Analytics are a big part of modern sports, teams use analytics to make decisions to better their team or players chance for success. Sports analytics is the use of data and statistics to improve decisions that give coaches and players a clear path to improve. Teams collect information such as player speed, shot location, swing path, heart rate, and efficiency to find advantages numbers can reveal things that can’t be drawn to attention by just watching the game. Analytics are very important to sports teams and players in today’s sports, analytics are most used in sports like Football and Baseball because there is a lot of strategies that go into both of these sports that analytics can help give an advantage to a team.

Sports analytics all started with baseball, the Oakland A’s found a way to use analytics to find undervalued talent in players to help them find good players for less money so they don’t blow up their salary cap. This would work in their favor because they get good players under the radar for less money so they can get a lot of players like this so they can build a competitive team. Other teams would start to adopt this method and try and use it to help their team. Sports Analytics is not just used in game it is also used in recruiting and scouting.

Analytics are used for different uses in all different types of sports to get advantages over their opponents, and for athletes to improve their game. Teams in the NBA use analytics to track shot locations to figure out where players miss and makes are from so they can use this information to help draw up players for certain players strengths. Teams also use analytics to track how tired a player gets during a workout so they can keep their players healthy and ready for their next game. NFL teams use analytics to decide whether to do certain things during certain times, for example going for it on fourth and two when your down by three at the sixty yard line may be a good idea because you need to get points and its only two yards. MLB teams use analytics to help to decide when they need their defense to shift over or not. They also use analytics to pick what their pitcher throws to the hitter because the hitter may not be able to hit a screwball as well as he hits the fastball so the pitcher will be told to throw more screwballs than fastballs to lower the chances of the hitter actually getting a hit. Analytics helps pitchers find the spin rate and spin for each of their pitches to maximize their accuracy to increase the amount of strikes they throw. Sports Analytics isn’t just for sports teams, sports like golf use a lot of analytics to help them improve their swing and find out what holes they have in their game. Strokes gained is a terminology used a lot in golf, it means were golfers are gaining the most strokes in their game which is not a good thing.

Sports teams use analytics a lot and are very important to them but why do teams use analytics so much? Teams and athletes use analytics to help them make better decisions and reduce guessing. An example of this would be a golfer who has 154 yards to the pin and instead of guessing which club to use, they use analytics to find what distance each club goes to find the best possible club for this situation. Teams and athletes use analytics to gain a competitive edge over their opponent by using analytical information to boost information. Analytics helps with player development and scouting allowing teams to find great athletes that might fall under the radar. Injury prevention is backed by analytics to help athletes from overworking themselves.

Although there is a lot of good in analytics some people think that using to much is hurting sports. Some people believe that some teams rely on statistics too much and  it removes the “feel” and creativity in sports. Athletes sometimes feel like their talent is limited because of analytics because the numbers are against them even though the numbers aren’t always true it’s  just a percentage.  I think the earliest a player has disliked the use of analytics would be Shaquile O’ Neal, teams would foul Shaq as much as possible to stop him from scoring and get to him to the free throw line where he struggled his whole career from, shooting only 52.7% from the line. Teams would take their chance with this idea and this term would become known as the “Hack-A-Shaq”, this would be a term used throughout the NBA and would become a controversial topic at the time. Analytics can be controversial but there has been no serious problems with them in sports yet.

The future of sports analytics is very big with AI becoming a tool for people,  athletes and teams who will be able to use AI to help progress their team and game with more information. Professional golfer Bryson Dechambeau partnered up with “Sportsbox AI” and has made an app for golfers to improve their swing. Golfers are able to take videos of their swing from different angles and have AI look over them to help give pointers and drills specifically made for the golfer. Athletes no matter what skill level are always looking to improve and analytics is a very helpful tool to understand and for athletes to apply to their game.

Sports analytics being on the rise can be a good thing for all levels of athletes and sports teams to use.  Teams and athletes will be able to use analytics to improve their game as much as possible until they get to their absolute best. Jobs surrounding sports analytics have been increasing because professional sports teams have been investing more into sports analytics. These people help teams make decisions on many things like the recovery athletes are getting and looking at all the stats and helping teams make decision based on those stats. I think sports analytics are very important for athletes to start getting into but athletes must remember that the numbers aren’t everything and you can get lucky or unlucky every now and then. Sports analytics will continue to grow and develop athletes to get them to where they need to be as athletes to help their team or themselves out for the better.