Explore reading: Big data and rugby Read the text about using big data to predict and prevent rugby injuries. Some parts are missing. Choose the correct part (A–K) for each gap (1–8). There are two extra parts that you should not use. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. 35 * prop: one of the strongest players on the team; the most important man in defending the attacking players Big data: Predicting and preventing rugby injuries The Rugby Union is becoming an unlikely benefactor of the so-called data revolution by using information about players’ health to predict injuries. Rugby is perhaps one of the last industries you might expect to be embracing big data, (0) are finding ways to use it to their advantage. Data analytics – the study of information with a view to using it to predict the future – could revolutionise the sport (1) put together the strongest possible team based on such factors as a player’s health or stress levels. “We’re very interested in the science; we’re very interested in monitoring the players,” says Bath Rugby’s Head Coach Gary Gold, who is overseeing this new dawn of West Country rugby. “The players are our biggest investment, they’re the people we need to deliver the product.” The thinking behind data analytics is simple: (2) . Heartbeats that are irregular or fail to return to normal after exercise are heartbeats that are sending distress messages. Other parts of the body also send out these calls, but until now we have not been able to use the information. But all that has changed, or is changing. Sam Seddon from IBM, who are developing the technology, explains: “We’re working to catch information about the players so you can understand what their heart rate is like during a training session. If you monitor that heart rate over time, you understand what norms are for an individual player, so you can start to see ahead of time whether that player might be fatigued or have an illness. What you can then do is (3) in a training session and stop them training if you think they might be susceptible to an illness.” So what impact could data analytics have on the sport as a whole? Gary Gold sums up (4) like this: “We would like to get a situation where the best preventative methods are put in place to ensure that a player is not going to have a stress fracture in three weeks’ time, because we’ve been able to pick up that that joint is taking more of a load than it needs to and therefore we can do something.” One ex-player who perhaps could have benefitted from big data is the former Bath and England prop* David Flatman – (5) commentator and pundit – who listed his injuries: “I had finger problems on both hands, I broke my right hand twice, I broke my right elbow and had it reconstructed, I had two further reconstructions on both my right and left shoulders. My right bicep ruptured, I damaged ligaments in my neck, I damaged my eye socket, my nose, my jaw, I tore my hamstrings, I ruptured ligaments in both ankles which no longer exist.” Rugby is of course a rough game and it will always hurt – that is the point – but Flatman’s view is that some 32 Language skills Extras Explore 2 Digital jungle Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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