Actions Of Players Research Articles

Performance indicators to be explored in order to win Premier League matches

Football is a dynamic collective sport that involves the actions of players on the field, in addition to the availability and application of player data. Being a sport extensively investigated in terms of performance analysis, there is still a need for more predictive analyzes to better understand the indicators of success. Due to these aspects, this research aimed to verify the influence of the market value of football clubs, as well as the influence of the venue and the tactical/technical aspects - shots on target, corners, crosses, ball possession and passes -, to win Premier League matches. To carry out this research, data from all 380 matches of the PL 2015/2016 season were used. The Transfermarkt website was used to collect the market value of the teams and the Daily Mail website to collect the matches data. Data analysis was performed using the Weka software. The results showed that the market value and the venue, separately, were not relevant to the victories, but when associated to tactical/technical indicators, both contributed with the victories of the teams. Concept A teams, with higher market values, achieved more victories than the concept C teams, with lower market values, in the home games when the aforementioned associations were analyzed. The results of the performed analyzes show that direct and indirect game actions are relevant for teams to win matches played at home, especially for the ones with higher market value.

A Game Representation for a Finite Horizon State Constrained Continuous Time Linear Regulator Problem

A supremum-of-quadratics representation for a class of extended real valued barrier functions is developed and applied in the context of solving a continuous time linear regulator problem subject to a single state constraint of bounded norm. It is shown that this very simple state constrained regulator problem can be equivalently formulated as an unconstrained two-player game. By demonstrating equivalence of the upper and lower values, and exploiting existence and uniqueness of the optimal actions for both players, state feedback characterizations for the corresponding optimal policies for both players are developed. These characterizations are illustrated by a simple example.

Protocol for the Assessment of Individual Tactical Behavior (PADTI) – validation and reproducibility: preliminary evidence

In order to carry out the process of validation and reproducibility of the Protocol for the Assessment of Individual Tactical Behavior of Soccer athletes (PADTI), a study was carried out divided into three stages: I) preparation of the PADTI; II) logical, content and construct validation and; III) reproducibility. The PADTI was developed based on the 8 fundamental tactical principles of soccer, which were inserted in a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet, used to collect, store and process the tactical actions of soccer players during the game. The PADTI validity process was performed by 8 professionals, using a spreadsheet to account for items using a Likert scale (5 points). Reproducibility was carried out in two moments with an interval of 15 days, using as a sample the tactical behaviors of the athletes of the Brazilian team, during a soccer match of the 2018 world cup. validity (IV) of 90%. There were no significant differences between the responses of the evaluators (χ² = 12.199; p = 0.094). The intraclass correlation (ICC) values were greater than 0.814 (CI: 95%: 0.251 - 0.954; p <0.001) and Cronbach's Alpha values were greater than α = 0.814. The results indicated that the PADTI is a valid and useful methodology for assessing the tactical performance of soccer players in a game situation.

Analysis of Movement and Activities of Handball Players Using Deep Neural Networks

This paper focuses on image and video content analysis of handball scenes and applying deep learning methods for detecting and tracking the players and recognizing their activities. Handball is a team sport of two teams played indoors with the ball with well-defined goals and rules. The game is dynamic, with fourteen players moving quickly throughout the field in different directions, changing positions and roles from defensive to offensive, and performing different techniques and actions. Such dynamic team sports present challenging and demanding scenarios for both the object detector and the tracking algorithms and other computer vision tasks, such as action recognition and localization, with much room for improvement of existing algorithms. The aim of the paper is to explore the computer vision-based solutions for recognizing player actions that can be applied in unconstrained handball scenes with no additional sensors and with modest requirements, allowing a broader adoption of computer vision applications in both professional and amateur settings. This paper presents semi-manual creation of custom handball action dataset based on automatic player detection and tracking, and models for handball action recognition and localization using Inflated 3D Networks (I3D). For the task of player and ball detection, different configurations of You Only Look Once (YOLO) and Mask Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (Mask R-CNN) models fine-tuned on custom handball datasets are compared to original YOLOv7 model to select the best detector that will be used for tracking-by-detection algorithms. For the player tracking, DeepSORT and Bag of tricks for SORT (BoT SORT) algorithms with Mask R-CNN and YOLO detectors were tested and compared. For the task of action recognition, I3D multi-class model and ensemble of binary I3D models are trained with different input frame lengths and frame selection strategies, and the best solution is proposed for handball action recognition. The obtained action recognition models perform well on the test set with nine handball action classes, with average F1 measures of 0.69 and 0.75 for ensemble and multi-class classifiers, respectively. They can be used to index handball videos to facilitate retrieval automatically. Finally, some open issues, challenges in applying deep learning methods in such a dynamic sports environment, and direction for future development will be discussed.

Serious Games for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Literature Review

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prevalence rates are increasing and serious games have shown a valuable potential to aid the treatment of autistic individuals. Hence, a Systematic Literature Review was conducted aiming at categorizing serious games for ASD children regarding which skills they aim to develop, how their activities were operationalized, and which customization options they provide to users. Our results showed that a large number of serious games aimed at developing distinct skills in ASD children have been proposed, with their main focus being on social and socio-emotional skills. Nonetheless, for each skill we characterize the existing games according to their features, that is the platform they are developed for, I/O devices used, required users’ action, audiovisual elements, and number of players. We also identify strategies adopted in the games regarding specific features and skills that emerged from the analysis. Finally, our results highlight that offering broader customization options in the games could expand their applicability and utility to their users. This work provides a thorough examination of research on games for ASD children, contributing both to researchers interested in the topic, by identifying existing contributions and open issues for research, and to professionals interested in developing serious games for this public.

The effect of challenging people’s fundamental assumptions about a task: Introducing uncertainty for reducing overprecision

Most of us understand that our rationality is bounded by our cognitive limitations, knowledge, set of beliefs, etc. Generally, however, people are not sufficiently aware of their own bounded rationality and demonstrate overprecision vis-à-vis their decisions. In the current research we evaluate a new method to reduce the overprecision and improve the understanding of bounded rationality: In many cases people underestimate the extent of the bounds of their rationality, and, as a result, demonstrate overprecision in making their decisions. The evaluated method is challenging a person’s fundamental assumptions about a task through introducing uncertainty. Our study’s 120 participants were asked to predict the actions of a virtual player in a series of rounds of SET®, a popular card game. Challenging the fundamental assumption was done by changing the virtual player’s choice rules after 60 rounds. We juxtaposed this with a second method—explaining, giving information about bounded rationality at the beginning of the task and after rounds 10 and 62. Four experimental groups played the game in a 2 by 2 design, with the conditions Change (yes or no) and Explanations (yes or no). The results demonstrate that both methods, Explanation and Change, increased the post-knowledge of results times. We show that the new method to improve the understanding of bounded rationality, challenging the fundamental assumptions about a task through introducing uncertainty, is effective, and should be evaluated further.

Video analysis of Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football (soccer) reveals underlying injury patterns and provides strategies for injury prevention

PurposeIn professional football (soccer), Achilles tendon ruptures are severe injuries. Video analysis promotes a better understanding of the underlying situational and biomechanical patterns, and provides a roadmap for future research to improve the management and prevention of Achilles tendon ruptures. The purpose of this study was to identify injury patterns contributing to acute Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football players.MethodsProfessional male football players with an acute Achilles tendon rupture were identified using an online database. For every in-competition injury, the corresponding football match was detected. Video footage of the injury was accessed using Wyscout.com or publicly available video databases. Situational patterns and injury biomechanics of the injury frame were independently analysed by two reviewers using a standardised checklist and a motion analysis software. Finally, consensus was reached to describe the main injury patterns of Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football players.ResultsThe search identified video footage of 80 Achilles tendon ruptures in 78 players. Most injuries (94%) occurred through indirect or non-contact mechanisms. The kinematic analysis revealed characteristic joint positions at the time of injury consisting of hip extension, knee extension, ankle dorsiflexion, foot abduction, and foot pronation in most cases. The underlying direction of movement was from flexion to extension (knee) and from plantarflexion to dorsiflexion (ankle). Player actions identified as main injury patterns were stepping back (26%), landing (20%), running/sprinting (18%), jumping (13%), and starting (10%).ConclusionMost Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football players are closed-chain indirect or non-contact injuries. Sudden loading to the plantarflexor musculotendinous unit remains to be the main component for most cases. By achieving a better understanding of underlying injury mechanisms, this study provides new strategies for the prevention of Achilles tendon ruptures.Level of evidenceLevel IV.

Construction and Validation of Newly Developed Triangle Test of Reactive Agility in School Children

PURPOSE: Agility is described as a rapid whole-body movement with change of velocity or direction in response to the different stimuli. Scientific research identified two independent types of agility performances: pre-planned agility (CODS) and non-planned agility (RAG). CODS represent generic movement patterns. They can mimic the demands of a sport but all of the movements are pre-planned. In CODS there is no response to a stimulus like in RAG where movements are in response to cues such as the movements of the ball or actions of the opposition players. Literature review show lack of studies that assessed CODS and RAG in children, most probably due insufficiency in quality testing protocols. Hence, the purpose of this study was construction and validation of newly developed agility test that measures RAG performances in children. METHODS: For this purpose, the Blaze Pod system (BP) was used. Three lighting pods were mounted on three 50 cm cones in triangle formation with 4,5 meters distance between cones (TRGA). Results were collected via BP app. Four movement patterns were used to test RAG. Start and finish of the tests were conducted with the tap on BP pods. The sample comprised of 80 elementary school children (boys; n=39, age=14.88±0.36 yrs, height=174,3±7,46 cm, mass 67,86±16,78 kg, and girls; n=41, age=14.85±0.31 yrs, height=167.49±5.72 cm, mass=59.34±10.54 kg). Statistical analysis included calculation of normality of distribution, reliability coefficients, correlations and analysis of variance. RESULTS: Tests showed acceptable reliability with CA=0.58, ICC=0.32 for boys and CA=0.78, ICC=0.55 for girls. Inter-item correlations were higher in girls’ sample (r=0.49-0.64) than in boys (r=0.27-0.41). Also, test showed good sensitivity, normal data distribution and good homogeneity with no differences between items (boys; F=0.07, p=0.93; girls; F=0.13, p=0.88). Better reliability of TRAG test for girls is most probably caused by gender morphological differences. Namely, we observed greater standard deviations (SD) of height (BH) and mass (BM) in boys (boys; BH=7.37, BM=16.97; girls; BH=5.68, BM=9.7) and scientific research confirmed negative influence of BM and BH on reactive agility performance. CONCLUSION: Altogether, newly constructed TRGA test seems to be reliable instrument for measuring reactive agility in pubescent boys and girls. 
 Keywords: non-planned agility, metric characteristics, pubescents, gender

On the linear convergence of distributed Nash equilibrium seeking for multi-cluster games under partial-decision information

This paper considers the distributed strategy design for Nash equilibrium (NE) seeking in multi-cluster games under a partial-decision information scenario. In the considered game, there are multiple clusters and each cluster consists of a group of agents. A cluster is viewed as a virtual noncooperative player that aims to minimize its local payoff function and the agents in a cluster are the actual players that cooperate within the cluster to optimize the payoff function of the cluster through communication via a connected graph. In our setting, agents have only partial-decision information, that is, they only know their own local cost functions, local feasible strategy sets and strategies of neighboring agents. To solve the NE seeking problem of this formulated game, a discrete-time distributed algorithm, called distributed projected gradient tracking algorithm (DPGT), is devised based on the inter- and intra-communication of clusters. In the designed algorithm, each agent is equipped with strategy variables including its own strategy and estimates of other clusters’ strategies. With the help of a weighted Frobenius norm and a weighted Euclidean norm, theoretical analysis is presented to rigorously show the linear convergence of the algorithm. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed algorithm.

“(…), the more intense the dialogue and exchange between coach and medical staff, the more benefit for athlete support quality!”

Background According to key assumptions to modern systems theory (Luhmann, 1983, 1990) the individual action logic of both sports coaches and sports physiotherapists are likely to differ fundamentally. Although both professions are entrusted with the care of athletes, they each follow different systemic logics in doing so. While coaches are embedded in the elite sport system, sports physiotherapists are assigned to the health care system Steinmann et al., 2019). The professional action of both players follows different systemic expectations in each case. Research Question What are potential conflicts within the cooperation between sports physiotherapists and coaches and what are areas of improvement? Methods The project aims at transferring research into practice and includes two parts: First, the project-team performs guided expert interviews with sports physiotherapists (n = 27) and coaches (n = 20) working in German elite sport in order to gather mutual functional, role and action expectations in real social situations. These expectations are compared and fitted in professional theory. The evaluation is based on qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2020; Mayring, 2015). The second part of the project contains a Delphi-Workshop (Niederberger & Renn, 2018). Contentious results are phrased in a rating form for the participants a) to discuss and b) to derive recommended courses of action and case studies. Results Information gathering, content analysis and results are completed. Furthermore, the Delphi-Workshop took place in September 2022 (n = 8). The assumption has been confirmed that potential for optimization of the cooperation between coaches and sports physiotherapists is above all found in their structurally different action logic. The interview partners agree that there is a lack of financial reward for physiotherapists and therefore question international competitive ability. Conflicts are often found in the process of Return-to-Sport decision making since coaches are members of the elite sports system whereas physiotherapists belong to the health system. Furthermore, different employment models can lead to different engagement, because coaches in elite sports usually have a permanent position whereas physiotherapists usually work as freelancers for a low fee. Conclusion By delivering qualitative-empiric insight into the cooperation between coaches and sports physiotherapists in German elite sports, the project identifies starting points for its further improvement. Results verify the need for further research and relevance for the elite sports system. Recommended plans of action and case studies will be provided to organizations in elite sports and to the project’s cooperation partners.

Analysis of indicators of technical and tactical interactions in 3x3 basketbal

Today, team game sports are developing intensively, new varieties of them are appearing. The achievements of Ukrainian 3x3 basketball teams at the international level are significant, but they are episodic in nature and tend to decrease in rating indicators. One of the modern trends in the development of game sports, and 3x3 basketball in particular, is the diversification of technical and tactical actions and interactions, which occurs with the growth of sportsmanship. The relevance of the research problem is due to the lack of analysis of the competitive activity of highly qualified players in a new sport, taking into account the quantitative and qualitative indicators of technical and tactical actions and interactions, which is necessary for the development of player training programs. Purpose:determination and comparison of indicators of technical and tactical interactions among high-class 3x3 basketball players in different age categories. Material and methods. The material of the study was the performance indicators of the players of the leading national teams of the world and Ukraine in 3x3 basketball at international competitions during 2022.The research used theoretical analysis of data from scientific and methodological literature, Internet data on the research problem, pedagogical observation, analysis of competitive activity of qualified 3x3 basketball players, methods of mathematical statistics. Results:the analysis of the game actions of 3x3 basketball players of the leading teams of the world and Ukraine at international competitions in different age categories revealed a steady tendency to increase the quantitative and qualitative indicatorsof technical-tactical interactions with the growth of sportsmanship (in the national team of Serbia, the number of effective attacks after technical-tactical actions -46.4%, after interactions -53.6%). In the national teams of Ukraine, this trend is supported, but the predominant contribution to the result of competitive activity is made by individual actions (in the national team of Ukraine -58% to 42%, respectively). As a result of the analysis of indicators of technical and tactical interactions, a significant increase in both the number and implementation of interactions with the use of curtains in the leading teams of the world was established (from 14 interactions with 34% of implementation in the France U-18 team, 30 with 40% of Poland U-23 to 47 interactions with 55.3% implementation in the Serbian team). In national teams of Ukraine, indicators of the number of these interactions are almost unchanged (from 1.0 to 1.5 on average per game) with relatively low implementation (from 28.6% to 37.5%). Conclusions.The obtained quantitative and qualitative indicators of the game actions of 3x3 basketball players of the world's leading teams at international competitions in various age categories show that with the growth of sportsmanship, effective technical-tactical interactions bring the greatest contribution to the result of the game (up to 53.6% of Serbia). The individual style of play prevails in the national teams of Ukraine. There is a clearly expressed tendency to increase technical and tactical interactions with the use of curtains, the volume of which in the highly qualified 3x3 basketball players of Serbia is 9.5 on average per game, and their effectiveness is 55.3%.

CONVERGENCE CULTURE IN THE PRACTICE OF MOBILE LEGENDS: BANG-BANG GAME

Games in our cultures are sustained passing through dynamic changes of society and technology Online games in digital world today allow players to play together in ubiquitous, every players access the games through their mobile phones . Mobile Legends: Bang-bang, has caused a cultural convergence compared to its previous MOBA games using PC computers. The coordination which used to play in player actions filled with strategics and creativities addressing morality and self interest in strategy. Online game MLBB with its excellence in modes converges the behavior of the players more into individual players. The analysis about cultural convergence sustains by using of grounded theory method, and the method of interview and observation to seven players conducted for data collection. The results show that the convergence culture in MLBB game on individual players as agents creates a more dynamic flowing culture. The constraints during the battle amongst players trigger the making of strategies continuously on each individual in order to be able to interact to others. The flowing condition creates the sense of self-actualization on individual players. The process of learning by each individual is the sense of humanity that online MLBB game gives to human life.

Movement Balance Evaluation for Basketball Training Through Multi-Source Sensors

Balance ability is the basic sports quality of athletes. For basketball players, balance training includes take-off, turning, confrontation, shooting, landing, and other links. If the players have good balance ability, they can effectively prevent sports injury and competition interference and improve the performance of basketball competition. This paper adopts the acceleration signals from multi-source sensors to evaluate movement balance for basketball training. First, acceleration signals are collected by acceleration sensors to depict the basketball player's actions. Second, the hidden Markov model is used to describe the change or transfer of different states during player's actions. Third, the acceleration signal and observation sequence from hidden Markov are used to determine whether the player is under imbalance state. The effectiveness is evaluated on a private dataset.

At the nexus of ludology and narratology: Advances in reality-based story-driven games.

Story-driven games are growing in popularity across a wide range of genres. However, the narrative potential of video games is still being debated, particularly in light of the so-called tension between gameplay and storytelling. This study proposes that rules and game mechanics perform narrative semiotic functions, offering a ludic grammar of interactive storytelling. Case studies of four representative games show through exploratory player action shaped by rules, the medium of video games can generate meanings that traditional media cannot, thereby better achieving their narrative goals.

Evaluating Traceability Technology Adoption in Food Supply Chain: A Game Theoretic Approach

Food traceability in the supply chain is becoming increasingly important because of concerns such as fraud, adulteration, consumer requirements, and food loss. This study highlights the importance of food traceability in reducing food loss through the proper monitoring of food at every stage of the supply chain. The actions of individual players in a food supply chain affect its traceability. Moreover, the decisions made by one player influence the decisions of the other players. Thus, traceability becomes more complex as the number of players increases. Owing to the complex nature of a food chain, it is important to analyze all the possible strategies that stakeholders consider and understand the influence of those possible strategies on the traceability of a food supply chain. In this study, we deploy a game theory model to analyze the strategic combinations of all possible actions of different stakeholders to understand the complexities present in a food supply chain, as well as how these strategic combinations help in decision-making for the adoption of traceability in a food supply chain. Furthermore, we analyze the factors that may increase or decrease the probability of adopting traceability in a food supply chain.

Recognition method of basketball players' throwing action based on image segmentation

In order to solve the problems of low recognition accuracy and long recognition time in traditional basketball players' throwing action recognition methods, this paper proposes a new basketball players' throwing action recognition method based on image segmentation. The covariance matrix of noise data of basketball players' throwing action is constructed. The throwing action of basketball players is expressed by acceleration and angular velocity, and the acceleration vector of throwing action is obtained. The feature extraction of throwing action is completed by discrete Fourier transform algorithm. The image of basketball players' throwing action is segmented by threshold and edge, and the change features of throwing action are obtained by kernel function to complete the recognition of basketball players' throwing action. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the proposed method is about 98%, and the time cost is about 2.1 s.

Recognition method of football players' shooting action based on Bayesian classification

Aiming at the problem of low accuracy and poor real-time performance of existing algorithms in the process of football players' shooting action recognition, a football players' shooting action recognition method based on Bayesian classification is proposed. Firstly, Gaussian mixture model is constructed to extract the characteristics of shooting action. Secondly, the Gaussian parameters are estimated to obtain the optimal state sequence, which provides a basic reference for football players' shooting action recognition. Finally, based on the marking of football players' shooting action behaviour, the recognition of football players' shooting action based on Bayesian classification is realised. Experiments show that the designed Bayesian classification method can accurately identify the shooting action of football players, and has good real-time performance. This shows that the design method can provide basic basis and theoretical guarantee for football players' action recognition, and has certain practical application performance.

Tier-specific contextualised high-intensity running profiles in the English Premier League: more on-ball movement at the top.

The present study aimed to determine the physical-tactical profiles of elite football teams and individual players according to final league rankings. A total of 50 English Premier League matches (n = 100 match and 583 player observations) were analysed by coding the player's physical-tactical actions through synchronising tracking data and video. Final league rankings were categorised into Tiers: (A) 1st-5th ranking (n = 25), (B) 6th-10th ranking (n = 26), (C) 11th-15th ranking (n = 26), and (D) 16th-20th ranking (n = 23). One-way analyses of variance were used to compare match performances between different Tiers, and effect size (ES) was determined for the meaningfulness of the difference. Tier A teams covered 39-51% more high-intensity distance for 'Move to Receive/Exploit Space' (ES: 1.3-1.6, P < 0.01) and 'Run with Ball' (ES: 0.9-1.0, P < 0.05) than Tier C and D, and 23-94% more distance for 'Over/Underlap' (ES: 1.0, P < 0.01), 'Run in Behind/Penetrate' (ES: 0.7, P < 0.05), and 'Break into Box' (ES: 0.9, P < 0.05) compared to Tier C. Central and Wide Defensive Players in Tier A covered 65-551% more high-intensity 'Move to Receive/Exploit Space' distance compared to other Tiers (ES: 0.6-1.0, P < 0.01). Moreover, the additional options within the physical-tactical actions and zonal differences unveiled more meaningful insights into 'HOW' the top Tier teams physically and tactically perform. Thus, the amalgamated physical-tactical data help improve our understanding of a team's playing style relative to their competitive standard.

Two-Player Incomplete Games of Resilient Multiagent Systems

Evolution of agents’ dynamics of multiagent systems under consensus protocol in the face of jamming attacks is discussed, where centralized parties are able to influence the control signals of the agents. In this paper we focus on a game-theoretical approach of multiagent systems where the players have incomplete information on their opponents’ strength. We consider repeated games with both simultaneous and sequential player actions where players update their beliefs of each other over time. The effect of the players’ optimal strategies according to Bayesian Nash Equilibrium and Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium on agents’ consensus is examined. It is shown that an attacker with incomplete knowledge may fail to prevent consensus despite having sufficient resources to do so.

Game Learning Analytics:

Game learning analytics (GLA) comprise the collection, analysis, and visualization of player interactions with serious games. The information gathered from these analytics can help us improve serious games and better understand player actions and strategies, as well as improve player assessment. However, the application of analytics is a complex and costly process that is not yet generalized in serious games. Using a standard data format to collect player interactions is essential: the standardization allows us to simplify and systematize every step in developing tools and processes compatible with multiple games. In this paper, we explore a combination of 1) an exploratory visualization tool that analyzes player interactions in the game and provides an overview of their actions, and 2) an assessment approach, based on the collection of interaction data for player assessment. We describe some of the different opportunities offered by analytics in game-based learning, the relevance of systematizing the process by using standards and game-independent analyses and visualizations, and the different techniques (visualizations, data mining models) that can be applied to yield meaningful information to better understand learners’ actions and results in serious games.