Fraser Young

Hi guys, my name is Fraser and I am working towards a career in performance Analysis.

My experience with this began with a postgraduate qualification in Sports Biomechanics obtained in September 2010. I enjoyed the insight into human performance and saw potential for its application in a wide range of sports. Having been training as a sprinter at Loughborough University's High Performance Athletics Centre I was able to get some experience working with member of the GB Relay Team, assisting their coach in filming training runs for feedback on technique.

I followed this with a season-long internship with Leicester Tigers RFC 2011-12, where I filmed all Academy games and used Sports Code to complete team and player coding for the Monday morning team meetings. From halfway through the season I then started compiling statistics for the Head Coaches and Sports Science dept, creating graphs, charts and spreadsheets to aid in their player analysis. I was also lucky enough to get a chance to work in the 1st XV setup, attending every game at Welford Road I could and doing a mixture of live coding alongside the 1st team analyst, end-on coding and stepping in to film games end-on when required.

The season was a great learning curve and led me to think about where my future lies. For me the in-depth knowledge of the game required to be an analyst meant I would be most comfortable working in football, which is where I set my sights after leaving the Tigers in May 2012.

I hastily booked a level 1 course in Prozone, software that is used widely throughout the top divisions. I followed that up with my 1st4Sport level 1 Award in Coaching Football in August, and secured myself a season-long internship with Millwall FC, close to my new location down in Sussex. I have attended a reserve game and a few competitive fixtures at The Den, while spending the majority of my free time reading through Performance Analysis articles, football tactics books and practicing Match Analysis on every game available through my Sky Sports package.

I have had a play around with the Manchester City FC Analytics data set, but for me I would be happier theorising while watching a game then applying it to the data rather than working backwards and searching for causal relationships in their wealth of data.

Here's to a promising future in the industry!