This spec is a WIP.
Updated: 01.08.2021 → added landscape table with some research papers and hardware specification documents
Updated: 20.07.2021 → added a few more companies
Updated: 07.07.2021 → minor changes before publishing as a blog
Updated: 27.06.2021 → added research papers
Updated: 21.06.2021 → added IoT section
Updated: 26.01.2021 → added lateral technologies section
Updated: 25.01.2021 → added some links in similar apps section
Updated: 22.01.2021 → added some links
Updated: 02.01.2021 → added the important metrics section, consolidated prior art
Updated: 30.12.2020 → added data analytics and academic sections
Updated: 20.12.2020 → added tl;dr, next steps, prior art sections
Updated: 27.12.2020 → Core of the document
tl;dr
- Code some more and create a 0.0.1 that can be used with friends, without a formal spec for now
- De-risk data ingestion part by making an Apple watch app
Overview
Why
There is no social network dedicated to casual Football players.
While the athlete performance tracking has made substantial progress in professional Football, there is a gap in inexpensive way to track individual casual Football performance like Strava has done for runners.
What
- "Strava for Football"/"Journal for Football"
- Social network for Football
- "Democratizing Football Science"
- Collect data from devices (Apple watch, Fitbit for casual games, FIFA approved tracking devices for amateur leagues and up)
- Show heat maps and stats like distance, speed etc
- Replay games in 2D field
- Allow multiple people to superimpose replay/stats when they record on the same field at the same time
How
- Launch v0.1 first, not even a v1. Aggressively scope it down
- Basic tracking, heat maps, speed analysis from any device that can emit standard formats (like
gpx) - Custom app for tracking activity?
- Apple Watch?
- Fitbit?
- Other devices?
- Basic features of a social network
- Follow
- Feed
- Comments?
- Notifications?
SWOT
Strengths
- No common Football social network
- Hardly any Football analytics for Individuals
- Upcoming industry (athlete tracking, individual analysis)
Weaknesses
- Catapult is almost a monopoly. They acquired almost everything else
- Playr (acquired) by Catapult
- Existing solutions are bad, but our solution does not exist (Yet)
Opportunities
- First to market for a "Strava for Football" like product
- Love for the product, dogfooding
Threats
- Large project scope
- Lack of domain experience (Geo data, even athlete performance)
- Data ingestion makes the project scope large if we don't define it
Scenarios
Scenario 1: Alice
Alice is an individual, casual soccer player who likes to track their games, they are an existing Strava user and have an Apple watch.
They wear a device and record a "run" with Strava. TrackFootball's login with Strava allows them to create a "activity post" from this Strava activity.
Scenario 2: Bob
Bob owns a Fitbit and wants to start tracking their games. They can use the fitbit to track their games and export a
gpx file from it which can be posted on TrackFootball.app as an activity status. Note: There will be more of these scenarios. I think without our own app to do the tracking, these workflows look broken.
Important Metrics
TODO: Write it out from research links below
- https://sondasports.com/en/training-tips/use-gps-football-tracking-to-improve-football-game/ (Good content on what is a good metric to track in Football)
- https://www.sportperformanceanalysis.com/article/gps-in-professional-sports (important metrics)
- https://simplifaster.com/articles/athlete-tracking-systems/ (key devices/sensors)
- https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-track-football-players-using-yolo-sort-and-opencv-6c58f71120b8
Non Goals
- Create our own hardware for tracking. We can hack a cheaper Mi band or try integration with Google Jacquard (which powers Adidas GMR but is a closed platform afaik) should we need to have customized hardware.
There will be more things that we may not do. Like, comments, notifications in the feed?
Screens and specifications
For now, a demo TrackFootball.app (Strava account is required for now)
Next steps
0.0.1 → Play around in code and on the field and make it usable for not users but friends
0.1 → First launch, needs more planning
Prior Art
IOT
Catapult (Juggernaut)
- Easily the biggest player in the market that acquired all similar startups
- https://playr.catapultsports.com/eu/ - this is closest to what we have in mind from tracking (no community/social network afaik)
Other apps, devices, technology, similar-esque
- https://www.producthunt.com/posts/soccertrackr - it is like "Strava for Football" (soccertrackrapp@gmail.com)
- https://magicoach.com/ (dead now but very related, almost exactly the same thing minus the social network aspects)
- http://wearejoga.com/ (Genius, app that does what we want to do + a west where you can fit your phone like Playr tracker etc → great idea, out of the box thinking)
- https://statsports.com/ (big players, Arsenal, Liverpool, PSG)
- https://twelve.football/ (startup from author of Soccermatics)
- https://soccerment.com/ (smart shin guards, interesting)
- https://soccerment.com/wearables/ (does shot power etc like Adidas GMR)
Google Jacquard and Adidas GMR
- Adidas GMR uses Google Jacquard to build real-life gamification around FIFA mobile
- Very promising backed by Adidas but not an open platform (partnerships possible via jacquard-partnerships@google.com)
- I have it and I will expand this section more from my experience.
- I love it that this technology is cheap, 35 Euro for both soles and Jacquard tag which means Jacquard might be even cheaper. It does automatic tracking and if we can sync it easily it will be the perfect interface.
Lateral technology
- Related content
- https://www.scienceinsport.com/football
- https://digitalsport.co/how-the-danish-football-association-is-channeling-strava-to-engage-with-grassroots
- https://medium.com/@tipografico/using-mapbox-to-analyze-gpx-tracks-for-mountain-bike-638416d2d16c
- http://www.coopdebici.com/ca/mapmadness18.html (I love the interface)
- https://soccerment.com/the-importance-of-football-analytics/
- https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/it-management/cloud-analytic-hub/data-powered-football.html
- https://gadgetsandwearables.com/2019/11/24/soccer-training-sensor/
- https://twitter.com/thevideoanalyst
- https://medium.com/football-crunching/tagged/soccer-analytics
Data Analytics
- https://understat.com/match/14592 (Live data)
- Friends of Tracking → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUBFJYcag8j2rm_9HkrrA7w/videos
- https://fcpython.com/ (I was sold on the name)
- Football data sets → https://opisthokonta.net/?page_id=995
- What Football Analytics can Teach Successful Organisations | Rasmus Ankersen | TEDxManchester → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy2vc9lW5r0
- https://www.optasports.com/sports/football/ (commercial)
- https://analytics.soccerment.com/ (real analysis of real players)
- https://3sidedcube.com/football-data-analytics-translating-commentary-into-statistics/ (commentary to stats 😮)
- Github
Apps
Archive/Less relevant stuff
- Soccermatics: how maths explains football | David Sumpter | TEDxUppsalaUniversity → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv7JYtVbzvI
- How YOU Can Land a Sports Analytics Job → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLC5sPZSLY4 (semi-relevant, not directly relevant, some good resources)
- Football analytics - a demo from SAP about Big Data https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUr2Useye2E
- Other apps, less related
- Friends at FIFA (Grant?, but good amount of prerequisites)
- Other hardware/services platforms, mostly for professional teams
- https://sportsensor.ch/fieldwiz-2/
- https://www.johansports.com/gps-football-tracking-system/
- https://www.polar.com/en/b2b_products/team-pro
- https://sportsperformancetracking.com/
- https://sondasports.com/en/product/gps-sports-tracker-set/
- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bychromatic/my-skills-revolutionary-football-soccer-analytics?ref=discovery_category&term=football
- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2109568854/insidecoach-smart-soccer-ball-trainer?ref=discovery_category&term=football
- https://kinexon.com/solutions/football
- https://www.scisports.com/
- https://wyscout.com/ (the Football platform)
- https://www.richroll.com/podcast/mark-gainey-and-michael-horvath-435/ (great podcast on community building ala Strava)
- Career (literally)/conferences
- https://www.sport-science.org/
- https://waset.org/sport-science-conferences
- https://waset.org/computer-systems-and-technologies-in-sports-conference-in-july-2021-in-berlin
- https://waset.org/computer-systems-in-sports-conference-in-july-2021-in-berlin
- http://statsheetstuffer.com/conferences/
- https://barcainnovationhub.com/what-do-you-need-to-learn-to-work-in-football-analytics/ (Barca's official?)
- https://barcainnovationhub.com/product/certificate-in-technology-and-science-applied-to-sport/ (oh my, technology + sports course from Barcalona)
Research Papers
- TrackNet: A Deep Learning Network for Tracking High-speed and Tiny Objects in Sports Applications
- Applications of GPS Technologies to Field Sports
Landscape
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