Abstract
ABSTRACTUnderstanding team behaviours in sports performance requires understanding the interdependencies established between their levels of complexity (micro-meso-macro). Previously, most studies examined interactions emerging at micro- and macro-levels, thus neglecting those emerging at a meso-level (reveals connections between player and team levels, depicted by the emergence of coordination in specific sub-groups of players–simplices during performance). We addressed this issue using the multilevel hypernetworks approach, adopting a cluster-phase method, to record player-simplice synchronies in two performance conditions where the number, size and location of goals were manipulated (first-condition: 6 × 6 + 4 mini-goals; second-condition: Gk + 6 × 6 + Gk). We investigated meso-level coordination tendencies, as a function of ball-possession (attacking/defending), field-direction (longitudinal/lateral) and teams (Team A/Team B). Generally, large synergistic relations and more stable patterns were observed in the longitudinal direction of the field than the lateral direction for both teams, and for both game phases in the first condition. The second condition displayed higher synchronies and more stable patterns in the lateral direction than the longitudinal plane for both teams, and for both game phases. Results suggest: (i) usefulness of hypernetworks in assessing synchronisation of teams at a meso-level; (ii) coaches may consider manipulating these task constraints to develop levels of local synchronies within teams.
Highlights
IntroductionSports teams consist of social entities composed of individual agents who correlate and coordinate actions to establish effective team communication networks (Gonçalves et al, 2017; Ribeiro et al, 2017).The synergetic behaviours (i.e., players combine actions to produce goaloriented behaviours) that underlie the formation and development of such communication networks can be expressed at different levels of complexity.Typically, there are three general levels of complexity into which networks may typically fall: the micro-, meso- and macro-levels
Sports teams consist of social entities composed of individual agents who correlate and coordinate actions to establish effective team communication networks (Gonçalves et al, 2017; Ribeiro et al, 2017).The synergetic behaviours that underlie the formation and development of such communication networks can be expressed at different levels of complexity.Typically, there are three general levels of complexity into which networks may typically fall: the micro, meso- and macro-levels
A major advance proposed in the present study, compared to that of Duarte et al (2013), is that we introduced a multilevel hypernetworks approach to assess the synchronisation processes emerging at a micro-to-meso level depicted through measurement of player-simplices (P-S) synchronisation
Summary
Sports teams consist of social entities composed of individual agents who correlate and coordinate actions to establish effective team communication networks (Gonçalves et al, 2017; Ribeiro et al, 2017).The synergetic behaviours (i.e., players combine actions to produce goaloriented behaviours) that underlie the formation and development of such communication networks can be expressed at different levels of complexity.Typically, there are three general levels of complexity into which networks may typically fall: the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. The synergetic behaviours (i.e., players combine actions to produce goaloriented behaviours) that underlie the formation and development of such communication networks can be expressed at different levels of complexity. The micro-level focuses essentially on the relationships that each player has with other players in a team, while the meso-level sheds light on the interpersonal synergies emerging between small groups of players coordinating actions together during performance. The macro-level tends to consider the whole structure of social interactions emerging within a team and how it relates to team performance outcomes. Players at a micro-level might interact with their nearest team members (at a meso-level), under n-ary interpersonal relations to produce more complex sets of behaviours or patterns emerging at a macro-level
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