Coming soon · Book Profile
Professional Practice in Sport Performance Analysis
A practically grounded guide to the day-to-day realities of working as an applied sport performance analyst, spanning technology, coaching, interdisciplinary collaboration, professional development, ethics and economics.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Professional Practice in Sport Performance Analysis takes the reader inside the messy, dynamic, technologically rich world of the modern applied performance analyst. Rather than rehearsing the theory found in other texts, Andrew Butterworth and his contributors focus on the on-the-job realities: how analysis fits within the complex and non-linear coaching process, how to select and afford the right technologies, how to work meaningfully within an interdisciplinary sport science team, how to build multimedia performance profiles that respect context, how analysis can develop coaches themselves, and how to navigate the micropolitics, health and safety hazards, and economic constraints of the industry. Blending peer-reviewed evidence with the author's twelve-plus years of elite netball and badminton experience, the book equips current and aspiring analysts to develop technical competence, professional literacy, and the interpersonal skill needed to land messages with coaches and athletes and forge a successful career in an oversubscribed field.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An aspiring or practising sport performance analyst who wants to work successfully and sustainably as an applied practitioner within elite sport.
- The problem
- The analyst must navigate an oversubscribed, technologically complex, competitive industry and deliver impactful analysis within a messy coaching process. They feel uncertain, vulnerable and unsure how to stand out, fit in, and prove their worth to coaches and athletes.
- The plan
- Understand coaching and the coaching process so you can situate your role within it.
- Select and afford the right technologies around a clear pedagogical rationale.
- Learn to work collaboratively within an interdisciplinary sport science team.
- Build valid, contextual multimedia performance profiles and deliver them impactfully.
- Use analysis to develop coaches and enhance your own professional literacy.
- The payoff
- The analyst delivers objective, timely, pedagogically sound feedback that coaches and athletes trust and act upon. · They collaborate as a valued interdisciplinary team member and navigate micropolitics with confidence. · They build a sustainable career, standing out in a competitive market while protecting their own wellbeing.
See our guide
Additional reading
- Qualitative Diagnosis of Human Movement · Duane V. Knudson
Presented as the foundational text for the four-phase process of analyzing and coaching technique, a key component of performance analysis.
- Various works on coach recall and notational analysis · Ian M. Franks (often with M. Hughes or G. Miller)
The work of Franks is cited throughout as providing the original rationale for performance analysis (e.g., poor coach recall) and for foundational concepts in notational system design.
- The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball · Tango, T. M., Lichtman, M. G., and Dolphin, A. E.
Cited as a detailed treatment of how analytic methods can be used to answer specific questions about baseball strategy, representing a deep application of the book's principles.
- Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won · Moskowitz, T. J., and Wertheim, L. J.
Recommended for showing how analytic methods can be used to address a wide range of sports issues, similar to the scope of the author's own book.
- Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football · Winston, W. L.
Referenced for its applications of analytic methods to a variety of sports, including football-specific examples like expected points.
- The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives · Mlodinow, L.
Suggested for its excellent non-technical description of the intuition behind probability and randomness, which is a foundational concept of the book.
- Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences · Agresti, A., and Finlay, B.
The author's favorite introductory statistics text, recommended for its wide range of topics and emphasis on applications closely related to those in sports.
- Baseball between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong · Keri, J. (Ed.)
Mentioned as a collection of interesting essays where analytic methods are used to study specific sports issues, such as comparing players from different eras.
- The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action · Donald A. Schon
Provides the foundational theory for experiential learning and reflective practice, which is presented in Chapter 5 as a crucial method for coaches to develop their knowledge.
- The Saturated Self · Kenneth J. Gergen
Introduces the concepts of 'romanticist', 'modernist', and 'post-modernist' selves, used in Chapter 6 to critique a coach's rigid and psychologically harmful model of athlete identity.