But what if athletes could have a constant loop of information that would provide instant analysis on how to improve their performances?
For the past two decades, IBM has been doing just that as the official technology partner of the US Open. IBM provides innovative technologies to enrich that fans' experience, whether they are travelling to the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens or logging in to USOpen.org from another part of the world. And 100 percent of the US Open's digital platforms are built on an IBM cloud.
Before each match, IBM's SlamTracker combs through 41 million data points from eight years of Grand Slam tennis and identifies three "Keys to the Match," or indicators that are most likely to affect a player's ability to succeed. As the match is played, SlamTracker tracks players' performance against their 'Keys' as well as their overall stats--all in real time, allowing fans to gain real time insights as they follow a matches, much as the tennis commentators do.
This year, SlamTracker has been redesigned to feature relevant data visualizations point by point, allowing the fans to not only see an ace being served, but deeper insights into how that ace fits in context with overall serve performance in the match. Just as IBM provides statistical graphics to TV broadcasters, SlamTracker provides point-by-point graphics to tennis fans on USOpen.org.
IBM also provides detailed analysis to coaches and players so that they can study their match performance in detail. Following a match, we give players a memory stick with match statistics keyed to video replays so that, for example, the players can review all of their forehand winners and watch video replays of them all.
Can analyzing large amounts of data help a player improve from good to great? We think so. And we've seen players focus on improving those tendencies identified by data analytics. In the past year, we have seen Simona Halep emerge from #47 to her current rank of #2 with consistently strong serve and return stats.
Lessons learned at major sporting events provide the experience of dealing with unforeseen events and use data analytics to deal with those events successfully.
Analyzing large amounts of data can not only help athletes improve their performance, but the same technology can be used by organizations across industries worldwide. From a retailer using data analytics to predict and manage inventory during holiday seasons to hospitals monitoring premature infants to predict possible stressors and take proactive action, data -- and more importantly applying strategic analysis and context to that data -- is a real game changer.
To learn more about IBM's sports capabilities please visit us at ibm.com/cloud and join the conversation at #ibmcloud
Follow her on Twitter @eryanobrien
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