Article: Why People Still Don't Believe the Best New Ideas in Sports

[nevets88]

Didn't know where to put this. Thought this article had relevance in re: new ball flight laws, trackman, etc...

Article

Pull quotes:

People love evidence ... when it tells them what they want to hear. Once they hear something that doesn't intuitively make sense to them, they fight back. And what they don't want to hear is that the notion they've come to believe...

Burke, as successful and charming as he is, stands for everything that the nerds have been fighting against for a generation — the faith of experience over the proof of evidence. Sauntering into a sports analytics conference and declaring that Moneyball is "horsesh*t", should be akin to telling a revival meeting that the Gospels could use an editor.

[jamo]

AimPoint creator Mark Sweeney was at the conference a few years ago: http://video.mit.edu/watch/aimpoint-golf-accelerated-skill-aquisition-in-putting-mark-sweeney-7263/

[westcyderydin]

Yeah it does kind of remind me of Moneyball.  You have the ex-pros and the establishment in the sport who claim their experience makes them more correct, and dismiss new ideas from people who do their research and can back up their ideas with fact.

The Moneyball era started in 2002 or so and now has caught on with every team in some manner...but it took a while and the two sides still fight it out a little bit.

In golf the new ball flight rules and such will also take some time to be recognized by the "much wiser" insiders of the sport whose experience proves their vast knowledge...