What Skills Do You Need to be a Sports Performance Analyst?

When working in sport at the very highest level, the margins between victory and defeat, first and second, are minimal.

Sports teams and athletes will look for every advantage they can take both on and off the field in order to get one up on their rivals. The way you can interpret and analyse data might just be the difference between a gold medal and a silver, or no medal at all.

Therefore, in the world of sports performance analysis, there are a number of different skills that you will require if you are to help your team succeed at the highest level.

Let’s take a closer look at what some of those skills are.

Analysis

It’s in the job title. Analysis is the most obvious but most important skills a performance analyst needs. There will be a wide array of data being thrown their way based on the athletic performance of whoever they're working with.

Top running speed, vertical jump, acceleration rate, deceleration rate, and so on and so forth. A performance analyst must be able to take all of this data, interpret and analyse it, and put it into context so that they can identify key areas to focus on in order to improve performance. That’s a lot of numbers, which brings us on to… 

Maths

One thing to know about a career in performance analysis is that it is quite numbers intensive. It is only natural. And because of that, if you want to become a performance analyst, you have to be able to receive these numbers and manipulate them so that they can be compared and contrasted with rivals.

A sharp mathematical mind is a huge requirement if one is to work in performance analysis as, when the pressure is on, every second counts.

Tech Savvy

Performance analysis is a rapidly expanding sector within the overall professional sports industry. One of the main drivers of this is the explosion in the technology available to use in performance analysis, even in the last twenty years alone.

There are more ways than ever for tracking every different facet of performance that an athlete goes through when competing. Top performance analysts are constantly adapting to the new types of technology and the data that comes from it.

Therefore, being good with technology and being able to quickly master the latest technology on the market is a huge plus for anyone looking to have a career in performance analysis.

Interpersonal Skills

Of course, this is a handy thing to have in any profession. It is especially important as a performance analyst as, invariably, you are just one member of a much larger team, that is striving for optimum performance.

Professional sports teams and even individual athletes have large teams of experts in different areas such as nutrition, physiotherapy, strength and conditioning, psychology and much more.

As a performance analyst, your job does not stop at just taking in the numbers and then analysing them. Once you have done your analysis, you then have to communicate your findings with the rest of the backroom team and the athlete themselves. You must then collaborate with all these people to identify and target the areas where performance can improve.

You can check out all of our sports degrees and qualifications by visiting the department page here.

Get In Contact

If you are interested in any of our sports courses or have any questions you can book a consultation call with our expert sports advisor Jo Shaw here, email jo.shaw@portobelloinstitute.com or call 01 892 0024.