One of those involved in the excitement of Swansea City’s premiership football at the Liberty Stadium is Scott Helmich, who originally comes from Tenby but is now a performance analyst with the Swans in a role that would be the envy of all football lovers.
He started out his own football at Saundersfoot and also played for Carew, as he does in cricket now as a wicket-taking left-arm bowler (best figures of 6 for 14) and hard-hitting batsman.
Analytical skills needed
His role now is to watch matches and to use his analytical skills to provide feed-back for managers, coaches and the players themselves on how games have gone, both on an individual and team basis.
He has all the up to date technology available and after a match can quickly sit down with coaches to look at areas like number of passes made and completed, tackles made and missed, distances covered during a match and other position specific details that can help management and players to find out where they are doing well and areas that need development.
Challenging role
It’s an absorbing and challenging job and we caught up with Scott at the Liberty Stadium when Swansea City played Southampton in the Premier League. Scott wasn’t working that day but is always in attendance at home games, and occasionally for away games as a reward, like when the Swans won the League Cup at Wembley Stadium.
“It was an amazing day,” says Scott, “for everyone involved at the club. The build-up was very intense and there was a buzz around the club that I have never experienced before.”
Scott’s current responsibility is working with all the age groups from under nines to under 21s and says that the Swans have some really promising players going through the system.
“It is always great to see players from Pembrokeshire getting involved and Liam Cullen, from Kilgetty, is one talented prospect that I have watched this season.”
Continuity ensured
The aim of Scott and the other performance analysts is to ensure continuity so that players get used to being under scrutiny from an early age and meeting up with an analyst and the coach/manager on a regular basis to look at targets in terms of improving basic skills and fitness, working alongside dieticians and physios to make sure that players have the best chance of success. Scott’s recent trips with a variety of Swansea teams have taken him to Queens Park Rangers and Millwall.
Analysed Tigers play at the Liberty
He also attended the Liberty Stadium when Johnston took on Penlan Club in the final of the West Wales Intermediate Cup, having promised PembrokeshireSport.co.uk, when we bumped into Scott in the recent Swansea City v Southampton match, that he would come along and prepare a sheet for us which showed the patterns of play.
He did just that (it appears on our site in the report of Johnston’s excellent win) and showed ho adept he is at breaking down a game and providing vital information about passes, tackle, runs, saves and a whole list of other details that coaches can look at with their squad or with individual players.
And finally . . .
“It certainly isn’t a 9 to 5 job,” laughs Scott, “but is brilliant because we get so involved with what goes on at the club. We also prepare a pre-match analysis of the opposing team, their likely formation, their strengths and weakness, whether they like to build up play or are long-ball specialists. It is all designed to help Swansea City be the best they can and it is very satisfying to be so involved.”
Having seen him at work at the Liberty Stadium it is easy to see what a great job he does and we at PembrokeshireSport.co.uk are sure to hear a great deal more about Scott Helmich in the future as he prepares for another big season coming up with Swansea City!