Doctor John Kelley MMath
Senior Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Fellow
Summary
I am a Senior Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Fellow in the Academy of Sport and Physical Activity and a member of the Sports Engineering Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Group. I specialise in Applied Computing and Sports Analytics and combine this with my love of elite sport. I lead a research partnership with the International Tennis Federation, and I work with many British Olympic and Paralympic teams. I work in the Advanced Wellbeing Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre, allowing me to transfer my work in sport to health and physical activity applications, including an NIHR funded project to develop a data system to support treatment of cancer patients.
About
I am a Senior Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Fellow in the in the Academy of Sport and Physical Activity and I specialise in Applied Computing and Sports Analytics. My love of numbers culminated in a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Sheffield. I combined that with my love of sport in a PhD at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, sponsored by the International Tennis Federation, to develop a method to measure the spin rates of tennis balls during competitive play.
I am now a member of the Sports Engineering Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Group through which I apply my skills to elite sport. I lead a research partnership with the International Tennis Federation. This partnership supports their governance of the game, including bespoke lab and field-based systems to measure the performance of rackets, balls and the surface. I have also designing their world ranking methods for the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King cup by creating computer models of both competition structures and optimising the ranking systems using those models
I work with Olympic and Paralympic teams such as Swimming and Boccia, creating bespoke data and video collection, processing, storage, and analysis tools to improve performance analysis methods. These systems incorporate mobile apps, cloud data storage and 3rd party software integration and allow high level data analytics through platforms such as Power BI.
I am based at the Advanced Wellbeing Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre which allows me to transfer my work with elite sport to health and physical activity applications. A key example is an NIHR funded project to develop a data system to support treatment of cancer patients. This system will be used to manage the prescription and logging of exercise designed to treat the symptoms of cancer treatments.
My research interests lie in Sports Analytics, where I focus on predicting and enhancing sports performance through data analysis, modelling, and simulation. My work includes developing ranking systems, validating performance technologies, and improving handicapping algorithms. My overarching goal is to raise the profile and impact of Sports Analytics at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ by integrating research with teaching and industry engagement.
Teaching
School of Sport and Physical Activity
College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences
Sport
MSc Sports Engineering:
- Numerical Programming in Sports Engineering (module leader)
Ï㽶ÊÓƵ
- Advanced Wellbeing Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre
- Health Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute
- English Institute of Sport
- International Tennis Federation
Publications
Journal articles
Kelley, J. (2024). . PLoS One, 19 (2).
Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2024). . European Journal of Sport Science.
Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2023). . International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport.
Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2021). . International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching.
Dunn, M., Chiu, C.-.Y., Kelley, J., & Haake, S. (2020). . Proceedings, 49 (1), e26.
Fowler Davis, S., Barnett, D., Kelley, J., & Curtis, D. (2019). . Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2019). . International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport.
Shafizadeh, M., Wheat, J., Kelley, J., & Nourian, R. (2019). . Experimental Brain Ï㽶ÊÓƵ.
Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2019). A simple new method for identifying performance characteristics associated with success in elite tennis. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 14 (1), 43-50.
Driscoll, H., Hudson, C., Dunn, M., & Kelley, J. (2018). . Proceedings, 2 (6), 286-292.
Goff, J., Kelley, J., Hobson, C., Seo, K., Asai, T., & Choppin, S. (2017). . European Journal of Physics, 38 (4).
Hext, A., Heller, B., Kelley, J., & Goodwill, S. (2017). . European Journal of Sport Science, 17 (5), 503-510.
Reed, H., Stanton, A., Wheat, J., Kelley, J., Davis, L., Rao, W., ... Francese, S. (2015). . Science & justice, 56 (1), 9-17.
Driscoll, H., Kelley, J., Kirk, B., Koerger, H., & Haake, S. (2015). . Sports Engineering, 18 (2), 105-113.
Nicolaides, A., Elliott, N., Kelley, J., Pinaffo, M., & Allen, T. (2013). . Sports Engineering, 16 (3), 181-188.
Conference papers
Ali, K., Shafizadeh, M., Nasr, N., Balchin, T., Hart, J., & Kelley, J. (2024). . Age and Ageing, 53 (Supp 1).
Shafizadeh, M., Wheat, J., Kelley, J., & Davids, K. (2017). . In European Society of Biomechanics Conference, Seville, Spain, 3 July 2017 - 5 July 2017.
Hext, A., Heller, B., Kelley, J., & Goodwill, S. (2016). . Procedia Engineering, 147, 622-626.
Higham, D., Kelley, J., Hudson, C., & Goodwill, S. (2016). . Procedia Engineering, 147, 637-642.
Dunn, M., & Kelley, J. (2015). . Procedia Engineering, 112, 528-533.
Goodwill, S., Spurr, J., Kelley, J., & Haake, S. (2014). . Procedia Engineering, 72, 569-574.
Kelley, J. (2014). . Procedia Engineering, 72 (72), 74-79.
Wiart, N., Kelley, J., James, D., & Allen, T. (2011). . Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology, 225 (4), 189-198.
Choppin, S.B., & Kelley, J. (2010). . Procedia engineering, 2 (2), 2449-2454.
Kelley, J., Choppin, S.B., Goodwill, S.R., & Haake, S. (2010). . Procedia engineering, 2 (2), 2967-2972.
Kelley, J., Goodwill, S., Capel-Davies, J., & Haake, S. (2008). . The engineering of sport 7, 571-578.
Kelley, J., Goodwill, S., Capel-Davies, J., & Haake, S. Ball Spin Generation at the 2007 Wimbledon Qualifying Tournament (P110). In The Engineering of Sport 7, (pp. 571-578). Springer Paris:
Book chapters
Kelley, J., Higham, D., & Wheat, J. (2016). . In Passos, P., Davids, K., & Chow, J.Y. (Eds.) Interpersonal Coordination and Performance in Social Systems. (pp. 305-322). Routledge
Theses / Dissertations
Mills, K. (2024). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S., Choppin, S., Dunn, M., & Kelley, J.
Fitzpatrick, A. (2021). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Kelley, J.
Karditsas, H.E. (2020). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J.
Sotheran, A.W. (2020). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S., & Kelley, J.
Hext, A. (2019). Measuring relay exchange kinematics in short-track speed skating using a multi-camera network. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S.
Higham, D.W. (2018). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S., Kelley, J., & Hudson, C.
Kelley, J. (2011). Measuring ball spin rates in match play tennis. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Haake, S., & Goodwill, S.
Media
Mcinerney, C., & Kelley, J. (2016). Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Millennium Mathematics Project, University of Cambridge:
Presentations
Hext, A., Heller, B., Kelley, J., & Goodwill, S. (2016). . Presented at: The Engineering of Sport 11, Delft, The Netherlands, 2016
Postgraduate supervision
Current:
Nazish Shafique -Adapting Pose Estimation to measure performance metrics in elite swimming
Eugeniw Mempouo - Study of measureemnt properties of QTUG for falls risks assessment
Completed
Anna Fitzpatrick - Important performance characteristics in elite grass court tennis: implications for practice.
Andy Hext - Measuring Two-dimensional Short-track Speed Skating Kinematics using a Multi-camera Network.
Helen Karditsas - Large-scale method for identifying the relationships between racket properties and playing characteristics.
Adam Sotheran - Real-time Analysis and Feedback of Performance Indicators in Elite Diving.
Chris Hudson - Automated tracking of swimmers in the clean swimming phase of a race.
David Higham - Extracting Field Hockey Player Coordinates using a Single Wide-Angle Camera.
James Spurr - Statistically modelling tennis racket impacts with six degrees of freedom.
Completed supervised PhD students:
- Anna Fitzpatrick - Important performance characteristics in elite grass court tennis: implications for practice.
- Andy Hext - Measuring Two-dimensional Short-track Speed Skating Kinematics using a Multi-camera Network.
- Helen Karditsas - Large-scale method for identifying the relationships between racket properties and playing characteristics.
- Adam Sotheran - Real-time Analysis and Feedback of Performance Indicators in Elite Diving.
- Chris Hudson - Automated tracking of swimmers in the clean swimming phase of a race.
- David Higham - Extracting Field Hockey Player Coordinates using a Single Wide-Angle Camera.
- James Spurr - Statistically modelling tennis racket impacts with six degrees of freedom.