Measuring Performance Under Pressure Using ML with Lotte Bransen

Today we are joined by Lotte Bransen, a Scientific Researcher at SciSports. With a background in mathematics, econometrics, and soccer, Lotte has honed her research on analytics of the game and its players, using trained models to understand the impact of mental pressure on a player's performance. In this episode, Lotte discusses her paper, ‘Choke or Shine? Quantifying Soccer Players' Abilities to Perform Under Mental Pressure' and the implications of her research in the world of sports. Using data from past seasons and information gathered from experts, coaches, players and trainers, Lotte explains the basis of the models through two aspects of mental pressure: pre-game and in-game, and three performance metrics: the chance of a goal with every action a player takes (contribution), the quality of that decision and the quality of the execution. The applications for Lotte's work is exponential - check it out! Lotte would also like to send thanks to her co-authors Pieter Robberechts, Jan Van Haaren and Jesse Davis.