From sticks to studs
Field hockey insights meets football strategy, as Graphing the Game analyst Sam Beadle joins Norwich City FC in a full time position. To celebrate his success, and give an insight into what’s needed to achieve this position, I asked him a few question:
When did you become interested in performance analysis?
My interest in performance analysis whilst studying for my sports science degree at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich. I was part of the university field hockey 1st team and we were given a Veo Camera by the university. I initially started out as the person who would be in charge of starting the camera before matches and then uploading the footage for the rest of the team and coach to watch. Over time, as I became more interested in how we could use the Veo to improve our performances, I started to help provide analysis sessions for the team along with our coach. This happened to coincide with starting a placement at Norwich City Football Club working as a performance analysis intern helping to film and code academy matches across a range of age groups. I was then able to take the knowledge I gained from working at NCFC and apply this to the work I was doing with the hockey team. The analysis provision led to a promotion winning season which to took the club to the highest level it has ever played at. Once graduating UEA, I wanted to continue my performance analysis journey and started a master’s degree at the University of Worcester in conjunction with a placement at Crystal Palace Football Club working in the academy there.
You’re soon starting a full-time job at Norwich City FC as an Academy Performance Analyst, and you’ve previously worked at Crystal Palace FC. What does a week like for you in these roles?
At Crystal Palace, I was looking after the U15 and U16 age groups analysis provision. This meant that we would often have 3 games per week across the two age groups. A standard week would include a midweek game for the U15s and then a game on a Saturday for the U16s. I’ve created an infographic below to show what my average week would look like for both a single and double game week. Team meetings are highlighted in red:
What is your super-strength as an analyst?
I’d say my super-strength as an analyst is my ability to be adaptable to work to tight deadlines. From my experience of working in academy football, coaches can sometimes want last minute changes to presentations just minutes before we are about to show the players. This has meant that I have had to be able to make tweaks at the last minute whilst also making sure that I have prepared everything to the same high standard of detail as the rest of the presentation.
What advice would you give to other analysts?
The main bit of advice I would give to other analysts is to try and take as many opportunities as possible! Over my time at CPFC, I was luckily enough to work U21 and U18 games on top of the U15s and U16s games I was already doing, including two games at Selhurst Park, the clubs stadium. I also think reaching out to other analysts to get feedback on work or seeing if you could help them in anyway possible is another great way to exposure to other opportunities. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work with Chris and the team at GTG without getting in contact with him through the website.