Invasion Sports Research Articles

Identification, Computational Examination, Critical Assessment and Future Considerations of Distance Variables to Assess Collective Tactical Behaviour in Team Invasion Sports by Positional Data: A Systematic Review.

The aim of the study was the identification, computational examination, critical assessment and future considerations of distance variables to assess collective tactical behaviour in team invasion sports by positional data. A total of 3973 documents were initially retrieved. Finally, 72 articles met the inclusion criteria, but only 26 suggested original tactical variables based on the distance variables. The distance variables can be classified into player–player, player–space, player–ball, and Geometrical Centre (GC)–GC /player/space/goal. In addition, several nonlinear techniques have been used to analyse the synchronisation and predictability of the distance variables in team invasion sports. Player–opponent distance is of special interest in those sports in which man-marking is commonly used, and in the micro-structure close to scoring situations in all sports. In addition, player–player distances are used to measure the length and the width of the team and player–GC distance to assess the dispersion of the team. Player–space distances have been measured to assess the distance of the player/team-line to relevant areas of the playing space. Several techniques have been applied to analyse the synchronisation (i.e., Hilbert transformation and cluster analyses) and the complexity and regularity or predictability (i.e., approximate entropies, sample entropy, cross-sample entropy and average mutual information) of the distance variables in team invasion sports, revealing the lack of consensus. Although the distance variables may be interesting tactical variables when considered in isolation, it would be enriching to analyse the relationship among these variables.

Wearables for Integrative Performance and Tactic Analyses: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions.

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have reduced drastically in size, cost, and power consumption, while improving accuracy. The combination of different sensor technologies is considered a promising step in the monitoring of athletes. Those “wearables” enable the capturing of relevant physiological and tactical information in individual and team sports and thus replacing subjective, time-consuming and qualitative methods with objective, quantitative ones. Prior studies mainly comprised sports categories such as: targeting sports, batting and fielding games as well as net and wall games, focusing on the detection of individual, non-locomotive movements. The increasing capabilities of wearables allow for more complex and integrative analysis expanding research into the last category: invasion sports. Such holistic approaches allow the derivation of metrics, estimation of physical conditions and the analysis of team strategic behavior, accompanied by integrative knowledge gains in technical, tactical, physical, and mental aspects of a sport. However, prior and current researchers find the precise measurement of the actual movement within highly dynamic and non-linear movement difficult. Thus, the present article showcases an overview of the environments in which the wearables are employed. It elaborates their use in individual as well as team-related performance analyses with a special focus on reliability and validity, challenges, and future directions.

Using video simulations and virtual reality to improve decision-making skills in basketball

ABSTRACT A large body of literature supports the effectiveness of using video simulations to improve decision-making skills in invasion sports. However, whether these improvements are transferable (from the laboratory to the court/field) and generalizable (from trained to untrained plays) remains unknown. In addition, it remains to be determined whether presenting the video simulations using virtual reality provides an added-value. To investigate these questions, varsity-level basketball players underwent four training sessions during which they observed video clips of basketball plays presented either on a computer screen (CS group) or using a virtual reality headset (VR group). A third group watched footage from NCAA playoff games on a computer screen (CTRL group). Decision-making was assessed on-court before and after the training sessions using two types of plays: “trained” plays (presented during the CS and VR training sessions) and “untrained” plays (presented only during the on-court tests). When facing the trained plays in the posttest, both VR and CS groups significantly outperformed the CTRL group. In contrast, when facing the untrained plays, the VR group outperformed both the CS and CTRL groups. Our results indicate that CS training leads to transferable but non-generalized decision-making gains while VR training leads to transferable and generalized gains.

Discovering patterns of play in netball with network motifs and association rules

Abstract In netball, analysis of the movement of players and the ball across different court locations can provide information about trends otherwise hidden. This study aimed to develop a method to discover latent passing patterns in women’s netball. Data for both pass location and playing position were collected from centre passes during selected games in the 2016 Trans-Tasman Netball Championship season and 2017 Australian National Netball League. A motif analysis was used to characterise passing-sequence observations. This revealed that the most frequent, sequential passing style from a centre pass was the “ABCD” motif in an alphabetical system, or in a positional system “Centre–Goal Attack–Wing Attack–Goal Shooter” and rarely was the ball passed back to the player it was received from. An association rule mining was used to identify frequent ball movement sequences from a centre pass play. The most confident rule flowed down the right-hand side of the court, however seven of the ten most confident rules demonstrated a preference for ball movement down the left-hand side of the court. These results can offer objective insight into passing sequences, and potentially inform team strategy and tactics. This method can also be generalised to other invasion sports.

Tendon and Ligament Injuries in Elite Rugby: The Potential Genetic Influence.

This article reviews tendon and ligament injury incidence and severity within elite rugby union and rugby league. Furthermore, it discusses the biological makeup of tendons and ligaments and how genetic variation may influence this and predisposition to injury. Elite rugby has one of the highest reported injury incidences of any professional sport. This is likely due to a combination of well-established injury surveillance systems and the characteristics of the game, whereby high-impact body contact frequently occurs, in addition to the high intensity, multispeed and multidirectional nature of play. Some of the most severe of all these injuries are tendon and ligament/joint (non-bone), and therefore, potentially the most debilitating to a player and playing squad across a season or World Cup competition. The aetiology of these injuries is highly multi-factorial, with a growing body of evidence suggesting that some of the inter-individual variability in injury susceptibility may be due to genetic variation. However, little effort has been devoted to the study of genetic injury traits within rugby athletes. Due to a growing understanding of the molecular characteristics underpinning the aetiology of injury, investigating genetic variation within elite rugby is a viable and worthy proposition. Therefore, we propose several single nucleotide polymorphisms within candidate genes of interest; COL1A1, COL3A1, COL5A1, MIR608, MMP3, TIMP2, VEGFA, NID1 and COLGALT1 warrant further study within elite rugby and other invasion sports.

Influence of gender on the tactical skill and motivational aspects in invasion sports in Physical Education

The main purpose of the present study was to compare the objective, perceived and conceptual tactical skill in invasion sports (indoor football and basketball) between male and female elementary schoolchildren; and secondarily was to compare between genders, physical activity´s levels, intention to be physically active, perceived coordination/competence, intrinsic satisfaction in sport and climate task in Physical Education. A total of 104 elementary schoolchildren of 5th-6th grade of Primary Education, 49 males and 55 females (average age = 10,63 ± 0,64 years), were assessed of objective perceived and conceptual tactical skill in invasion sports, through small-sided games, as well as intention to be physically active, perceived coordination/competence, intrinsic satisfaction in sport and climate task in Physical Education. The results showed that male schoolchildren had significant higher levels of objective and perceived tactical skill, intention to be physically active, perceived competence/coordination, and fun than females (p < 0.05), as well as less boredom´s levels (p < 0.05). However, significant differences for the conceptual tactical skill, physical activity´s levels and climate task in Physical Education were not found (p > 0.05). In the teaching of invasion sports, Physical Education teachers should develop specific strategies for this content, to avoid problems derived from gender differences.

TACTICAL LEARNING IN INVASION SPORTS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION: INFLUENCE OF STUDENTS’ BASELINE

O objetivo do presente estudo foi comparar o efeito de um programa de esportes de invasão durante as aulas de Educação Física sobre a aprendizagem tática objetiva em função de no nível inicial de alunos. 85 estudantes de 5º - 6º ano da educação primária fizeram duas unidades didáticas de futsal e basquete durante as aulas de Educação Física. O grupo de controle realizou as unidades didáticas seguindo uma abordagem técnico-tática tradicional e o grupo experimental seguindo uma abordagem tática. Os estudantes do grupo experimental foram divididos de acordo com a habilidade tática inicial em baixa (< P50) e alta (≥ P50). Antes e depois da intervenção, a habilidade tática objetiva em esportes de invasão foi avaliada. Os resultados mostraram que apenas estudantes com baixo nível inicial melhoraram significativamente sua habilidade tática em esportes de invasão após um programa de curto prazo.

Team and seasonal performance indicator evolution in the ANZ Championship netball league

ABSTRACTAnalysis of netball has received scant attention in the literature and there is little understanding of the dynamics of netball game-play. This study aimed to analyse team and seasonal performance indicator (dis)similarity in the ANZ Championship (netball). Total season values for nine performance indicators were analysed for the ten ANZ Championship teams from 2009 to 2016. The data were analysed using a multivariate, distance-based, approach. Specifically, non-metric multidimensional scaling was used to examine seasonal and team (dis)similarity. After declining from 2009, shooting percentage, goal assists, centre pass receives, penalties and turnovers began to rise from 2011. Both penalties and turnovers declined from 2015, in addition to attempts at goal. The two-dimensional multivariate ordination plot showed relative similarity between each team and season over the observational period, suggesting stagnant game-play dynamics. Further, despite idiosyncratic seasonal profiles, teams generally followed similar directional progression across the ordination surface. Despite being observed in other team invasion sports, league-wide synchronous evolutionary tendencies were not observed within the ANZ Championships between the 2006 to 2016 seasons. However, certain teams did display seasonal fluctuation in their observed multivariate profile, with these seasonal idiosyncrasies being discussed relative to coaching and playing roster changes specific to the analysed team.

Sharper angle, higher risk? The effect of cutting angle on knee mechanics in invasion sport athletes.

Cutting is an important skill in team-sports, but unfortunately is also related to non-contact ACL injuries. The purpose was to examine knee kinetics and kinematics at different cutting angles. 13 males and 16 females performed cuts at different angles (45°, 90°, 135° and 180°) at maximum speed. 3D kinematics and kinetics were collected. To determine differences across cutting angles (45°, 90°, 135° and 180°) and sex (female, male), a 4×2 repeated measures ANOVA was conducted followed by post hoc comparisons (Bonferroni) with alpha level set at α≤0.05a priori. At all cutting angles, males showed greater knee flexion angles than females (p<0.01). Also, where males performed all cutting angles with no differences in the amount of knee flexion -42.53°±8.95°, females decreased their knee flexion angle from -40.6°±7.2° when cutting at 45° to -36.81°±9.10° when cutting at 90°, 135° and 180° (p<0.01). Knee flexion moment decreased for both sexes when cutting towards sharper angles (p<0.05). At 90°, 135° and 180°, males showed greater knee valgus moments than females. For both sexes, knee valgus moment increased towards the sharper cutting angles and then stabilized compared to the 45° cutting angle (p<0.01). Both females and males showed smaller vGRF when cutting to sharper angles (p<0.01). It can be concluded that different cutting angles demand different knee kinematics and kinetics. Sharper cutting angles place the knee more at risk. However, females and males handle this differently, which has implications for injury prevention.

Identifying the Micro-relations Underpinning Familiarity Detection in Dynamic Displays Containing Multiple Objects.

We identified the important micro-relations that are perceived when attempting to recognize patterns in stimuli consisting of multiple dynamic objects. Skilled and less-skilled participants were presented with point light display sequences representing dynamic patterns in an invasion sport and were subsequently required to make familiarity based recognition judgments in three different conditions, each of which contained only a select number of features that were present at initial viewing. No differences in recognition accuracy were observed between skilled and less-skilled participants when just objects located in the periphery were presented. Yet, when presented with the relative motions of two centrally located attacking objects only, skilled participants were significantly more accurate than less-skilled participants and their recognition accuracy improved further when a target object was included against which these relative motions could be judged. Skilled participants can perceive and recognize global patterns on the basis of centrally located relational information.

Effect of two alternated teaching units of invasion team sports on the tactical learning in primary schoolchildren

The “alternated teaching units” (ATU) is an innovative proposal that consists of delivering two related contents alternatively during the Physical Education (PE) classes, making students aware that both contents are based on the same learning’s principles, increasing the students’ global learning time and making the students perceive one unique learning. This study aimed to compare the use of ATU with traditional teaching units (TTU) on the achieved tactical learning for invasion team sports in primary school students. The sample consisted of 104 students (49 girls and 55 boys; average age = 10.62 ± 0.62 years). Ten PE lessons of soccer and basketball were consecutively (TTU) and alternatively (ATU) delivered. Results showed that the ATU participants had a statistically significant increase in the scores of adjust, guard/mark and general performance indices in basketball, soccer and overall invasion sports compared with the TTU participants (r = 0.24 to 0.64; p < 0.05). Additionally, the ATU participants had a statistically significant higher change of scores in decision-making index in overall invasion sports than the TTU participants (r = 0.25; p < 0.05). ATU applied to related sports should be considered instead of delivering consecutively and unconnectedly blocks of teaching in PE.

Spatio-temporal metrics that distinguish play outcomes: A pilot study

In team invasion sports, tactical behaviour can be examined using spatio-temporal data, i.e. the position of the players at a given time. A review of the spatio-temporal metrics used in team invasion sports performance analysis indicated that thousands of variations of metrics being used. Information about the distribution of metrics' individual effects can inform us of the best variable-selection method. The aim of this pilot study was to estimate the distribution of strong marginal effects of spatio-temporal metrics of field hockey plays. With institutional ethical approval, the Womens’ and Mens’ gold medal games from the EuroHockey 2015 field hockey tournament were recorded. Best, acceptable and worst-case outcomes for plays were described by 1,837 spatio-temporal metrics. Each metric's marginal effects were estimated using Cramer's V, Mutual Information and the I-score. Values for Cramer's V of 0.2 and 0.4 to mark the boundaries of small, moderate and large effects. Less than 1% of metrics show large effects with > 87% of all metrics showing small effects as per the Cramer's V thresholds. These large effect metrics where all within the 98th percentile of Mutual Information values and within the 96th percentile of the I-score values, which supports the Cramer's V distribution of marginal effects. Therefore, according to the recommendations of Tibshirani (1996), univariate variable-selection methods will be the most appropriate for selecting important metrics.

¿CÓMO EVALUAR LA TÁCTICA EN FÚTBOL? SISTEMA DE EVALUACIÓN DE LA TÁCTICA EN FÚTBOL (FUT-SAT)

This paper proposes an assessment tools review that worry about measuring the tactical principles in Soccer. At the same time, scientific and cultural transcription has been done to the Spanish of the conceptualization and implementation of fundamental tactical principles in Soccer. This will be useful to understand an innovative measurement tool in Football as part of the tactical elements of the game, called: System of Tactical Assessment in Soccer or FUT-SAT. Currently, FUT-SAT is an evaluation tool rather unknown in the Spanish-speaking field, being the study objective to present this tool, and so that can be used by teachers and trainers to improve the teaching and learning process and youth players in Soccer, as well as bring new ideas for tactical evaluation in other invasion sports.

Representative design: Does the addition of a defender change the execution of a basketball shot?

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine the influence of a defender on the performance of a motor skill from an invasion sport. DesignHighly skilled basketball players performed different variations of basketball shots using a randomised test schedule. MethodParticipants completed a total of 30 test trials comprising 6 trials of 5 different shot types in both defended and undefended conditions. ResultsThe presence of a defender led to significant changes in several behavioral measures including faster shot execution times, longer jump times, and an increase in the amount of time that the ball spent in the air as it travelled to the basket after being released from the shooter's hand. These behavioral changes were accompanied by an overall decline in shooting accuracy of over 20%. Defended shots also tended to elicit greater amounts of movement variability which, when interpreted in conjunction with the other findings, suggests that participants were attempting to adapt their movements to accommodate for the changing demands of the performance environment. Comparisons across different shot types revealed that the influence of the defender was generally context and task dependent. ConclusionsThe results have important implications for representative task design, and highlight how the manipulation of key information sources can have a marked effect upon behavioral responses.

Physical demand of seven closed agility drills

The present study aimed to quantify the demand of seven generic, closed agility drills. Twenty males with experience in invasion sports volunteered to participate in this study. They performed seven, closed agility drills over a standardised 30-m distance. Physical demand measures of peak velocity, total foot contacts, peak impacts, completion time, and maximum heart rate were obtained via the use of wearable sensor technologies. A subjective rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was also obtained. All measures, with the exception of maximum heart rates and RPE were able to delineate drills in terms of physical and physiological demand. The findings of this study exemplify the differences in demand of agility-type movements. Drill demand was dictated by the type of agility movement initiated with the increase in repetitiveness of a given movement type also contributing to increased demand. Findings from this study suggest agility drills can be manipulated to vary physical and physiological demand. This allows for the optimal application of training principles such as overload, progression, and periodisation.

Montmorency Cherry Concentrate Protects Muscle Function and Attenuates Inflammatory Response Following Simulated Invasion Sports Play

Montmorency cherries have been suggested as a potent exercise recovery supplement due to their reportedly high anti-inflammatory and antioxidative potential. A number of studies have demonstrated positive recovery effects of Montmorency Cherry Concentrate (MC) following mechanical (high-intensity eccentric muscle actions) and metabolic (prolonged high-energy turnover) biased exercise. Conceivably, MC might also be an efficacious intervention for accelerating recovery from a concurrent exercise challenge.

Does training with 3D videos improve decision-making in team invasion sports?

We examined the effectiveness of video-based decision training in national youth handball teams. Extending previous research, we tested in Study 1 whether a three-dimensional (3D) video training group would outperform a two-dimensional (2D) group. In Study 2, a 3D training group was compared to a control group and a group trained with a traditional tactic board. In both studies, training duration was 6 weeks. Performance was measured in a pre- to post-retention design. The tests consisted of a decision-making task measuring quality of decisions (first and best option) and decision time (time for first and best option). The results of Study 1 showed learning effects and revealed that the 3D video group made faster first-option choices than the 2D group, but differences in the quality of options were not pronounced. The results of Study 2 revealed learning effects for both training groups compared to the control group, and faster choices in the 3D group compared to both other groups. Together, the results show that 3D video training is the most useful tool for improving choices in handball, but only in reference to decision time and not decision quality. We discuss the usefulness of a 3D video tool for training of decision-making skills outside the laboratory or gym.

Agility and Change-of-Direction Speed are Independent Skills: Implications for Training for Agility in Invasion Sports

This review explores the differences between agility in invasion sports (defined as including reactive decision-making) and change-of-direction speed (CODS), and highlights the implications for training. Correlations between agility tests and CODS tests indicate that they represent independent skills. Agility tests discriminate higher- from lower-standard athletes better than CODS tests, indicating that the cognitive element of agility is important to performance. Training studies have shown that the development of strength qualities can transfer to gains in CODS, but this has never been shown for agility. There is some evidence that the importance of physical qualities is greater for CODS than for agility. It was concluded that the reactive element should be included in agility training, testing and research. While there appears to be no research evidence for the benefits of strength and power training, there is some support for the use of small-sided games for improving agility.

How visual information influences coordination dynamics when following the leader

Coordinating one's movements with others is an important aspect of human interactions. Regulating the distance to other moving agents is often necessary to achieve specific task goals such as in invasion sports. This study aimed to examine how distance regulation is mediated by different sources of information that are typically available when humans coordinate their actions to others. Participants followed a virtual leader that moved backwards and forwards, and were instructed to maintain the initial distance. In one condition, participants were presented with a life-size fully animated human avatar as the leader, displaying both segmental (limb motion) and global (optical expansion) motion information. In the other condition, participants had to follow an expanding and receding sphere in which segmental motion information was absent. Optical expansion rates revealed that participants regulated distance equally effective in both conditions. Given the phase relation and response times to direction changes however, the timing to the leader appeared to be more accurate in the avatar condition. These results provide support that forward-backward following can indeed be successfully mediated through global information, but that detection of segmental information allows for earlier tuning to another person's movement intentions.

Análisis de la evaluación de los deportes de invasión en Primaria

The present study was to analyze teacher evaluation of invasion sports (IS) in Primary Education. To do this, we used a quantitative design using the questionnaire as a tool after successive phases of a content validation and further analysis of the reliability. Six dimensions