Sorry to disappoint, but this is not a post about Spongebob’s favorite jellyfishing net – it’s about something way more awesome, the psychometric concept of RELIABILITY! Reliability refers to the idea that you’re measuring whatever it is you’re measuring in a repeatable and precise fashion. For a scale, this would mean that if you step on, get a reading of 150.2 lbs, step off and step back on, the scale should say close to 150.2 again. If you get on … Read More
Monthly Archives: April 2016
A2B™: Outside Linebackers
Have you been dying to know what athleticism looks like for outside linebackers? Do you crave unique insights on the 2016 outside linebacker prospects? Good news… We’ve got what you need. In this entry, we show how the A2B™ effectively characterizes 5 unique OLB Player Types and quantifies NFL potential based on athleticism. Our analyses showed that Overall Athleticism, Speed, and Size/Power/Explosion (SEP) were strong predictors of NFL performance in OLB prospects. While the 2016 OLB class has a few … Read More
From beneath you, it devours
I’m showing my 90’s girl power roots in that title, referencing a theme from Season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In this season, the big bad called “the First Evil” starts bubbling up from the Hellmouth (a doorway into our world for all sorts of demons and vampires) that the town was built on, intent on destroying the world. While I certainly am not claiming that statistical models are evil, although many graduate students would argue with me on … Read More
A2B™ and 2016 Defensive Ends
In this blog entry, we are going to dive into the A2B™ for defensive ends. Overall, the A2B™ does a nice job of assessing this position and projecting NFL success. We found five unique Player Types that help to broadly characterize where players lie on the athletic spectrum. Further, examination of nearly 400 defensive ends since 2000 showed that multiple A2B™ domain scores predicted real NFL performance. More specifically, Overall Athleticism, Speed, SEP, and Strength were significant predictors and explained almost … Read More
A post in which I open myself up to slings and arrows
To Rasch or not to Rasch, that is the question. TO RASCH: Rasch measurement theory articulates ideal requirements and provides objective criterion by which to assess items and people. Because of this, Rasch analysis (RA) allow for hypothesis-driven statistical tests while other IRT models provide only descriptive information. NOT TO RASCH: With its strong requirements regarding how items and respondents must perform, the Rasch philosophy is a highly prescriptive version of measurement, well beyond the general idea of measurement as … Read More
Normality? We don’t need no stinkin’ normality!
Very important in statistical theory is a statistical distribution called the normal distribution. It’s sometimes called the “bell curve” because of its shape. Looking at the plot of a normal distribution below, the high point around 0 means that’s where the majority of observations/people are, with fewer and fewer folks as you get more extreme in either the positive or negative direction. When the mean value of a normal distribution is 0 and the standard deviation is 1 (as in … Read More
Athletic Aptitude Battery™ (A2B™) 2016 Running Backs
In this entry, we are going to take a look at the running back position. Based on prior draft classes, running backs fall into 4 Player Types. All Around: This group is defined by RBs that are above average across all athletic domains (Adrian Peterson). Slow Bruisers: This group had RBs that are big and explosive but severely lacking in speed. It is rare that a player falls in this group and there is not a single notable “Slow Bruiser” … Read More