National Analysis and Reliability Testing in Soccer: A Mobile Phone Application Approach

Abstract

Delivery of accurate information on the players’ performance in soccer is considered to be vital in enhancing performance and overall coaching process. The provision of such accurate information can be promising when the application used is valid and reliable. A chartered sports engineer developed a cost-effective Mobile phone application called StatWatch for the analysis of players’ performance both during training and competitions. This study aims to investigate the reliability of the application in the delivery of information on the players’ performance. Eleven performance analysts with a mean age of 24.62 and ± 3.5 years’ experience were required to notate the performance of one of the professional soccer team contending in a Malaysian Super League for four competitive matches consecutively via the application. The intra-class correlation coefficient was used to ascertain the level of the agreement of the performance analysts based on the data recorded. The intra-class average measure reveals 0.98 which explains that 98% of the variance and the means of the analysts in their overall analysis is real p < 0.001. Similarly, a Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient indicates .099 which suggests an excellent consistency in their general observation. An Android based application is found to be reliable in the notational analysis of soccer. Professional and semi-professional soccer clubs could consider Android based application in analysing their players’ performance due to its effectiveness in proving information on performance.