Every parent tracking their child’s game has been there: you’ve got a spreadsheet full of numbers, or a notebook of tallies, and you’re not sure what any of it actually means for next Saturday’s training session.
Not all statistics are equal. Some numbers reveal genuine development. Others just confirm what you already knew from watching the game. Here’s how to tell the difference.
The three types of stats
1. Outcome stats (least useful for development)
Outcome stats measure the end result of an action: goals scored, points, wins. These are the numbers that end up on the scoreboard and in the newspaper.
They’re not useless — they tell you whether the team won — but they’re terrible for development because they’re heavily influenced by factors outside any individual player’s control (opposition quality, team form, referee decisions).
Example: A basketball player might score 20 points in a game because they took 30 shots. That’s not the same as a player who scores 20 on 8 attempts. The outcome stat looks identical; the performance was completely different.
2. Volume stats (useful with context)
Volume stats count how many times something happened: possessions, shot attempts, passes. These are better than outcomes because they measure activity rather than results, but they still need context.
Example: 15 AFL possessions sounds solid. But were they contested possessions, or was the player just in good positions? Volume without quality is a trap.
3. Quality and efficiency stats (most useful for development)
These are the metrics that actually drive training decisions: disposal efficiency, successful pressure acts, error rate under fatigue, contested vs. uncontested ratios. They tell you how well the player is executing the core skills of their position.
These are harder to collect — which is why most youth sport tracking never gets here — but they’re the numbers that coaches can actually act on.
Sport-specific stats worth prioritising
AFL
- Disposal efficiency (not just total disposals)
- Contested possession rate
- Ground ball wins
- Pressure acts (tackles, spoils, chases)
Basketball
- True shooting percentage (accounts for three-pointers and free throws)
- Assist-to-turnover ratio
- Defensive rebounds vs. offensive rebounds
- Contested shots vs. open shots
Netball
- Centre pass receive rate (for centre and wing attack)
- Turnover causes vs. turnovers conceded
- Goal conversion rate (for goal shooter and goal attack)
- Intercepts and deflections
Soccer
- Pass completion rate in the final third
- Duels won rate
- Shots on target as a percentage of total shots
- Defensive actions per game
Rugby (League and Union)
- Metres per carry
- Tackle completion rate
- Offload success rate
- Line breaks or line break assists
The development stat that gets overlooked
Regardless of sport, one metric tends to predict long-term development better than any other: consistency across games.
A player who scores 12 points every basketball game is developing more reliably than a player who alternates between 0 and 24. Coaches often focus on peak performance, but consistency is the actual marker of a skill becoming internalised.
This is why tracking across a full season matters more than analysing individual games. Single-game stats are noisy. Trends across 10 or 20 games reveal what a player actually owns.
What to do with this
When you’re tracking your athlete:
- Collect quality metrics, not just volume. If you’re going to write anything down, make sure it tells you how well, not just how many.
- Compare against themselves, not others. Development is individual. A player improving their disposal efficiency from 60% to 75% over a season is a win regardless of what their teammates are doing.
- Let the data inform conversations, not replace them. Stats give you better questions to ask — “I noticed your intercept rate dropped in the last three games, is anything feeling different?” — not conclusions to hand down.
ScorX tracks all of this automatically as you score games in real time. At the end of each game, you get a breakdown that goes beyond the scoreboard — and at the end of a season, you can see the development trends that tell you what to focus on next.
Want to see how ScorX tracks these stats across all 16 supported sports? Check out our Features page or download the app free to start tracking your next game.