20 years ago you would face being laughed out of the room if you suggested using data to help improve your game in football. However this unlikely marriage of a game of passion with a realm of statistics has been enabled by a digital revolution, that has brought logic and relevance to the latter. With sophisticated sports analysis software making sense of the numbers, every level of this sporting world is able to utilise historical and current data to improve performance and make informed decisions.

A Football Field of Facts and Figures

Data can and is collected on pretty much every aspect of this complex sport. From club level information of league tables and goals scored, to individual statistic on each player, once upon a time it would have taken an experienced analyst to decipher all of this information.

And why is it so essential? Knowing who’s played which games, which players are performing well and which ones need improvement, tracking physical fitness and monitoring the overall performance of the club enables identification of both strong and weak points. By doing so, areas for improvement can quickly be addressed, supported by evidence rather than trial and error. As a result, the whole organisation can move forward with a confident strategy for sporting success.

A Digital Age

One of the biggest problems that football clubs had in the past was filtering the data, trends and key information that was picked up through data analysis down to every level of the organisation. However this is where digital technology steps in. Sports analysis software can be tailored for use of everyone within the club, allowing communication between every level with ease.

Communication is inseparable from the whole process of progress in a sporting organisation, and such software ingrates this with data, analysis and management all in one. This allows those at the top to take care of organisation and strategy, managing the recruitment and transfers and well as the day-to-day running of the club. Meanwhile the coaches and manager are able to communicate these strategies to the team, and the players themselves are able to absorb feedback.

As communication works both ways, players can also keep the club updated with their fitness and well-being, allowing the organisation to track the performance of individuals to avoid over-training and maximise fitness levels. This can be tracked against match performance, to pick out underlying issues and take a comprehensive approach to training and player management. In doing so, it soon becomes clear that football is as much a science as a sport. And using technology to this end can create a recipe for success.

If your organisation hasn’t adopted the use of sports analysis software yet, don’t get left in the dark ages. Whether yours is a professional football team or an up-and-coming university organisation, such tools can benefit any sports club, not just in football but throughout rest of the sporting world too. Give it a go and see how far it takes you.

Article written by Kelly Gilmour-Grassam, a freelance copywriter from Yorkshire. You can follow her on Twitter @KellyGGrassam. This article is written with useful information from The Sports Office.

Photo Credits – Wikipedia

Related Blogs –

There’s Software For Coaching Now!
Just What Is Sports Science?