Has been using advanced analytics, statistics. And artificial intelligence in her sports strategy for 15 years. When she started, few believed in the benefits of data. Today, from soccer and basketball to athletics and tennis. They all have their own teams or work with specialized companies.
Carolina Marin remains silent, motionless in the darkness of the room. At the photographer’s signal, the Olympic champion. And three-time world champion in badminton jumps up. She raises her racket and strikes . A flash machine gun capture every moment. Beneath the blinding flicker, his body links one movement. After another, like an automaton. Repeat the operation up to 16 times. Always with the precision with which a dancer would perform her choreography. It is not a machine, but there is something robotic about the perfect executions of it.
Also in his way of working
It relies on mathematical statistics, advanced analytics. And artificial intelligence (AI) to improve her technique and shape her training. “Above all, they help me to know the weak points of my rivals and to adapt the game plan to each opponent.” Says the 27-year-old from Huelva. When she started, in 2006, only a few believed in the benefits of data. Today, with the new technologies, the sophistication of the programs. And the precision of the answers, everyone has jumped on the wave. Big data and everything that surrounds it has become an indispensable tool for elite 해외축구중계 . Marin was 14 years old when she left her native Huelva,
Separated from her family and settled in the High Performance Center in Madrid. Ready to become a professional badminton player. By then, the so-called big data had already revolutionized sectors. Such as banking or advertising —that began in the nineties of the last century—. In sports, however, its use was limited to the world of betting and audiences: offering the public statistical data on live broadcasts (percentage of baskets/goals/ home run off a player, a team, etc.). This explains why the pioneers in integrating it into. their strategies were mass sports such as basketball. The NBA has a long tradition of data collection with specialized companies. Such as Second Spectrum— or baseball.
It was that sports that marked the real turning point.
In 2002, the Oakland Athletics based their game strategies. And signings on statistics and mathematical predictions. They thought they were crazy. But that same year they broke a historical record with 20 consecutive victories. And qualified for the playoffs after decades of decline. A story that includes the film Money ball (2011), starring Brad Pitt. The Money ball philosophy spread like wildfire, although few dared to use it at the time. In 2004, the Boston Red Sox became champions after almost a century without success. The British track cycling team jumped on the bandwagon. And four years later won 14 medals at the Beijing Games. 10 more than in the previous ones; and Fernando Rivas. Who had landed as coach of the Spanish Badminton Federation that same 2004. bBcame one of the pioneers in Spain in using them. “Carolina has been our guinea pig. We have experimented with her over the years”. National Award 2014. And Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit 2016, it seems that she is not doing.
In sports, the data comes from video analysis.
Rivas tries to add up the number of hours they have dedicated to it, but the calculation is impossible for him. “For an experienced analyst, an hour of video takes an hour and 45 minutes…”, he starts. “You have to watch the game and write down absolutely everything: who serves, how they serve, their position on the court at that moment, how the pass is made… Then we import the notes into Excel and make dynamic tables to look for patterns. “Until recently, that access to data depended on the investment capacity of each team.
Investment in time, as in the case of Rivas and Marin:
“We have spent more hours collecting and analyzing data. And making graphs than training. And look how many hours of training we put in”, laughs Rivas. Or investment in money. The sports Analysis market moved more than 920 million euros in 2020. according to Grand View Research. And it is estimate that by 2025 it will rise to 3,380 million. Companies like Stats Perform (Opta) have been collecting and selling sports data. The world leader in rugby, cricket and soccer – since the turn of the century.
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