Foreword
Human potential is unlimited, and technology can tap it. Chemistry, the most powerful technological weapon ever, created the miracle drug stimulants. Although it is prohibited by legislation, the sports world has to use chemical technology to fight doping. However, in addition to chemistry, various other black technologies are entering the sports world, and some technologies are really "black".
On November 2, 2016 (just now), Chicago Cubs won the MLB (Major League Baseball) championship.
On June 17, 2015, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA (American Professional Basketball League) championship.
On July 14, 2014, the German national football team won the World Cup.
What do these three champions have in common? They are all young and they are pioneers in the application of technology. Behind their success is the support of "black" technology . Especially the magic of the Golden State Warriors, with the application of Silicon Valley ideas and technology, Stephen･ Curry has the opportunity to become the superstar he is today, and the overall playing style of the NBA has even undergone major changes because of this.
baseball : Technology is noticed for the first time in sports - the big data classic " Moneyball "
The story of "Moneyball" is world-famous. It is a best-selling movie starring Brad Pitt in 2011. Its root is the book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" published by Michael Lewis in 2003. After its publication, it sparked a craze in the United States, from to Boston to to New York. Fans, news media and even financial elites in , San Francisco and in Los Angeles are all talking about the contents of the book. A few years later, its influence even spread across the Pacific to the European football world. It was inspired by "Moneyball" that British football writer Simon Cooper and economist Stephen Szymanski wrote another best-selling book: "Football Economics: Why England Always Loses?" 》. Later, in 2011, the movie of the same name, adapted from the original work and starring Brad Pitt, was officially released.
"Moneyball" tells the story of Billy Beane, the legendary general manager of MLB (Major League Baseball). He is the general manager of the Oakland Athletics (Oakland Athletes). The Oakland Athletics, where Ratio Beane belongs, is a small team in the league and cannot compete with the big teams with deep pockets (such as New York Yankees , Boston Red Sox , etc.) for financial resources and star players.
But he took a different approach and adopted " baseball statistics " as the team's management policy for the first time. He digitizes players' abilities as much as possible and uses this as the only criterion to measure players' abilities, rather than some judgment based on subjective experience . Through this set of statistical formulas, Billy used a limited budget to find undervalued players.
At the same time, he also forced the entire team to abandon traditional performance evaluation standards: since the factor that ends a baseball game is the number of 27 outs, not time, then forget about "batting average", "stolen bases" and other flashy data , "On-base percentage" is the most important. Because only getting on base can reduce the probability of being out and increase the probability of scoring. Under the guidance of the new concept, the sports team reached the playoffs five times after 2000, won the division championship four times, and won a total of 1,045 games. During this period, they even set an unprecedented record of 20 consecutive wins in the 100-year history of the MLB.
This may be the earliest application of big data thinking. I highly recommend everyone to watch this video.
Baseball: After waiting for a championship for more than a hundred years, the technology to control emotions helped the Cubs
The Chicago Cubs won the just-concluded MLB World Series (Note: Americans are very narcissistic and put the big The league's finals are called the "World Series"). This is a championship that has been waiting for 108 years, because the Cubs last won the championship in 1908.
Although they have a long history, the players of this Cubs team are very young.Among its main lineup (9 players), there are a total of 6 players who are 24 years old (inclusive), and they also set a record for the youngest lineup in the major league playoffs. What is the secret for such a young and inexperienced team to finally challenge and win the final MLB championship? You know, just 2 years ago, the Cubs were still a weak team at the bottom of the league.
It is called Thync, and with the help of transcranial direct current stimulation TDCS technology , it stimulates the brain by simulating nerve signals, thereby enhancing human body vitality or providing a calming effect to the senses. The popular translation of is to shock you with electricity, giving you a caffeine-like refreshing effect or soothing your mood. With it, you can feel more energetic when you want to refresh yourself; when you want to rest, you can fall asleep quickly.
Thync consists of two parts: the main module and the printed circuit strip.
Through the connection operation of the mobile app, you can choose between relaxation and energy modes.
// Relaxation mode
Place the main module on your forehead and the circuit strip on the back of your neck. Thync allows you to enter meditation in 1 minute, and your neck feels like you are enjoying a pleasant massage.
// Exciting energy mode
The position of the main module remains unchanged, and the circuit strip is attached behind the ear. This will make you want to get high, make you more aware of your surroundings, and enhance your concentration. When using, you can adjust the intensity independently. Generally, it is more appropriate to set the intensity below 60%, but everyone's "climax point" is different.
After two years of development, Thync is currently focusing its development on the field of sports and fitness. Thync has warm-up, cool-down, rest, and recovery atmosphere settings to help you sleep and recover after the game. The experimental results of
show that if users exercise after using the "energy" mode, the exercise effect will be improved by 3%-5%. Don’t underestimate this 3%-5%. When it comes to top athletes, it is the difference between gold medal and tenth place.
Thync is of great help to the baseball champion Chicago Cubs. MLB, the American professional baseball league, has a particularly tight schedule. Each MLB baseball team plays 162 games in seven months during the regular season, averaging 0.89 games per day. Athletes have to play games almost every day. Faced with such a tight schedule, athletes need to make timely adjustments to their status.
Starting in the 2016 season, the Chicago Cubs began trialling Thync's products. With this black technology weapon, the players' emotional state can be well controlled, adjusted and optimized. They can turn on the excitement energy mode before the game and immediately enter an exciting game state. After the game, using Thync's relaxation mode, the players immediately enter a state of relaxation and full rest, and quickly recover their physical condition during the deep rest, helping the players to resurrect with full blood when facing the next day's game.
With the help of Thync artifacts and the efforts of these young and high-potential players, the Chicago Cubs achieved the best record in the league with 103 wins in the 2016 season, and were the only team among the 30 major league teams to win 100 games. , second place is 95 wins. As recently as 2014, the Cubs had only 73 wins. After the 2016 regular season, the Cubs made it through the playoffs and finally won the World Series championship.
Golden State Warriors, Silicon Valley investors spent 5 years to win the championship
The following story is a replica of "Moneyball", even more exciting.
After the Golden State Warriors won the championship in the 2015 season, they continued to attract people's attention in the 2016 season with a 24-game winning streak and 73 wins in the season. It's hard to imagine that just five years ago, advancing to the playoffs was a difficult goal for the Warriors. Even in today's ever-changing era, the Warriors' rise is nothing short of mythical. Is this due to Stephen Curry's miraculous play? This is a symptom, not the root cause. In fact, the victory of the Golden State Warriors is a victory of Silicon Valley technology and a victory of big data.
This started in 2011 when the Warriors were acquired by the new owner. It was acquired by Joe Lacob. When Lacob bought the Warriors for $450 million, he promised to build them into a championship team within five years. The Warriors were in pretty bad shape at the time, not even a second-rate team.But what is incredible is that last year he actually fulfilled his promise.
The Golden State Warriors are located in a magical place-Silicon Valley. His new boss, Joe Lacob, is a partner of KCPB (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), a famous investment institution in Silicon Valley. The combination of capital and technology has created countless magical technology giants, and Joe Lacob also brought this magic to the Warriors.
Lacob introduces some Silicon Valley elites to analyze basketball and the Warriors from a Silicon Valley perspective. Through analysis of the data, they found that the NBA's usual playing style and logic are inefficient. In conventional thinking, the NBA has always emphasized playing inside and hitting the basket. Because everyone thinks that the closer to the basket, the higher the success rate of shooting . Therefore, the first choice is the basket, the second is the mid-range shot, and the third is the long shot.
Players' mid-range shooting percentage is usually in the 38%-40% range. In other words, on average, one shot can score 0.76-0.8 points. At the same time, the shooting percentage of three-pointers is usually between 34% and 36% - an average of 1.02-1.08 points per shot. Therefore, shooting a mid-range two-pointer is actually inefficient.
So, is close range under the basket the best option? This depends on whether the shots under the basket can exceed 50%. But data shows that only superstar inside players can do it, such as O'Neal, and it costs a lot of money. Moreover, shooting under the basket will face tight defense and fierce physical collisions, which can easily cause injuries. Once a player is injured, the team's investment will be in vain. The most inefficient and stupid style of play is for small players from the outside to rush inside (for example: Allen Iverson, Derrick Rose, Steve Francis). It looks good, but the shooting rate is low and it takes up a lot of space. The number of shots is high and the probability of injury is extremely high.
Under the guidance of this conclusion, the Golden State Warriors greatly adjusted their style of play and rebuilt their team. The Warriors gave away expensive inside "stars" and focused on developing and building outside shooters. Then there were Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Shaquille O'Neal, who was once the most dominant inside player in the NBA, shot 58.23% from the field, but they were all 2-pointers, and each shot was equivalent to 1.1646. Stephen Curry's 3-point shooting percentage is 44.44%, which is equivalent to 1.3332 per shot, which is much more efficient than playing inside.
In addition to big data, more and more technologies are being introduced to the Golden State Warriors. For example, the Warriors will let their players use sleeping bags that can effectively reduce jet lag. They have been wearing high-tech devices that can help the team judge the player's fatigue, including data such as heart rate and leg strength.
It is reported that this device called "Halo Sport" was built by Halo Neuroscience and uses transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) technology to help athletes improve muscle memory. Currently, Warriors players are required to wear this device before each training. HaloNeuroscience said that this device has greatly improved the Warriors’ training efficiency.
In addition, another technological tool the Warriors are using is a wireless GPS device developed and designed by an Australian company called Catapult Sports. The device is usually placed in an athlete's compression underwear, corresponding to the position between the shoulder blades. It tracks the player's subtle movements in real time, providing real-time monitoring of acceleration, direction, heart rate, and pressure on the knees and ankles. . The Warriors' high-tech team can measure players' training volume and fatigue based on these data to avoid possible injuries to the greatest extent.
At the same time, the Warriors are also working with Omegawave, a Finnish company that specializes in assessing players' physiological status. According to sources, Omegawave's product can use electrode patches worn on the face to quickly detect real-time heart rate fluctuations of players, allowing Warriors coaches to make an immediate decision on whether players need to rest.
Moreover, the Warriors seem to be convinced of the tremendous value these technological devices bring to the team.
The luxurious German team, which is good at applying technology, won the World Cup
In the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil, the German team defeated Argentina 1-0 in overtime. This was also the fourth World Cup won by the German team after 24 years. Championship trophy. But what many people don’t know is that the German team’s success in the World Cup is inextricably linked to their huge investment in technology.
In fact, as early as the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the then German team goalkeeper Jens Lehmann (Jens Lehmann) used a tactical note compiled by 50 elite workers from the Cologne Sport University in Germany. He helped save Argentina's two penalty kicks and helped Germany kill their opponents. Later, the small piece of paper recording the data on the Argentina players' preferred penalty kick angle was auctioned for a sky-high price of 1 million euros.
Eight years later, in 2014, the two teams met again in the World Cup, but now Germany has begun to rely on more sophisticated technological weapons to arm itself. The German Football Association and software giant SAP have jointly developed an application called "MatchInsights". This application is mainly used to collect, process and analyze technical data of players and teams, and optimize based on numbers and facts. Team configuration, improve the team's combat capabilities, and find ways to defeat the enemy in the game by analyzing the opponent's technical data.
Moreover, these data can be converted into stadium simulators and graphic reports and displayed on smartphones or tablets , so coaches, players or trainers can find the key points of winning each game in time, and display them on a smartphone or tablet. Develop a targeted training plan during pre-match training.
This data analysis system can also capture a large amount of data such as player running speed, position, ball control time, defense range, action details and physical contact intensity through the eight cameras, sensors and other tools configured. For example, the German team's training goal before the start of the World Cup was to improve its passing speed. With the help of the "MatchInsights" system, the team also successfully improved its average ball possession time from 2010 to 2010. 3.4 seconds has been reduced to about 1.1 seconds today.
"SAP's intervention has revolutionized the football experience for coaches, players, fans and media. In just ten minutes, ten players training with three balls can generate more than 7 million data points. And, we can leverage this A huge source of data to develop targeted training plans for the next game," Oliver Bierhoff, manager of the German national football team, said in an interview.
needs to point out that in addition to helping coaches better analyze their own players' performance and data, "MatchInsights" can also analyze the opponents' strengths and weaknesses to better formulate their own team's response strategies.
"This software can export each player's data and display it in the form of a digital model, so we will be able to use this system as easily as playing a game." Chris Burton, vice president of global sponsorship at SAP Burton said.
Bierhoff believes: " Nowadays, almost every team hopes to find innovative ways to give themselves a higher competitive advantage. We currently represent one of the most successful football teams in the world, and the German Football League is committed to In order to provide the best technology for the German national team and maximize the team's performance , SAP and the German Football League also plan to launch a series of sub-projects to help the system obtain information such as player mental state and medical treatment. Progress and other information, and ultimately integrate all this data into a unified system solution. This means that the company may need to collect personal data on players over time, including their health data, training schedules and game performance analysis.
Bierhoff believes that this technology may help coaches make more reasonable tactical adjustments and personnel rotation arrangements during halftime in the future. It is believed that the German team finally won the Hercules Cup in this World Cup due to the excellence of this system. Performance has a certain relationship.Behind
technology is the power of capital. The application of
technology must be supported by money. Therefore, in the field of competitive sports, the competition of technology will eventually return to the competition of capital. This is also the reason why the Oakland Athletics' miraculous counterattack in "Moneyball" did not last long. Billy Beane relied on big data to improve the overall performance of a small team with limited financial resources. However, "Moneyball" has been written for more than ten years, and other teams have also seen the power of data and carried out digital analysis. Therefore, the Oakland Athletics' technology first-mover advantage is gone, but what remains unchanged is that the New York Yankees , the Boston Red Tiles, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are still richer than the Athletics.
Leihuhu (WeChat ID: producerauto): Partner of Chuangye Bang incubation education, head of innovation and entrepreneurship enterprise services. Committed to promoting strategic innovation of ecological enterprises and connecting industrial resources with innovative and entrepreneurial talents. Provide innovation, entrepreneurship and ecological strategy consulting, training and resource docking services to listed companies and high-growth startups.
