Corpore Sano – Quantified Soccer

International elite sports are constantly in search for the next comparative differentiator; a technique, strategy, or training method that will give a competitive advantage. Elite football, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey are example team sports driven by innovation and change, and technology is currently playing an increasingly important role in this context. Soccer is no exception, and this popular sport is in fact undergoing a silent revolution due to the rapidly-increasing use of quantified data and associated analytics. Quantified athletics technologies are currently conjectured as the next tipping factor in this increasingly competitive domain, both for individual athletic and soccer team performance development.

PMSys in use by A-team NFF (October 2016). Professor Pål Halvorsen (left), physical coach Jordi Gonzalez, and Ruben Yttergård Jenssen.
PMSys in use by the Norwegian national A-team (October 2016). Professor Pål Halvorsen (left), physical coach Jordi Gonzalez, and Ruben Yttergård Jenssen.

We are performing basic research at the intersection of computer science, sports science, and medicine with use-cases involving elite soccer athletes. We are in particular investigating how performance data from individual players can be collected automatically during practices and games (using our PMSys system), and how to obtain relevant data from their lives outside the sport arenas.

Further algorithmic analysis of this data might provide vital insights for individual injury prevention and training personalization, and a foundation for evidence-based decisions for team performance improvements.