Audiences and Messages

"Ultimately, data visualisation is more than complex software or the prettying up of spreadsheets...It's about the most ancient of social rituals: storytelling." - Maria Popova (2009)

This part of Sport Informatics and Analytics refers to how all of the information gathered is then relayed to a wide range of audiences. Whether it be from sports analysts to coaches, from coaches to players, or from broadcasting organisations to the public.

Sport coverage in the US is the strongest that I have come across for storytelling using data. Americans love their stats in sport - think the Basketball big 5 categories: Points, Rebounds, Steals, Blocks and Assists. This video is a fantastic example of how to explain the science behind a specific sport phenomena in a visually pleasing way.

Feedforward -

"the behavioural change that results from the repeated observation of oneself on videotapes that show only desired behaviours". - Peter Dowrick

Feedforward is an interesting theory as it centres more on someone being able to learn from themselves rather than others. Not to be confused with 'feedback', Feedforward is a revolutionary way of coaching as it focusses on a desired future outcome which can be achieved, rather than an event in the past which cannot be changed.

Visualisation -

"There's no one-size-fits-all solution to collecting, understanding and visualising information" - Chiasson and Gregory

The thing about visualisation in a data sharing sense is that, often a high volume of information will need to be shared in a very short space of time or space. The simpler a graph or video is to understand, the better for the reader.

Bar graphs are, in my experience, the most effective at this. See below:

This summarises over 40 different sports where the data for hundreds or even thousands of athletes would have been recorded. It is easy to gain the desired information and it is visually pleasing thanks to the colour scheme.

Personal Learning Environment (PLE) -

Rather than review an operation holistically on an infrequent basis, a PLE is a constant "check-in"on all parts of a job, particularly those which need a slight or dramatic improvement.

In my particular field, a PLE has its benefits. As a coach, the ability to clearly articulate and visualise what you want to achieve is important to overall success. However, it is the feedback, as well as feedforward which ultimately shapes a coaches ability.

A good coach needs to be able to adapt with a game as it does, but also learn from previous mistakes and apply facets from other influences to make one winning formula.

#visualisation