Hockey World Cup in Lucknow, there was a place that was out of bounds for everyone, from the tea lady to accredited media.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) referred to it as ‘The Tower’. A request to visit was turned down before the reporter finished the question. Just as well because it housed some important people — number crunchers and sports scientists.

Ever since the success of Billy Beane’s Oakland Athletics was chronicled through Michael Lewis’ book in 2003 (Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game), a vast number of teams have tried to integrate big data into sporting activities. It was mainly a thing done by sports franchises in the US before it got exported to other parts of the world. Teams first used it to find and recruit players who may have otherwise slipped through the system. Soon enough, sports scientists and video analysts started using data to find weaknesses of potential opponents.

Field hockey may have joined the sabermetrics bandwagon late but they are fully on board now. All teams in Lucknow had a numbers guy (or video analyst) placed in ‘The Tower’. The importance of someone being on the inside looking from up top (it was a two-storied structure on either end of the pitch with just enough room for 16 people) was magnified by a gesture made by Australian coach, Ben Bishop, immediately after their quarterfinal against Netherlands. A thumbs up signal to his man up there.

“It’s information we get real time during a match so we have the ability to make changes with reference to the numbers we get,” he says on the Kookaburras’ reliance on numbers. There is a danger that teams could constrict the freedom given to players and Bishop is aware of that. “In the end, it’s about how we play our hockey. We never interpret data at the cost of losing autonomy (of our system).”

The Dutch also have their own boffins working out all fractions and decimals. The interesting thing, though, is they are hardly gospel. “I had a word with my scientist,” coach Eric Verboom said. “We led in all three — circle penetrations, clear chances and penalty corners. When you lead in those three, the percentages say you go on to win. So obviously they can be wrong,” he said after the Australia match.

Some of the information they get during real time (thanks to wearable technology) pertains to stuff like whether a defence tries to overload one part of the pitch, the pace of attack during transition, heat maps of players. That helps to change your game plan according to Belgium coach Jeroen Baart. “It helps in the sense that we share it with our players and ask them to change their ways. But we need to be careful with what we share.”

England’s Jon Bleby holds a similar opinion. “It’s an important part of preparations but it shouldn’t be the only tool to analyse opponents. You don’t want your players to be so robotic that they lose the ability to feel games.” Going forward, most accept that it will play an increasingly important role in scouting and setting up a tactical system to tackle teams. For now though, the common sentiment throughout is echoed by Verboom. “You can be so obsessive over this that you remember it in your sleep. But only two things matter – goals for and goals against.”