Integrated evaluation of team strategy, training practices and game performance of a basketball team

Abstract

An important task of a basketball coach is to transfer information between game performance and team preparation. Therefore, the goals of this study were twofold: i) to define a framework encompassing the steps of team strategy, training practices, and game performance – the Team Learning Cycle (TLC); ii) to test TLC’s support for evaluation of team preparation-competition coherence with a junior basketball team. Team plays were assigned as an independent variable, systematically measured along the TLC. Frequency, diversity, and efficiency (points per possession) of plays performed in a game were compared both with alternatives of plays in the team strategy and emphasis during practices. TLC was implemented in a customized software for improving data acquisition reliability. We used a cluster analysis to group team plays according to similarities of offensive features and we applied Bayesian methods to compute the posterior distributions of the parameters describing minutes planned for team plays and training variables. Plays proportions were compared between practices and game. The 25 plays variations were grouped in seven clusters suggesting strategic diversity. Training presented significant tendencies towards offense phase, with opposition (emphasis on tactics) and situational practices (games and competition) – p(robability) > .90. The seven clusters of plays had a large variance in their training volume. The most frequently performed plays in the game were not those most trained but they had the most points per possession in the game. Results evidence the TLC may help coaches interpret the ongoing learning process of the team, improving team’s preparation.