So I decided to take a break from our journey building our data analysis system to provide some resources or methods I have found really helpful with my own learning along the way.
First up and this is a pretty big one: Google. Although it took me longer than it should have to realise this, more often than not a solution to your data problem is a Google search away, the alternative can be many, many failed frustrating efforts. Have faith you are not the first person to run into this problem, someone has asked the question previously and a kind soul has answered it.
Secondly, for those using Excel, the internet has lots of Excel based forums you can ask specific questions based around your own data where people jump at the chance to answer them. MrExcel being a frequent haunt of mine back in the early days
For more in-depth questions, possibly a DAX based one in PowerPivot, a VBA based one or maybe you’ve gone down the R/Python route then Stack Overflow can be very helpful. However be warned, if you don’t meet the criteria they have set for asking a question or searched thoroughly to see if it has been asked before, it won’t be long before someone ignores your question and chastises you for not asking it correctly 😉
R has a very active community on twitter, where the hashtag #Rstats is popular and questions around how to use it can often be answered quickly.
There are some general sources of information, here are some specific sources (in no particular order):
Useful site to learn about almost any data-based language including R, Python and analytics within those platforms (Paywalled but does offer free samples & some free courses)
From my own perspective, learning any new type of analysis or system (Excel, R, Python, Tableau etc.) I have found it much better to have an idea of what you want to be able to do before beginning the journey than trying to learn it without an end goal in mind. Know what you want to paint before buying your paint!
Hopefully the above provides both insight into where you can go with analytics in sport as well and help kickstart your journey into analytics in sport! I will continue to update this blog as more resources come to mind!
PS – I get asked about books, I have books on some of the areas covered on this blog but 99% of issues I run into are solved by looking online or speaking to someone about it. It’s rare I look in a book for a solution these days so I have purposely left them out here.
Rstudio runs an annual conference and puts the videos from it online. These cover a wide range of topics so there is something for beginners upto advanced users
The background behind this site was covered by a recent talk. It started as someone’s own way to learn R and grew into a platform for anyone looking to learn R
SportSciData 