Performance Funnel

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Micro Data
Management
ATHLETE PERFORMANCE
TRACKING
using big data to track and predict performance

INTRODUCTION
Kevin Ankrom High Performance Director
Key objectives:
 Importance of storing and analyzing critical athlete performance
data
 Identify how athlete performance tracking can impact athlete talent
development decision making processes
 Key performance trends that can emerge from athlete performance
tracking
 SAS was developed at North Carolina State University from 1966 until 1976, when SAS
Institute was incorporated
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ATHLETE PERFORMANCE TRACKING

WHY AM I HERE?
 Where performance is centralized learning
across people occurs
 A conversation in the kitchen
 We sometimes really don’t know each other…
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MY BACKGROUND
 Athlete: golf - basketball - athletics
 I was not a computer science major
 Always interested in stats - influencer for me
 I am a COACH and will always be one
 Head Coach/Performance Director
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USA
Middle East Asia
Oceania
Europe
 Worked in sport around the world
 Everywhere people looking for the
performance edge

MY MOTIVATION
 Is to deliver performance, medals, and growth
in the sport
 As a coach/PD always looking for ways to
justify and quantify performance and
investment
 Looking to use data or metrics to guide and
drive the performance
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MY MOTIVATION
 How many times have you heard these:
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I know best
Gut feeling
I believe from my experience
Has the potential
Compared to those
individuals I am better
This athlete is going to be an Olympian!
How much time and resources have been invested in the DREAM
driven these statements... “Billy Bean” - GM Oakland A’s

MY MOTIVATION
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 In my sport I was looking for a way to
MONEYBALL ATHLETICS
“The essence of Moneyball is applying rigorous statistical analysis to player evaluations”

MY CURIOSITIES
 What technology are sports using:
 Cutting edge technology?
 What are you innovations?
 What is driving your coaching or performance?
 How do you justify/quantify performance and
investment support?
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TASK #1
 What is happening in your sport:
 Rowing – Swimming – Sailing – Boxing using big data
 Driving coaching performance?
 Justify/quantify performance and investment?
 Cutting edge technology/innovations being used?
 Create a list and share…
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TASK #2
 Generic performance analysis with 3 groups.
The theme of “why is data met with resistance”.
Use data to convince them!
1. Athlete does not want to believe the numbers
(rowing)
2. Group of coaches don’t buy into the standards
(athletics)
3. Your main investment stakeholder wants evidence
to invest in your sport (triathlon)
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“why is data met with resistance”.

Olympic standard 100m = 10.15
1. What do you need to know about
the standard… the critical data?
2. As the head coach what does the
standard do for you?
3. How do you convince your coaches
to buy into the standards?
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Generic Performance Analysis:

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THE ORIGIN OF THE INNOVATION

MY SPORT – ATHLETICS
 Working globally I was faced with these same
scenarios to convince athletes, coaches and investors
 I reached a point in my career when I got a job with
Athletics New Zealand and as a PD saying:
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I know best
I believe from my experience
Has the potential
This athlete is going to be an Olympian!
DID NOT WORK ! ! !

MY SPORT – ATHLETICS
 In 2007 I found myself in my first “sport review”… at a
time in NZL there was no culture of evidence based
data and other sports got funding based on
relationships, history and previous results
 I was looking for a way to utilize technology and
evidence based data to up my game and get the
competitive edge and sell the message ! ! !
 How do I get in this game? I was not football or
rugby… big sports with lots of resources and a history
of performance analysis
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MY MOTIVATION
 How do I Moneyball Athletics?
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how?
WHY?
HOW?
why?
HOW?
why?
WHY?
WHAT?
where?
what?
how?

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PERFORMANCE FUNNEL DEVELOPMENT

Performance Funnel Development
 I searched the globe for solutions… with little success
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Performance Data
No Programmes
Those that had performance data did not
want to share…

 Innovate… The drive to build something to get the
competitive edge – invent the wheel
 What are my barriers?
 What technology was I going to use to build this?
 What skills do I need?
 What do I have to learn?
 Time and Resource
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 What are my barriers?
 What technology was I going to use to build this?
-Picked an application that was widely used – Excel
 What skills do I need?
-Math / Programming
 What do I have to learn?
-Making charts / writing formulas
 Time and Resource
-Data entry lengthy process
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 Simple solution…
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The first Performance Funnel chart

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2007 Annual Sports Review
Medal
Top 8
Top 16
Athletes Performance
1500m
3:33.83
Shot Put
20.63m
My performance
analysis widely
went unnoticed

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 …continued to drive my innovation trying to share this project
with other coaches and Performance Directors. I shared at forums
and meetings… I had no interest from the sport community
and even got bumped from a coaches forum.
 That all changed in 2008 when two things happened.
 GOLD
 BRONZE
Shot Put
20.63m 2008 Prediction
20.56m
1500m
3:33.83 2008 Prediction
3:33.85

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 Finally had cause for attention
 The sport and our investors saw this as a
valuable tool and wanted to know more
 NZL sport applied this type performance
analysis model around all investment sports
Objective
 Importance of analyzing critical athlete
performance data

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WHAT IS A PERFORMANCE FUNNEL?
 Spent first two years
building a chart into a
workable tool
 Developed it over the last
five years into a
Performance Analysis
programme and a System

 Find a way to utilize technology and evidence based
data to develop a system for athletes, coaches and
federations to:
-Track athletes performance and predict future performance
-Make justification for funding (for the programme) 
-Identify talent and invest in the right athletes / carding selection
-Make championship team selections
-Drive coaching performance and planning
-Identifying performance gaps
-Goal setting - set championship expectations
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The Performance Funnels are
compiled from the results of the
last 14 years of major
championships: The performance
profile of every top 16 in every
event, male and female, was
gathered from statistical records.
2 years to build
updated annually

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Building the database on my own
helped me to learn about every
event and to see the performance
trends in areas I never saw before.
2 years to build
updated annually
Objective
 Key performance trends that can emerge
from athlete performance tracking

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The funnel provides a picture of a
series of season best
performances (SB’s) of athletes
who eventually medal or place at
World Championships or Olympic
Games.
The Performance Funnel is a tool
to help monitor, track and predict
an athlete’s “countdown to
success” and to gauge progress
against world standards.

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A simple chart then became something more

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Championships Data
Individual Data Tracking
Performance Prediction

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Performance Progression Application

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THE PERFORMANCE FUNNEL APPLICATION

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USING THE PERFORMANCE FUNNEL

 Used by many Athletics Federations around the world
integrating into their High Performance systems
 Critical application for coaches and PD’s to have
evidence to tracking performance and predict future
performance…
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3:35.01
Entry Zone: Athletes 16-19
2 year window of performance
 Example: 1500m men’s -
Predict future performance

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3:33.25
Development Zone:
Athletes 19-23
2-4 year window of performance

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Peak
Zone
Peak Performance Zone:
Athletes 24-32
7-8 year window of performance
3:29.89

 Why spend so much time on this?
 The value and use is more than an tool and application…
 I see this as a systems approach to integrate
performance analytics into the fabric of a sport
-Justification for funding (for the programme) 
-Identify talent and invest in the right athletes / carding selection
-Championship team selections
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 Why is performance data and evidence met with
resistance?
 I had lots of resistance when I tried to introduce
the Performance Funnels
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 Find a different approach to implement evidence
base data into the Irish system

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Performance Data
Selection Policies
Carding Policies

 How to drive coaching performance and
planning
-Find performance potential
-Identifying performance gaps
-Goal setting
-Set championship expectations
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 Introduce the Performance Funnels through
coaches who can use the application as part of
their own programmes

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• Age
• Event
• Time/Distance
Performance
Potential
• Find % gaps in
performance
• Event /
Championship
Gap Analysis
• Set goals
• Identify key
areas
improvement
Coach
Planning
Performance Data Event Profile/Coach Ed.

 NGB’s and Government investors can apply this
model to adapt to any sport to raise the levels of
success
 Evidence of success - New Zealand who have
implemented similarly across sports and have
been very successful at the Olympic level
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 How do you future proof your professional
coaching practice?
 Is technology passing you up? Can you find the
cutting edge to up your game?
 Innovation is hard work… find the time.
 I have opened the door to share and welcome
any future opportunities to collaborate YOU!
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SUMMARY

Performance Funnel

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