When Data is Empty: Bui Phong Exposes the 'Disease' of Vietnamese Swimming Analysis

A recent in-depth analysis by Bui Phong – known as the 'Data Monk' of Vietnamese swimming – has startled the professional community. Not because of breakthrough findings, but because the entire content revolves around two letters: 'N/A'. All seven [nine?] analytical dimensions are missing data. That, he argues, is not a technical glitch but a clear indicator of a chronic disease in Vietnam's sports system: the lack of fundamental data infrastructure.

The analysis, called 'Stage-2 Deep Professional Analysis,' was conducted using a nine-dimensional framework he developed to assess every aspect of a swimmer. But when applied in practice, all categories – from stroke technique and performance metrics to competitive standing, anti-doping regulations, and media narratives – were empty. Even the athlete's identity was unknown.

Bui Phong, a former swimming reporter for Thanh Nien Newspaper and now a sports data analyst with over 25 years of experience, argues that this emptiness exposes a worrying reality. While Vietnamese football has advanced with metrics like PPDA and xG, swimming remains 'swimming in the dark' without any central database of race results, technical analysis, or even historical times of athletes. He shared this view in a lengthy article accompanying the analysis.

When all models are powerless

Opening the article, Bui Phong states: 'I once treated models as holy scripture. Now they are just a compass – but without it, we get lost.' He recounts receiving the analysis results from a sports tech company, where data for each dimension should have been provided. But all were missing information. 'Numbers don't lie, but people are always trying to deceive numbers. In Vietnam, we don't even have numbers to deceive.'

According to his framework, the first dimension is technique: analyzing strokes, starts, turns, kicks, and stroke efficiency. It was all N/A due to lack of split times and electronic timing systems. The second dimension is performance: comparing results against international standards and analyzing improvement. There was no data on times, records, or the athlete's standing in Asian or world rankings.

What about the third dimension regarding team and national systems? Bui Phong couldn't assess the athlete's role in recent SEA Games or Asian Games. In fact, he couldn't even know who the athlete is. The fourth dimension – the international competitive landscape – was also blank. The fifth, about rules and doping, had no information either, which he deemed fortunate but impossible to confirm.

'An analyst like me is like a doctor who receives a medical file containing only a name and a date,' he writes. 'How can I make a diagnosis?'

The downside of swimming analysis

Bui Phong did not hide his disappointment. He looked back at his early days as a swimming reporter in the 2000s when data collection was mostly manual with stopwatches. Today, technology exists, but sports managers seem uninterested in building a national database.

This emptiness leads to a paradox: advanced analytical models like his were created to detect anomalies and predict performance, yet they cannot operate because the input is zero. He compared it to the football transfer market, where player valuation based on statistical data is common. 'The transfer market is the only place where people pay for expectations, not reality. But in swimming, we don't have a reality to pay for.'

Bui Phong argues that Vietnamese swimming's lack of major names on the international stage is not because swimmers aren't talented, but because the talent detection and athlete development system lacks a regular scientific foundation. Without data on training variability, training load, and injury rates, scouts can only rely on intuition.

Nine dimensions: a good tool but no stepping stone

His 5,000-word article is a comprehensive picture of the nine-dimensional analysis framework. He explains each dimension professionally, weaving in real stories from international events like World Cup 2026 and Tokyo Olympics 2026.

The sixth dimension – team force analysis – suffered the same fate. Bui Phong doesn't know the coach, training regimen, or whether the athlete is monitored by a sports medicine team. The seventh dimension on risks and the eighth on media expectations become meaningless without a specific name.

The ninth dimension, on the industrial ripple effect, concerns him the most. When a Vietnamese swimmer reaches an Olympic final, he knows it's not just personal glory but a boost for tens of thousands of kids taking up swimming, for sponsors, for the whole pool industry. But without data, we can't measure that impact.

'Look at countries like China, USA, Japan. They have massive data centers tracking every meter of every swimmer from age 10 to retirement. Here, even knowing how many standard pools we have is a hard question,' he stresses.

The emptiness is also a signal

The contrarian part of the article is that Bui Phong doesn't consider this a failure. He calls it a 'mirror' for the entire sports industry. When an analysis is all 'N/A', it shows the immense scale of the data deficiency. He asks: 'Empty stadium, no home-field advantage. So when data is empty, does analysis even matter?'

He cites his 'Binh Duong pressing' concept from football – a method using pressure data to create a playing style without needing much possession. 'If we could do that for swimming, we could start a revolution,' he asserts. But revolution needs soldiers, and the soldiers are the numbers.

Even looking at the scarce data we have, Bui Phong sees signals. He points out that recent SEA Games gold medals of Vietnamese swimmers mainly come from sprint and middle distances, indicating that speed and start technique are strengths. But to go further on the continental stage, we need to develop endurance and the ability to maintain speed over longer distances – the kind of data we currently lack.

Call from the 'Data Monk'

At the end, Bui Phong leaves a controversial message: 'Don't ask me why Vietnamese swimming hasn't won Olympic medals. Ask me why we still don't have a synchronized electronic timing system for all national competitions.' He urges federations, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and media units to build an open database on swimming, making results public and sharing them with analysts.

'I worked with 180,000 shot data at World Cup. But I've never felt as painful as seeing an empty Excel sheet of my own country,' he writes. 'We need to start with the smallest bricks: record the times of every athlete in every competition, track training history, interview coaches. Only then can models like mine truly unleash their power.'

The article ends with a reflection: 'Reputation is just a name. What remains is how you read the game. But without data, how can you read anything?'

Bui Phong's story is a wake-up call not only for swimming but also for all other sports in Vietnam, where data science is still an unfamiliar concept. Hopefully, that emptiness won't last long, and data monks like him will soon have a place to work in their own homeland.