Using Statistics
to Improve Results

Andy Durham

If you took a college statistics course you probably remember it with the same thrill as having to clean your room as a child. You learned terms and formulas that seemed to have no real world applications.

But today in most sports statistics have become a sophisticated science for gaining a competitive advantage from amateur to professional levels. Most sports have a myriad of well-known numbers, statistics that measure everything from the average length of a six iron, to free throw percentage, to yards per run, to batting percentage on.

A quick count I made of core stats showed baseball has 85, basketball has 47, and soccer has 45. Teams use this information to recruit talent, improve strengths, and shore up weaknesses. But also to scout opponents to take advantage of their weaknesses and to counteract their strengths.