Why are we so obsessed with data if we can’t kick a field goal?

I guess this stems from a philosophical desire some of us esteem to:

If I want to get better I have to change what I have been doing.

And I guess Einstein does have a point that you are kind of insane for trying to do the same thing over and over again expecting magic to happen.

Sounds a lot like writing a blog! But I digress, Here’s a couple links to some of my favorite LinkedIn sports-data posts I’ve seen over the last couple weeks that explain what I’m talking about.

Interested in Basketball?

Or this one on bouldering:

Or how about this person doing a full mini digital twin of a soccer match 3D rendored:

These ideas being pretty cool, and the people making them are wicked smart and I want to encourage them to keep up their good work. I personally find them interesting because it says something about what our culture desires to know in our current reality. We are obsessed with being able to control how much we know and how much we can extract from our collected data. And there’s genuine beauty in the ability to change because knowledge is power… but it’s less known cousin wisdom wants to have a chat with you.

Being able to make effective change for an individual still happens with the tiny recognition of change in our daily habits or repetitions. And those changes are only as effective as our ability to apply knowledge skillfully.

I think about it like this:

This is the AFC South and for all intensive purposes of this example… they are hot garbage this year (sorry if you’re a Titans fan). But just because you know this information doesn’t change anything, you know the same thing that the Colts, Texans, Titans, and Jaguars all know. But the application of this information to help their teams win is all about wisdom. And it’s leading to four different outcomes: Colts are deciding to have a fire sale on the team because of that 3 week losing streak, Texans are doubling down on their new offensive weapons, the Titans should give up, and Jaguars are feeling pretty good about themselves.

Besides this being an excuse to talk about football, the data driven sports world doesn’t take away from the fact that you and I as consumers are being asked to accept this as the new magic of how we get better sports. It definitely has cool tricks and can be a helpful tool.

But don’t be fooled that data alone gets you the super bowl.

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Until next time: clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!