The importance of data-driven research in sport | Sports
ONE OF THE consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the proliferation of sports seminars via video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. As a result, there was broader diversified audience participation that might not have been possible under ‘normal’ circumstances. In addition, these seminars have addressed several important issues such as the mental health of athletes during lockdown, racism, and gender and sport.
The seminars have drawn heavily on local and regional anecdotal evidence showing that sport ‘goes beyond borders’. They have shown that a holistic understanding of sport must consider the social, economic, political, administrative and psychological factors that directly and indirectly affect sport stakeholders such as athletes, coaches, officials, technical support teams, administrators, fans and sponsors .
It is claimed that there is a need to go beyond anecdotal evidence. It takes robust research to gain a deeper understanding of the important stories and clues that emerge from the many seminars.
Such research will provide rich first-hand numerical data on opinions, attitudes and beliefs, as well as the experiences and meanings of various sporting stakeholders.
The Caribbean needs more data-driven sports research.
There is a predominance of historical narratives, biographies and autobiographies on cricket, athletics and football. Launched in 2014, CAPE Sport and Physical Education included reading from external regional sports scientists.
Data-driven sports research will provide a deeper understanding of complex situations and make decisions for projects and actions to be carried out.
For example, data on the number of participants in a particular sport – such as cricket, football, swimming, hockey, golf, netball, basketball or tennis – over demographic data such as age, gender, social class, religion, ethnicity and geographic location provide important insights for national governing bodies and sport ministries. Additionally, such insights can lend themselves to assessing existing policies and practices to find ways to be inclusive, particularly when sports organizations are expected to represent the country.
Data-driven sports research inherently allows for asking the “why”, “how” and “what” questions in sport. It provides a compelling basis for accountability and transparency for those charged with managing responsibilities. With robustly derived research data, there is no logical space for sentiment and guesswork. Data-driven research allows everyone involved to discuss every aspect of the sport.
Data-driven research requires a thick skin, as it requires asking questions, especially in a multi-racial society, that can easily be interpreted as controversial by those who are thin-skinned for one reason or another.
However, these questions need to be asked and addressed if an attempt is to be made to advance a better understanding of practices and policies at all levels of sport organization.
Data-driven sports research in the Caribbean that focuses on understanding, implementing, and monitoring best practices can lead to research like this and others:
• Coakley, Jay and Anita White. 1999. Making Choices: How Young People Engage and Stay in Sport.
• Colder, Fred. 2010. Sport for Development Impact Study: A research initiative funded by Comic Relief and UK Sport and managed by International Development through Sport.
• Cote, J. 2008. Coaching children: Five elements of knowledge for coaches.
• Creswell, Scott L. 2009. Possible Early Signs of Burnout in Athletes.
• Dagkas, Symeon, Tansin Benn and Haifaa Jawad. 2011. Multiple Voices: Improving Muslim Girls’ Participation in Physical Education and Sport.
• Carrington, Ben. 2013. The Critical Sociology of Race and Sport: The First 50 Years.
• Carter, Akilah and Algerian Hart. 2010. Perspectives in Mentoring: The Black Student and Athlete.
• Hartmann, Douglas and Brooks Depro. 2006. Rethinking sports-based community crime prevention: A preliminary analysis of the relationship between midnight basketball and urban crime rates.
• Holt, Nicholas. et al. 2011. Benefits and Challenges Associated with Sport Participation by Children and Parents from Low-Income Families.
• Wheeler, Sharon. 2012. The importance of family culture for physical activity.
Sport Pulse and Sport Matters are bi-weekly columns highlighting advances impacting sport. We look forward to your further readership
dr Anand Rampersad is the Director of the Athletic Academy at UWI St. Augustine’s Physical Education department. He can be contacted at [email protected].