The Leicester Tigers, generally acknowledged as England’s most successful rugby club of the past 25 years, is using IBM statistical-analysis software to keep its players healthy. The team is using SPSS Modeler predictive-analytics software to determine the likelihood of future player injury based on a wide range of data and to create personalized training with the goal of keeping players injury-free. In current trials taking place during practices, players wear special gear that captures data including heart rate and the force of hits. The system includes health-related information from player questionnaires such as injury history. If, for example, a player has experienced a change in a parameter that causes fatigue, which could precipitate an injury, and the particular training regime is intense, then software software may show that this player is likely to become injured in the near future. Coaches could implement an individual program to reduce fatigue or alter the training. Team sports scientist Andy Shelton wants the monitoring to cover each minute of an entire season. “We’ve run some models so far on stats that we’ve collected over the past five years, and although they need refining, it’s looking very promising in terms of injury prediction,” he said. (Wired)(ZDNet)(Leicester Tigers)(IBM)
