Longtime readers will be familiar with our overarching philosophy that youth sports are about more than just scoring goals, hitting home runs, or making big plays. Indeed, here at Cultured Athlete, we often discuss the many benefits that sports offer kids beyond the empirical. Well, today we have decided to lean into something less intangible and more data-driven, something that many modern sports professionals spend a great deal of time considering; sports analytics.
Now, this type of data analytics is typically used on a more professional or collegiate level, but the fact remains that every day, athletes and coaches at every level are utilizing data to better understand sports. They track progress, performance, and use it to improve strategies. It’s a growing field and even younger athletes seem to be increasingly interested in the topic.
Some parents might be asking themselves, “what do sports analytics really have to do with youth sports?” Oddly enough, learning basic sports analytics can actually make sports more engaging. At the same time, it can teach them valuable skills like observation, math, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Of course, it must be approached in a healthy and age-appropriate way.
In this article, we will help prove that sports analytics can help children better understand both the games themselves and their own development. In addition, we will discuss how analytics can be fun, educational, and balanced, and assure parents that they do not, in fact, turn sports into a numbers-only experience.
What Are Sports Analytics?
Sports analytics is essentially the collecting and studying of information about performance in sports. Typically, this information includes: the number of goals scored, shooting percentages, running speed, assists, rebounds, and passing accuracy. It is usually broken down in different data sets, including being separated by individual player.
Analytics help athletes and coaches in several ways. First among them, they answer questions that these individuals typically struggle to answer with anything less than an assumption. Some of these questions are things like: What are we doing well? Where can we improve? or Which strategies work best?
At the professional level, many teams lean heavily on sports analytics. They use advanced technology and detailed statistics for this, of course, but the concept remains the same. For kids, however, analytics are meant to stay simple. Their focus is on learning about performance and developing strategy.
Why Analytics Can Be Helpful for Kids
Just as sports analytics can be used to help professional athletes become better at their chosen vocation, they can also help children become more thoughtful athletes. Through structured analysis kids can put aside the usual concerns about “who won” or “who lost” and pay attention to the patterns of performance, the effort, and the improvements they made over a period of time.
Interestingly enough, this attention to detail can help to encourage a growth mindset in children. Seeing how well they improve their basketball free-throw, how many goals they made in soccer, or how many times they turned a volley into a point can help build confidence, giving them motivation to continue within that trend.
Learning Through Numbers
One of the biggest benefits of sports analytics lies in its ability to connect athletics with learning. We don’t always see academics and athletics as mutually exclusive, but in this instance, they are connected by one, incontrovertible concept; mathematics.
By engaging with and eventually understanding sports analytics, kids naturally practice their basic math skills, as well as learning about percentages and data interpretation. Believe it or not, the most common terminology used in some of the most popular sports are offshoots of sports analytics.
For example, batting averages in baseball involve division. In basketball, shooting percentages involve ratios. And finally, tracking lap times uses measurement and comparison. In many ways, seeing math through the lens of something as fun as sports helps it to feel more engaging. At the same time, it shows kids that there are practical applications for mathematics that involve their favorite pastimes!
Learning Observation Skills
Analytics help kids become more observant, in general. Over time and with a good understanding about what to look for in terms of data, kids might begin to notice patterns, strengths and weaknesses, and areas for personal or team improvement. In many ways, such such observation skills will help to improve overall sports understanding and decision-making. They might even help when trying to communicate potential strategies to coaches, captains, or teammates in general.
Teaching Kids That Stats Don’t Tell the Whole Story
One important lesson that we want to be sure parents and kids understand is that sports analytics don’t tell the “whole story,” Number are only tell part of the story. The statistical elements of a sport can indeed measure goals, accomplishments, hits, and misses, but they cannot be used to measure sportsmanship or leadership. Sports analytics cannot increase one’s positivity or cause one to put in more effort if they simply aren’t “feeling it.”
Thus, parents and coaches should remind children that character and teamwork matter just as much as performance data. This is important because some kids will get too hung up on the analytics and ignore the other, unquantifiable elements. Keeping things in perspective helps prevent unhealthy obsession with statistics.
Long-Term Benefits
Believe it or not, the skills children develop through learning sports analytics can extend well beyond mere athletic pursuits. By exploring the data that lies beneath the games themselves, kids can learn about goal-setting, data collection, and critical thinking. They can also learn about self-reflection. These benefits aren’t just valuable in future academics, they also pay dividends in future careers and in helping build up self-esteem.
Cultured Athlete Says…
As you can see, sports analytics isn’t just a numbers game…I mean, it is about numbers, but it can also be an exciting and educational part of youth athletics. When approached thoughtfully, sports analytics can help children understand their own performance, set goals, and recognize improvement.
These analytics can deepen learning and enjoyment, but the key to this is balance. Statistics should support a child’s development and pique their curiosity. The trick is to avoid creating any undue pressure or take away the fun of the sport.
We have always said that youth sports are about much more than numbers, they are about helping kids to learn and grow. Athletic pursuits help kids discover what they are capable of and sports analytics helps to quantify that in an understandable way. It’s the wave of the future and it’s certainly worthy of consideration and greater exploration.
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