Essentially performance analysis is the provision of objective feedback to athletes trying to achieve an improvement in performance. It’s telling the athlete what actually happened as opposed to what they perceived to be happening.
Both video and statistics are used to assist the athlete – after all the camera never lies! Performance analysis is widely utilised in elite sport today; it’s instant, it’s simple, it’s real and it can have immediate effect on performance.
World Squash No.1 Peter Nicol uses it before and after each competitive match and during his training to monitor and modify his technique. Every England cricketer – bowlers and batsmen – would have been exposed to it and the RFU and National Badminton Association have both utilised it. Performance Analysis can take place in either training or competition. Within a training environment, technical changes would be made to an athlete’s technique. Using technical analysis software packages we can provide real-time feedback to the coach and athlete. Within the software we are able to create split-screen comparisons of the athlete with themselves pre and post injury or pre and post coaching intervention or against a role model.
In a competition environment, things are slightly different. The night before a match the athlete would look at the profile and stats of their opponent for the next day. From that, they would discuss the data with a coach and that would contribute, along with past experiences, to a gameplan. They would also watch their own (last) match and discuss any areas of concern.
On the morning of the match, the athlete would watch a motivational video, recap on the gameplan with the coach and hopefully win! A performance analyst will never try to tell a coach what to do, but will back up the coach and highlight areas that may need attention. |
