Keeping an eye on the competition
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Performance Analysis
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EIS 25 March 2011
Providing solutions to performance questions relies on the best combination of applied, academic and innovation expertise to make things happen.
So when English Institute of Sport (EIS) Performance Analyst Robert Gibson, working with GB Boxing, highlighted the need for adaptations to his set up in order to deliver the best feedback to coaches and athletes, the EIS combined with UK Sport’s Research & Innovation team and Sheffield Hallam University to come up with the answers.
Having identified Sheffield Hallam as leaders in the sports engineering field, UK Sport and EIS combined to invest in solutions to come up with a reoccurring performance issue within performance analysis – real time feedback, opponent information breakdown and a cutting edge database to help athletes keep ahead of the competition.
“Working on a daily basis with the sports we know what performance questions remain unanswered” explains Stafford Murray, Head of Performance Analysis, Biomechanics and Skill Acquisition a the EIS.
“Working through UK Sport with Sheffield Hallam allowed us to open these problems up and tailor the solutions we got back.”
EIS Performance Analyst Robert Gibson led the project which began with GB Boxing 18 months ago.
“The coaches wanted to recall any practice, training or competition opponent whilst they were in the gym training as well as out at competitions” he explains.
“What Sheffield Hallam helped develop has been a simple touch screen solution, backed up by a huge database we’ve inputted into over time plus a camera system set up in the gym to help us select where we capture data during bouts.
“We are able to provide real time feedback on the majority of opponents our squad are likely to face and break down the analysis I’ve done on them to provide an important tool when preparing athletes for bouts” he adds.
Developing strategies around tactics and viewing the opposition ahead of a bout is already having a promising effect on performance, with Gibson estimating around eight out of ten bouts being won at tournaments where the new set up has been used, dropping to around four out of ten when athletes go in without the breadth of information it provides.
When asked how the system compares internationally, Gibson adds; “Lots of nations film at tournaments but typically this will be just their own squad whereas we try to get as many competitors as we can as well as our own squad to ensure we get comprehensive data to feedback to athletes and coaches.
"I’ve not seen similar software or performance analysts working with other squads.”
Savannah Marshall, GB Boxing’s 75kg women’s boxing 2012 prospect, has already seen the benefits of the system, having been part of the programme for the past year and joined a centralised programme at the start of 2011.
“I’m on the system all of the time” she says. “It’s great to spy on the opposition and I also look at myself which is really useful to check on my tactics.
“I’ll sit with Rob and look at the opponents I’m about to face and it gives me confidence” she adds.
GB Boxing Performance Director, Rob McCracken, believes the system is a key tool in helping avoid athletes going into events ‘blind’.
“The support team plays a massive part in helping the squad prepare” says McCracken. “ You’re going in blind if you don’t have the right information about your opponents and being able to use this set up to analyse athletes’ techniques as well as who they’ll face helps is an important part of their preparation.”
Professor Steve Haake from Sheffield Hallam University said: "The technology installed here was designed by our engineer at Sheffield Hallam University, who worked with the GB Boxing Coaching team and EIS Performance Analyst to give GB Boxing exactly what they wanted over a period of 18 months as part of the UK Sport R&I project. It is now the envy of the boxing world - an elite gym with state-of-the-art coaching technology. The system has evolved so that the sport can use it in tournaments and now they have information not just about our own boxers but their opponents as well."
The kit has already providing athletes with data leading into the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games last year, and will be used leading up to the World Championships this Autumn.
For more on this story, visit The Engineer website, for an interview with EIS Performance Analyst Rob Gibson
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