THE SCIENCE OF SPORT
Data has played a vital role in sport over the past decade and many bodies will now lean heavily on reliable information to bring forward their exit from lockdown
BARRY WATTERS laughs and admits there was one Gaelic games constituency affronted by the release of the first study into social distancing and Gaelic football.
He is the head of sports science with Statsports, a Newry company whose use of performance tracking technology has attracted a global client list including Liverpool, Manchester United, and Juventus, as well as the leading teams in Gaelic games and Irish rugby.
Their data has been relied on by a number of Premier League teams, as well as officials of the league itself, ahead of the return of top-tier English soccer in the next two weeks.
Now, they have sought to provide the first insight into how much of a risk, if any, is posed by Gaelic football in the transmission of Covid-19.
Their analysis takes two metres as the social distancing standard, and uses data collected from five training sessions and four competitive games, involving six counties in 2019 and 2020.
The company published a paper on Wednesday night which found the length of the average incursion – their term for when a player gets closer than two metres to another player – across the four games studied was 2.5 seconds, and each player was exposed to an average of 539 such incursions per game (each incursion lasted an average of 1.6 seconds in the five training games).
That 2.5 second figure inevitably raised ire on social media, including among many defending the art of the cornerback.
‘I know from what we released that there are a lot of corner-backs insulted by the average time,’ says Watters, who played with Cavan.
‘That is obviously an average over a whole session and across all positions. But it was funny reading some of the comments. The corner-backs weren’t having it at all.’
The precise information contained within the data published was in marked contrast to the opinions greeting it on social media.
But the difference between the two reactions was instructive, too. It showed that old attitudes stubbornly endure in sport, and the idea that a corner-back would only, on average, be in contact with a forward for two and a half seconds at a time, challenges the notion of the sticky defender putting the opposition danger man in his pocket.
However, the science of sport is an area that has grown enormously over the past decade, and it is only going to become more important.
As sports try and plot a return in a world where social distancing has become an article of faith, their reliance on data has become more pronounced.
That is what makes the Statsports study interesting. The sample studied may be limited to four games and five training sessions, with a total of 157 players involved, but the information gleaned is potentially valuable as the GAA continues its methodical plans towards a return.
John Horan, the GAA president, said that as long as social distancing remained so important it was difficult to see how matches could return.
However, the data produced by this study shows not only that there is a way back, but what that route could look like. The actual match situation, from the time of the first whistle to the last, may not pose a significant risk of transmission.
It is all the other details around games – the travel, the dressing rooms, the warm-ups, the aftermath – that could pose a risk.
There would be a great deal that needs to change in a post-pandemic world from how things were done, not just around training but also around issues like the use of shared water bottles, but the data convinces Watters that a return in 2020 could be viable.
‘Within the GAA, with the quality of coaching and of coaching staff, and the quality of fitness staff as well, I think it is feasible because these sessions are planned rigorously.
‘And if we stay within confinements on the amount of people participating in training at any one time, and the space they are training in, and then some common-sense stuff around giving coaching feedback and coming into huddles, performing tactical plans, kick-out plans, water breaks, people having their own water bottles, I do think it is possible.’
They are significant caveats, of course, but they appear manageable. That doesn’t mean a return is imminent, but it shows that sports science can be harnessed to at least help find a way back.
The big changes would not come in games, but in training and in the interactions between coaches and players, and players before and after matches.
Premier League clubs used the data provided by Statsports to devise a two-phased training return. The first phase relied on small numbers of player working in large amounts of space.
It sounds obvious, but the data informed this approach.
The big difference between the Premier League and Gaelic games is, of course, wealth.
‘The Premier League has a lot of money to be able to test an awful lot, and to make sure no one has picked up Covid-19,’ says Watters, who works daily with Premier League clubs in providing them with information and statistics downloaded from training sessions.
‘I know from some of the players over there, they are pretty much self-isolating themselves. With the GAA, that’s probably not feasible because everyone has to go home to family and friends.
‘That’s a risk, and it’s not a risk we’re trying to mask. We mentioned in our paper that we don’t take into account anything that happens in a dressing room before or after a game or training.
‘I’m sure the GAA will have strict guidelines around how you travel to training, showering, all of those things – if it is to make a return.
‘But from on the pitch, I certainly think it’s feasible to modify training and allow a return to sport.’
The study was confined to foot
ball, and Watters is cautious about extrapolating too much from one code and applying it to hurling. He does suggest that the fact the two sports rely on the same broad positional system would mean a similar number of ‘incursions’ in hurling.
But he also points out that the rucks for possession that are common in hurling are an important point of difference between the sports.
The GAA did not commission the study, but they will pay it close scrutiny, one imagines.
They set up an advisory group on Covid-19 last month, and the Gaelic Players Association are understood to have been eager for the use of data in informing the next steps.
On that, they are speaking the language of Ireland’s health officials.
One of the most important developments in recent weeks has been a recognition by the sports industry in Ireland of the importance of science in bringing their pursuits back.
The increasing sophistication of sport at all levels is not a new phenomenon, but the importance of information has become much more pronounced in lockdown Ireland.
Politicians have been busy trying to lobby public health officials in recent weeks, demanding that restrictions be lifted more quickly than planned.
The good news of Friday afternoon, that sees a marked increase in the pace of change and the tantalising thought the country could be free of most restrictions by the end of June, was the lift that a tired country badly needed – and it must have buoyed the sporting organisations, too.
But there is a recognition as well that even as politicians take a more influential role in deciding policy around public health now, sport is not seen as a priority.
The retail and hospitality sectors desperately need to get back to business, whereas a month ago it seemed doubtful there would be a GAA Championship this season.
That gloomy outcome now seems much less likely, but the Government will not take risks in order to reopen stadia that they are willing to absorb to get shopping centres functioning again.
The admission by the Taoiseach on Friday that bans on mass gatherings could continue into the autumn was sobering news for fans expecting to see rugby Tests or soccer internationals live this year, for instance.
While not unexpected, it will have a significant financial impact on the IRFU and the FAI, while the GAA long ago seemed resigned to the loss of gate receipts for 2020.
Where sport is concerned, health officials are expected to retain a significant say. And they will expect to see evidence supporting a safe return before they give the go ahead, says a source.
‘Health officials are certainly willing to listen to a sport pushing to return if it can provide information that proves there is no significant health risk involved.
‘But data is vital. Nothing will be done that involves unnecessary risks.’
This is a lesson that administrators in Irish sport have quickly understood.
It helps explain why the approaches of soccer, rugby and Gaelic games have been so careful, for instance.
Their leadership knew that kicking up a stink about closed pitches and blank schedules and distant return dates would not have gone down well in a country where there were fears of an overwhelmed health system and where, for a spell, dozens of people were dying each day.
The reaction from sport in general has been consistently responsible anyway, with organisations quick to point out the financial chaos awaiting them, but balancing that against the heartbreak and fear that pervaded the country for much of the last three months.
Now, though, as the virus is largely suppressed within the community and a hankering for the world as it once was spreads through society, the calls for a return to sport are growing.
They have been most audible in the GAA community, as pundits and famous ex-players want pitches reopened amid talk of trusting the membership to behave responsibly. This is not an issue of trust, of course.
It is about risk. And no measure will be pursued that does not meet with the approval of health experts.
This is an approach shared with other sports, and it is not a matter of being virtuous, but of being realistic.
Sport can make no meaningful return without the support of the Government and their officials. Leo Varadkar’s talk about playing the Championships behind closed doors on the Late Late Show left many in the GAA aghast. Not only had they not been consulted on it, but Varadkar either didn’t realise or chose to ignore the vast array of obstacles that needed to be cleared before any thought of matches restarting could be entertained.
That most of those obstacles were demands put in place by officials of the State he leads, only increased the GAA’s frustration.
The feedback from a committee advising on the return of sport has been generally positive, it is understood.
It is a point of contact for sporting bodies seeking advice on what steps they should be taking in planning their return.
That sounds terribly sober and undramatic, but as one official points out, ‘It’s not as if Tony Holohan (the State’s chief medical officer) has the time to tell each and every organisation what they need to do to come back’.
The more information sporting bodies have, the more precise their plans can be and the more credible their hopes of coming back as soon as possible.
Information is all. Science has been transforming Irish sport for years, and it has become unexpectedly more important since the world shut down in March.
Cold, hard facts are a precious currency now, even if it leaves a few corner-backs feeling sore.
‘I THINK IT IS FEASIBLE TO MODIFY TRAINING AND ALLOW A RETURN’