Today is the day the Paris 2024 Olympics get underway. Hockey starts tomorrow.
We asked Simon Blanford, a researcher on animal behaviour and ecology… and a hockey coach, to share with us his views on statistics and statistical analysis. We’ve planned a series of 3 masterclasses with a focus on the women’s games in Paris.
Simon Blanford
Originally from England where he coached across a wide range of levels and abilities from youth development programmes in inner city areas to regional and England junior teams as well as club men’s and women’s first teams. Blanford also was involved in coach education for the sport’s governing body.
For some twenty years he carried out research on animal behaviour and ecology based at various research institutes and universities both in Britain and abroad. In mid 2010s he started coaching his daughters in the USA and that developed into coaching with some US universities in their collegiate system. Now back in Europe, he’s coaching at the Enschede Hockey club in the Netherlands.
During his time in the US he made a special effort to combine his hockey knowledge with the experience gained as a researcher (collecting, organising, visualising and ultimately statistically analysing data) and applying that to a range of hockey performance questions. This led to a different view on analysis…
Statistical analysis
Together we’ll host a series of 3 masterclasses with a focus on the women’s game in Paris.
We kicked it off on Friday July 26 with an intro. Explaining his way of thinking about statistics and analysis from a scientific point of view and how to apply this in the game of hockey.
We’ll follow this up with a second session based on the data from the women’s pool games in Paris on Sunday, August 4 and a third just before the medal games on August 9. Every time at noon Paris time…
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