What can pro-athletes learn from team owners and coaches?

I came across an article in Forbes by Alex Konrad about technology in sports.  More specifically technology used to track players' performance.  It caught my attention because clearly they are employing one of principles of constant improvement (Six Sigma) by regularly measuring and tracking performance.  Catapult Sports created and now markets world wide their OptimEye, a matchbook size GPS loaded with sensors to track an athletes acceleration, agility, and force.  This device is used to “squeeze” even more performance out of pro athletes.  In one example, the NFL Jacksonville team, the Jaguars had their players answer questions about emotions and sleep habits.  Their responses were referenced against OptimEye data proving the players perform significantly better on more sleep.

 

If a team’s coach could be compared to a money manager with a team being an investment portfolio with different types of investments, we can say OptimEye data is like a portfolio benchmarking tool that helps the coach review actual performance  and compare it to the “expected” of a player.  This is key to any successful and disciplined portfolio management approach.  Where benchmarks are set for each investment sector and the portfolio’s performance is tracked against these benchmarks.  These benchmarks could be an index (like Dow or S&P 500) or prior and projected performance of the investment.

When coaches track performance and a player stops performing up to their initial benchmarks of acceleration, agility, and force there could be immediate change made to training or health regiment of the athlete.  And if the performance continues to deteriorate how long will the athlete last in the pro sports?  How much will their next contract be?  How many teams will want to offer them a contract?

Why not take a similar approach to an investment portfolio management and performance?  Financial instruments are a lot easier to track (the stock market provides a daily update on most investment instruments) than human behavior and causes of changes in an athlete’s performance.

 

Here is what pro athletes can learn from their coaches' use of OptimEye:

1)      Set benchmarks to formalize accountability for their investment advisors and money managers by having a clear investment plan.

2)      Expect regular and clear reports on how their investment performance measures up to the initially set benchmarks.

3)      Make changes if the performance does not measure up.