Analyse this

No longer the preserve of mainstream sports, video technology is giving new insights to umpires and coaches, shaping results and strategy. Charles Froggatt, founder of the International Polo Academy, explains

Technology has changed the way the world interacts with sport. Since the ‘moneyball’ strategies that famously propelled the minnow Oakland Athletics baseball team to success in the Major League in the early 2000s, everybody in sport has taken the humble statistic more seriously. The geeks in dark rooms have now been given the title ‘performance analysts,’ and their work, accessed in the form of video analysis and data, has become vital both to the success of any team serious about winning and for the bigger picture of sport.

Turn on ESPN and all you see are statistics; find yourself in any professional sports changing room and you will see the play breakdown on a screen. Down the hall, referees will review their decisions on iPads, and in the press room, managers – forced to cover their mouths during the game to ward off lip readers – are thrust in front of the camera to talk to fans at home, even

though many viewers are more interested in their fantasy teams than the actual results.

While no one could imagine polo reaching the lip-reading stage, it was only a matter of time before technology and the ‘game of kings’ would find each other. Although it has taken a few years for the drones, analysts and iPads to reach the matches, the results are rather exciting. Teams, coaches, umpires, players, federations and polo’s fans are beginning to see the value in the application of filming techniques and analysis.

And so, it turns out, polo is not as old-school as you may think. If there was one country to be the first to fully embrace technology, the number- one candidate would be the USA – particularly in the 2015 Florida season.

Take the US Open final as an example. Like most of the eight teams taking part, Bob Jornayvaz’s Valiente had two video sessions on the day before their final against Orchard Hill.

Set plays and possession are the primary focus of high-goal teams in game preparation. At its most basic level, the process of creating

Opposite, from top A typical breakdown of statistics after the frst half of the match between Orchard Hill and Alegría; analysis of play using Dartfsh Express This page The author and Cambiaso analysing Valiente set plays and opposition plays before the US Open

a strategy for keeping the ball, advancing down the field and planning a defence is now agreed upon in as little as 10 minutes. No more trawling through hours of footage – the plays are all there on a mobile video-analysis app called Dartfish Express – just one of the tools used by Dartfish’s partners, the International Polo Academy.

Data tells us that Valiente defended knock-ins 20 per cent better during the final compared to their previous encounter in the group stages, and that Orchard Hill advanced significantly less. Half-time stats tell us that their throw-in strategy backfired: Orchard Hill stole 11 of the 15 throw- ins, 10 of which were won by Facundo Pieres and Polito Pieres: two players you would prefer not to have the ball if you were their opponents.

In the second half, Valiente won nine – three more than Orchard Hill. Talisman ten-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso, also not a man you want to give anything away to, won six in the second half. His team won the half 7-4, the game and the US Open.

For the first time this year, statistics will be used to shape the NBC broadcast for the US Open. Player statistics, graphics and multiplecamera-angle footage will all be used to portray polo as a professional sport and make it more accessible for both loyal fans and new viewers.

The final goal to be shown by NBC will be Cambiaso’s offside neck shot in the sixth chukka that sealed the win for Valiente. The goal was filmed by drone and blimp from above, super slow- motion cameras behind the goal and a further four cameras from different elevations. What a neck shot it was. The backswing, the contact, the follow-through… all made to look so easy.

Analysis is crucial for umpires who have just a split second to make a decision. The USPA’s Umpire Services LLC uses video analysis to serious effect. In fact, Valiente would not have even been playing in that final had an instant replay of the drone footage not clearly illustrated that the umpire’s call of ‘turning’ was wrong and should be overruled – a fact that was confirmed in post-match analysis on the Dartfish system.

Of course, new insights into the action makes it harder to romanticise about a match. Polo fans may, for example, be disappointed to see the most successful teams in the US Open 2015 were the least likely to pass the ball, averaging 40 passes per game – 10 less than the teams that failed to reach the semi-finals. No surprise three of the four semi-finalists had the highest 60-yard penalty success rate, of 65 per cent or over.

Teams are increasingly interested in data, as are associations in how the players rank in different areas of the game, but it is early days. Polo is not yet at Major League baseball level, but the performance analysts will be working the night shift to help us understand it fully, as technology helps polo move into a new era.