More than Stats: Beyond the Numbers
日本語で読む →Hello, and nice to meet you. I have been fortunate enough to work in Japan’s top volleyball league for a good number of seasons now.
Coding, crunching data, writing reports… These days, using AI in data analysis has become essential too, and the role people like me play has been shifting a great deal over the past few years.
My days are spent facing huge amounts of data, turning ideas over in my head, and preparing for the next match. And yet, every now and then, a question comes to me: how much does all of this actually contribute to winning? I think about it often. Of any win in front of us, what percentage is really ours? To be honest, I suspect it is not as high as you might imagine.
When you spend hours a day watching video and staring at numbers, ideas keep coming one after another. And then you want to pass every single one of them on to the players. But in truth, this information overload is the most dangerous thing of all for a player.
That is exactly why we, the analysts, must not become “top-heavy” with data. I said our share of the credit is not that large. Most of what decides a match, I believe, comes down to the physical and mental condition of the players who are actually out there competing.
On the court, there is a view that those of us watching from outside cannot see. We cannot even imagine it. Inside the chaos of a match, team against team, and ultimately player against player in one-on-one battles, countless decisions follow one another without pause. In those extreme moments that demand a split-second judgment, what can we actually do? Our job is to help players make decisions without hesitation. It is never to tie them up in information.
Even so, we are there beside the court. The analyst has become an established position at every club. In modern volleyball, analysts are probably indispensable. Today, AI keeps advancing and having data at hand is simply taken for granted. That is precisely why I think we now stand at a crossroads, where we have to ask once more: what is the true role of an analyst?
I named this space the “Sandbox.” It is a place for thinking, for exploring what lies beyond data and numbers, stats included: what I call “More than Stats.”
The analyst’s job tends to be bound by set forms. The information we give players must be orderly and logical. But here, I want to break all of those forms apart, at least once.
Like a child in a sandbox absorbed in making mud balls that may or may not be useful. Like building a castle, then knocking it down and building it again. Without looking for a right answer or a finished product, I just want to lay out, freely, the fragments of thought that come to me, there on the sand. Whatever I happen to be into lately, and how my feelings change, will probably show up as well.
Half-formed ideas that came up after hours of watching video and that I have not shared with anyone yet. Stories told out of pure curiosity, with no promise of being useful. I hope to show you that very process of trial and error, my hands still covered in mud.
Sometimes I will break down specialist topics into plain words; other times I may simply pour out the struggles of my everyday work. I would be happy if we could share this chaotic process of exploring what lies beyond the numbers, “More than Stats,” and keep learning and growing together.
Thank you for reading, and I look forward to the road ahead with you.