Sports and Statistics: Heavy lifting – which statistical methods are appropriate for the data at hand?
Choosing appropriate statistical methods depends on the research question and intricacies of the data to support the research question. We discuss choices to be made in the example of weightlifting competition performances, as measured by the total weight lifted.
The research purpose is to examine age-associated patterns of performance across the life span. We introduce statistical approaches to address challenges in the data (e.g. changes in demographics over time or multi-modal distributions of variables).
Statistical methods that have been used in publications.
- Linear and logarithmic regression
- Quantile regression
- Quantile foliation
We briefly discuss implications of these choices.
If there is time (probably not), we discuss content analysis and word clouds for comments to an open-ended survey question of Master athletes to address motivation and barriers.