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Analysis Archives – A Conclusion

After wading through over 250kgs of paper, and scanning 3gb of documents, the process of digitising Keith’s records has come to an end (for now).

I found some amazing documents ranging from a diary of Keith’s early days of teaching through to fully formed high performance plans for elite sport. Keith’s career was clearly a journey of variety, enquiry and effort.

Although a lot of the documents were formal in nature, there were glimpses of the care Keith took for the people around him as witnessed in this note:

and this one (we can thank the postal strike that Keith had a copy of this correspondence)

I had a running joke with Keith that he always felt one of three emotions in his speeches, proud, humbled or honoured, and this was because I had heard him say one of those words so often in speaking. The amazing thing was that he was not just paying lip-service with the use of these words, it was clear to everyone that met him that he genuinely felt those emotions, he just loved being around people and helping in whatever way he could

Just one example is an excerpt from his tour diary on the Zimbabwe-South Africa Tour with Wales in 1998:

Keith was the master of turning defeat in to a positive and of understatement… the “difficult tour” he alludes to above included a 96-13 loss to South Africa, a game that has rather dramatically been referred to as Welsh rugby’s “darkest day”.

Within the quarter of a ton of paper records, the items that gave me the greatest pleasure were ones where I could see the recognition of Dad’s efforts. Ironically, the article below is about defeat but it is also about a remarkable achievement:

Keith is fourth from left in the top row

I have posted all of Keith’s work to the Analysis Archives, where you can search by year, sport or country to find analysis.

It was great to follow Keith’s journey from his early work in the notational analysis field, to the creation of an analyst community, through to the development of Performance Analysis

As Keith transitioned to working digitally he begun to use floppy disk and zip drives to store his data. I found a box of these disks as well as numerous boxes of videos of sporting events, many of which Keith had taken himself, either from the side of the pitch or the river bank. I hope at some point to add any relevant files to the Archives. I am sure it will be interesting reading and viewing.

To paraphrase Dad, I am extremely proud, humbled and honoured to have been able to undertake the Analysis Archives and have learned so much more about such a wonderful person. So that is it for now, except for one personal file I found. It is a message that Dad sent to me and part of it forms the quote at the top of this post.

Keith Lyons’ PhD – A Sociological Analysis of the Teaching of Boys in Physical Education in Secondary School

This thesis presents a sociological analysis, of the teaching of boys physical education and is based on a three-year research link with five teachers in two secondary schools. In the thesis, this link is characterised as ethnographic and the implications of the link for both the process and product of research are considered.

Field Notes

Football Analysis

Although Keith’s focus was primarily on Rugby Union during his time at the Performance Analysis Unit in Cardiff, there was some analysis done for major events and to help the Welsh Football Team.

The Keith Lyons Scholarship

On Friday 5th February, the inaugural Keith Lyons Scholarship was awarded at the Braidwood and District Education Foundation Presentation Evening to Mya Nipperess.

Keith’s family would like to thank all those who donated to the foundation in Keith’s name.

Keith believed in education and life long learning. He believed we all deserved the opportunity to thrive.

On his behalf we are delighted to be able to support the Foundation do what it does best – support our young people as they embark on an exciting adventure in their own learning.

Thank you Mya’s sister Rahni for being there to accept the award on Mya’s behalf.

2000 Cricket Women’s World Cup Analysis

New Zealand won the tournament and by reading through Keith’s analysis a sign of their success was being caught at Mid On more than any other team whereas their opponents tended to be caught by the bowler much more.