Today StatsBomb have launched our Introduction to Analytics course as a fully online video course. Adapted from our one-day course, it is designed to get anyone - from professional coaches and analysts, to fanalysts and fans - up to speed on the basics of football analytics. This is the same course we have taught to FAs and professional football teams around the world, and now it is available for everyone to learn from their homes. The course covers the following topics:
- Expected Goals and Shot Locations
- Types of Attack
- Set Piece Data and Analysis
- Defensive Choices
- Team and Opposition Analysis
You can purchase the online Introduction course here: https://courses.statsbomb.com/
We had almost 1000 people signal interest in the course within a week when we first announced it was coming. We’ve also had very positive feedback from Directors of Coaching at multiple professional clubs because they want all the coaches in their system to learn the course material. If you have any questions about it, feel free to send an email to support@statsbomb.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you ever going to make a book out of this?
One of the reasons we didn’t turn this into a book is because it includes considerable video examples that help explain and emphasize the points. We feel this is important in easing coaches and new data people into the idea that when collected correctly, data and the video should be the same thing. That’s not to say that we won’t make a book eventually, but it will probably look quite different from the courses as they currently exist.
Will you make this course available in other languages?
Yes. We intend to produce a Spanish language version of this course and make it available in May 2020. Depending on how that is received, we may make more courses available in Spanish and look to expand the languages as well.
Are you going to make other StatsBomb courses available online?
Yes. Signups to a webinar version of the Designing and Coaching Set Pieces course should be posted on our social media this week. The new Player Evaluation course will also be taught via webinar. The first airing of this course will likely come in May.
Why haven’t you made the course available for free?
When we teach this course in person, the cost is usually £125, which helps to cover travel and venue costs. We still have some costs - we have to pay for the hosting and signup site - but we’ve been able to drop the base price for the online version all the way down to £50 + VAT. That said, it took us over three man months to create and build the course material. It has also taken multiple additional weeks to update, adapt and record it to be delivered online. We strongly encourage analysts not to do free work for people - your time has value.
We therefore didn’t think it was out of line to ask people to pay for this.
To be honest, people have asked me since 2013 how they can give back to StatsBomb. They appreciate all of the free learning, analysis, and data we have provided over the years with zero monetisation.
If you are interested in showing us some love, paying for our courses and recommending them to your friends is a great way to do so. --Ted Knutson CEO, StatsBomb