The big data in the game...

For several years now, our communication tools have been modernized to the point of making an answer to the slightest question accessible in a matter of seconds.

By making information more accessible, demand has become greater than supply. To fill this supply gap, content has multiplied and diversified. Unfortunately, the quality is variable and some people have started looking for solutions to justify their purpose: data!

Baseball has not escaped this trend. On the net, it is possible to find a multitude of services, products, videos that offer to analyze a player, his swing, his throw and all this in great detail.

But what place should a coach leave for data in relation to human emotions?

Very often data is a compilation that can be interpreted in different ways, especially if the user focuses his attention on a few details. It is often created to lead an athlete to evaluate certain details of his performance at a given moment and to compare this focus either to a previous performance, to that of a group or to a target given by the software analysis.

The etymology of emotion is: Movement that comes from within! Movement is the result of a permanent fight inside our body between the notion of pleasure and pain. The intensity of these two sensations is variable, can be conscious or unconscious, but it is guided by the intelligence of our body which only wants one thing: to survive. And to survive, the body must know how to manage its energy, be efficient and effective.

Is it the data that is important or rather the way it is used? I don't think that the quality of a practice can come from the mathematical analysis of a software program that uses a unique mechanical model that wants to make people believe that it is possible to become perfect. I would even say that the emergence of unique models (hit like this, throw this way...) is a disaster for our sport and for athletes.

Man is not a robot! On the contrary, he is very far from it since he is a living being. This human nature has its strengths, its weaknesses and is imperfect. This is what makes the beauty of mankind: we are imperfect. And it is really important to accept this. No player is perfect and none ever will be. As a coach, my goal is to optimize the performance of my players, not to maximize it. That's where the scientific approach of Motor Skills makes sense. It allows us to know how an individual's body works.

In conclusion: I would say that data can only be used if the human remains the priority. The individual must be at the center of the coaches' concerns because without the individual... There are no players and therefore no game!