Manresa At least 7 of the 18 coaches in the Endesa League will be Catalan. The number proves the level of our technicians. One of its internationally recognized virtues is its capacity for innovation. This weekend, Manresa hosts a congress of analytics applied to basketball that certifies this. This event, which is jointly organized by the Catalan Basketball Federation (FCBQ) and the Catalan Association of Basketball Coaches and Trainers (ACEB), has the collaboration of the Fundació Universitària del Bages, where the presentations were held .
“Catalonia is a pioneer and brings together much of the knowledge in this area, both in training and in professional leagues, where coaches and analysts have included analytics in their work plan for the improvement of their teams and to learn more about detail sometimes hidden aspects of this sport.That’s why, taking advantage of the existing interest and knowledge among different professionals who use analysis and statistics in basketball, we want to bring all these professionals together for the first time and share experiences and knowledge”, explains Lluís Riera, the person responsible for this congress.
The list of speakers includes people of the prestige of Salva Maldonado, Sergi Oliva, Fran Camba, Adrià Arbués, Pedro Martínez, David Molins, Víctor Solanes, Albert Ponsa, Pau del Tio, Raquel Romo, David Navarro, Martí Casals or Riera himself. “Catalonia is a great powerhouse of basketball coaches, recognized both in the Spanish territory and internationally. There are many coaches working around the world who have a great knowledge of the world of basketball. There is an important group of people who have developed the world of statistics from here. One of the first teams that worked on this aspect in the professional field was Joventut Badalona of Salva Maldonado. Many people have been hooked and you can see this in the courses of training, where more and more students are interested in the subject,” says Riera.
What added value does analytics applied to basketball give you? “The most important thing is what happens on the court. What analytics does is add information to what you do on the court. Intuition comes before numbers, but numbers help you corroborate or dismiss a intuition that you can have as a coach. Analytics, with the resources we have here, can help us build our teams better and analyze our opponents better, in the case of performance competitions,” assures Riera.
Baseball pioneered the use of statistics to make decisions, but basketball has long been a strong bet. “It’s a natural evolution of all industries, which try to objectify performance measures. Its usefulness is clear: trying to have a competitive advantage. Right now it is unthinkable that an NBA team does not work with this advanced data. The difference is the investment that each franchise is willing to make,” says Oliva, who has a position of responsibility for the Portland Trail Blazers. The key is to answer the questions any coach asks with analytics. “Our perspective improves and extends conventional observation. There are things we can reliably answer. In addition, we guide the coach to ask the right questions to improve performance. If the team is not rolling in rebounds, you must know which data can be useful to detect where the problem is and change the trend”, he explains.
“Bringing the language closer”
Registrations for the congress have exceeded one hundred coaches. “The conference is aimed at anyone who likes basketball, especially coaches who want to learn more about the subject. It is a conference that is very focused on the work that is done on the court, in our day to day, and therefore the essential audience is coaches. We want to bring the statistical language closer to their everyday life. But no previous level is required to attend. There will be talks of a higher degree of specialization and “others more accessible so that everyone can grow at their level”, sums up the Catalan coach.
2023-07-01 07:00:34
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