Data Knowledge: From Numbers to Performance

By Ciaran Deely PhD

Throughout my career in sport science and coaching—whether at QPR FC Academy, Kerala
Blasters FC in the Indian Super League, managing the London Gaelic Football team,
coaching with Wexford Gaelic Football team, or more recently through DSS Coaching, Sport
Horizon, and my PhD—I’ve learned that data only matters if it helps people make better
decisions.

At QPR FC, I saw the gap between being the sport scientist buried in numbers late at night
and being the coach who needs a straight answer in the meeting the next morning. That
tension pushed me towards building dashboards—not to look slick, but to give coaches and
players information they could act on. At Kerala Blasters FC, and later with London and
Wexford GAA, it was the same: data is only valuable when it clears space for more
coaching, more conversations, and more performance.

But context is everything. At London GAA we once had GPS figures that looked
fantastic—high-speed running through the roof. But when compared to Championship
demands, they didn’t stack up. That was a reminder that numbers on their own are empty.
During my PhD at Northumbria and QPR FC Academy, I saw the same with CMJ testing: a
single score tells you very little, but track it over time, link it to training and match loads, and
suddenly you have a story.

Another lesson has been the balance between science and instinct. At Kerala Blasters FC,
the coaches’ feel for the game often picked up on things before the data did. The same in
Gaelic football—experienced coaches at Wexford and London spotting what no dashboard
could. Sport science works best when it supports instinct, not replaces it.

And across everything—whether building session plans and advising coaches through DSS
Coaching, or designing data reports and education tools with Sport Horizon—the goal has
always been the same: to translate complexity into clarity, to build trust, and to help athletes
and coaches perform.