Let's talk about Data Storage.

A less glamorous, yet vital activity for any performance analyst is storing their data. Our data is a treasure trove of information and it is of the utmost importance that we take every care and precaution with it. In this article, I discuss several key considerations we should always consider.

Access

The first thing we all must consider is who will have access to what data. Will coaches have access to everything or just what they wish, will players' have access to their data or will senior players be able to access data on the rest of the team? These are questions that will only be answered by discussions with your team's management and the wider sporting organisation. This could depend on the management or team structure. Some teams may entrust players with more responsibility and thus more access to the data. Alternatively, the team may be new to performance analysis might only want to give players and managers a fraction of the data available and expand their access as they learn about the analysis.

Where will it be stored

Deciding where the data will be stored will be vitally important. Does your analysis tools provide the required storage facilities? Will it be stored on a shared drive or a DropBox where players will have their login. Will your managers have a separate system to their players to host more data, notes and private online conversations. If you are an analyst for multiple teams will you have your database to mine for information across all teams? If so how do you make sure that all of your data shared with teams are shared to the correct team only? All of these considerations will guide an analyst on how they store their data.

Encrypt

In an era of GDPR, the data you hold must be compliant with the law. Now I won't go on a long tangent about the requirements of GDPR but let's consider the basics. Is the information secure, what is the risk of me dropping a memory stick, forgetting a hard drive or having my laptop stolen? By password protecting our devices and encrypting where possible we can take simple steps to prevent any of our data or our players' data from being stolen.

Guides

There may come a time when you are handing over the data to a new analyst or a new coach. You may be working where players can access their data but the system or how you format it may be new to them. As a result, they will need introductions to how the data is laid out. Any acronyms, ratios and calculations will have to be explained. A guide explaining to players coaches and other analysts what they are looking at when they are using your data will help.

Consistency

We've all heard the phrase 'You can't compare apples to oranges'. Taking from that it is important that the data we are examining throughout a season is in a consistent format and is examined consistently. There will be games where we change our key performance indicators depending on the team are playing against or the players that we have available. Despite this, there will always be a core group of indicators that will be used and any season tracker, or multi-season data sets must accommodate KPI's that are used for some games but not all without it disrupting the data set.

Back-Up

Finally and most importantly, always remember to back up all your data. We can never have too many backups. Every video, every game, every number should always be backed up.