250 participants of 36 countries show that the biennially World Congress of Performance Analysis has established itself as an international stage for the exchange for all performance analysts. The conference, which was hosted by the University of Zagreb and held in the beautiful Croatian city Opatija for the second time, also showed the ISPAS’s desire to progress.
Therefore, PD Dr. Daniel Link’s keynote about Sports Analytics was well received. Daniel talked about the new possibilities for sport science provided by (commercial) data. More and more, ISPAS embraces methods of Sport Informatics, especially machine learning, as important contribution to the field of Performance Analysis. It is intended to demonstrate this significance in prospective workshops.
Dr. Otto Kolbinger showed his current research about the impact of the shot clock in tennis, which was just introduced at the 2018 US Open. Rule changes or adaptations like this are an increasing issue in sport practice. Once again, Otto encouraged performance analysts, as he did in Alicante on the previous WCPAS, to use their skill sets to contribute in this area.
The Chair of Performance Analysis and Sports Informatics expresses its thanks to the organizing committee, the ISPAS and the University of Zagreb, for a warm atmosphere and the organization of the congress.