Intra and inter-reliability testing of a South African developed computerised notational system among Western Province Club Rugby Coaches

Abstract

The coach’s role is to enhance the performance of players through observing the performance, evaluating the performance, providing feedback on the performance and then implementing appropriate interventions to improve the performance. In coaching environments specifically, there can only be confidence in the data generated from computerised notational systems if the system provides reliable information and statistics. There are many systems on the market that are being utilised by amateur club rugby coaches and performance analysts; yet only a few have been tested for reliability. The aim of the study is to firstly, determine the inter- and intra-coder reliability of a South African developed computerised notational systems and secondly, to compare the coding proficiency of Western Province Rugby Union club coaches versus an experienced coder. Five club coaches with no prior experience of computerised notational systems or coding and one experienced coder participated in the study. The participants ( n = 6) each coded five international rugby matches and re-coded two of these matches to determine the intra-coder reliability. The reliability between the different coding agreements was measured using Cohen’s kappa statistic (К). The study revealed a good inter-coder agreement for all the performance indicators (К = 0.79) with the strongest agreement being for the set pieces (К = 0.93). Very good intra-coder reliability was also revealed for all the coders; there was a mean of К = 0.82. Comparing the club coach’s coding to the experienced coder showed a good mean agreement of К = 0.77. The study concluded that the EncodeProRX is a reliable computerised notational systems that can be accurately and consistently used in club rugby set-up.