从英超联赛到
NFL，体育是一个价值数十亿美元的产业，顶级球队越来越多地转向技术来赋予他们优势。
直到最近，收集运动员的表现数据还是一个费力的过程。教练和体育科学家会花费数小时从比赛和训练课程中收集信息，提取与球员发展相关的信息。但基于技术的性能分析改变了这一切。
如今，运动员可以穿戴具有 GPS 跟踪功能的设备或背心，记录他们跑步的速度和距离，以及对他们身体的影响。这些信息有助于教练制定训练计划，以避免运动员疲劳并最大限度地提高比赛日的表现。
STATSports 是一家总部位于北爱尔兰的公司，是性能分析行业的领导者。英超联赛 (EPL) 的大多数球队都使用它的技术，顶级橄榄球队和美式橄榄球队也是如此。
2018 年，该公司与美国足球联合会达成了一项为期五年的协议，据报道价值 10 亿英镑（12 亿美元），STATSports 表示将看到数百万美国各级球员使用其设备。
“当我们 12 年前创办这家公司时，这项技术还处于起步阶段，”STATSports 联合创始人 Sean O'Connor 告诉 CNN Business。 “现在，它在各个级别的大多数运动中都很常见，现在是能够从中获得最大收益。”
该公司于 2020 年发布的 Sonra 3.0 软件让球队几乎可以立即通过 iPad 或 Apple (AAPL) Watch 查看数据，这样即使在比赛期间，球员和教练也可以在比赛中获得反馈并调整战术。
球员表现
自 2017 年以来，汤姆·艾伦一直是阿森纳足球俱乐部的首席体育科学家。他说球员和教练现在都对表现数据表现出兴趣。
“当我刚开始的时候，没有人 [球员] 真的太在意这些统计数据，”他说。 “现在，每个人都习惯于看到发送到手机的信息，他们对手机的改进方式非常感兴趣。
“精英运动员，他们总是非常有竞争力。他们想知道，'为什么有人做得比我多？我应该做得比那多，'而且他们正在互相推动。”
在过去的一年中，该技术还被用于跟踪训练场外的表现。随着英国于 2020 年 3 月进入封锁状态，并且英超联赛暂停，俱乐部使用 STATSports 设备来跟踪远程训练的球员。
艾伦解释说：“我们经历了一个非常艰难的政权，试图让他们为 Covid 后即将发生的事情做好准备。” “我们在小组中有一个排行榜，我们把每个人都团结在一起，你会看到竞争从天而降。”
在联赛暂停期间，STATSports 编制了一份“球员距离报告”，显示了球员在训练期间彼此相距两米之内的时间——这是政府社会疏远政策建议的最小距离。作为重启联赛努力的一部分，英超联赛向政府提交了数据。
向下过滤
根据 Grand View Research 的数据，到 2025 年，体育分析行业的价值可能达到 46 亿美元，随着该技术开始渗透到业余水平。
澳大利亚的 Catapult（也与 EPL 团队合作）和 STATSports 等公司开发了针对业余市场的系统，让用户可以将他们的表现与同行和专业人士进行比较。
“你可以和你的朋友建立一个联盟，你也可以将自己与精英职业选手进行比较，并衡量你在这方面的位置，”奥康纳说。 “对此有很大的胃口，而且还在增长。
“儿童和青年足球运动员的弱点是下一波技术进步的到来。”
How wearable tech helped elite athletes through the pandemic
London (CNN Business)From the English Premier League to the NFL, sport is a multibillion-dollar industry, and top teams are increasingly turning to technology to give them the edge.
Until recently, gathering athletes' performance data was a laborious process. Coaches and sports scientists would spend hours compiling information from games and training sessions, pulling out the information relevant to their players' development. But technology-based performance analytics has changed all that.
These days, athletes can wear devices or vests with GPS-tracking capabilities that record the speed and distance they run, as well as the impacts on their body. The information helps coaches develop training plans to avoid athlete fatigue and maximize performance for match days.
STATSports, a company based in Northern Ireland, is a leader in the performance analytics industry. Most teams in the English Premier League (EPL) use its technology, as do top rugby and American football teams.
In 2018, the firm secured a five-year deal with the US Soccer Federation, reported to be worth ￡1 billion ($1.2 billion) which STATSports said would see millions of US players at all levels using its devices.
"When we started the company 12 years ago, this technology was in its infancy," STATSports co-founder Sean O'Connor told CNN Business. "Now, it's common throughout most sports at all levels and it's now about being able to get the maximum from it."
The company's Sonra 3.0 software released in 2020 lets teams view data almost instantly from an iPad or Apple (AAPL) Watch, so that even during competition, players and coaches can get feedback and adjust tactics mid-game.
Player performance
Tom Allen has been Arsenal Football Club's lead sport scientist since 2017. He says players, as well as coaches, are now showing an interest in performance data.
"When I first started, no one [player] was really too bothered about these statistics," he said. "Now, everyone is used to seeing information sent to the phones and they take a key interest in how they're improving.
"The elite athletes, they're always very competitive. They want to know, 'why is someone doing more than me? I should be doing more than that,' and they're pushing each other."
Over the past year, the technology has also been used to track performance away from the training ground. As the United Kingdom went into lockdown in March 2020, and the English Premier League was temporarily suspended, clubs used STATSports devices to keep track of their players as they trained remotely.
"We went through a very tough regime to try and get them ready for what was going to come along the line post-Covid," Allen explained. "We had a leader board within the group and we teamed everyone up together and you saw the competition go through the roof."
While the league was suspended, STATSports compiled a "player proximity report" that showed how much time during training sessions players spent within two meters of each other — the minimum distance recommended by the government's social distancing policy. The EPL presented the data to the government as part of its efforts to restart the league.
Filtering down
The sports analytics industry could be worth $4.6 billion by 2025, according to Grand View Research, with the technology starting to filter down to the amateur level.
Companies such as Australia's Catapult — which also works with EPL teams — and STATSports have developed systems targeted at the amateur market, letting users compare their performance to their peers and to professionals.
"You can create a league with your friends, you can compare yourself to the elite pros as well, and gauge where you are in relation to that," says O'Connor. "There's a huge appetite for that and it's growing.
"That underbelly of kids and youth football players is where the next wave of technology advances will come."
