Weak Team Research Articles

Technical performance and match-to-match variation in elite football teams

ABSTRACTRecent research suggests that match-to-match variation adds important information to performance descriptors in team sports, as it helps measure how players fine-tune their tactical behaviours and technical actions to the extreme dynamical environments. The current study aims to identify the differences in technical performance of players from strong and weak teams and to explore match-to-match variation of players’ technical match performance. Performance data of all the 380 matches of season 2012–2013 in the Spanish First Division Professional Football League were analysed. Twenty-one performance-related match actions and events were chosen as variables in the analyses. Players’ technical performance profiles were established by unifying count values of each action or event of each player per match into the same scale. Means of these count values of players from Top3 and Bottom3 teams were compared and plotted into radar charts. Coefficient of variation of each match action or event within a player was calculated to represent his match-to-match variation of technical performance. Differences in the variation of technical performances of players across different match contexts (team and opposition strength, match outcome and match location) were compared. All the comparisons were achieved by the magnitude-based inferences. Results showed that technical performances differed between players of strong and weak teams from different perspectives across different field positions. Furthermore, the variation of the players’ technical performance is affected by the match context, with effects from team and opposition strength greater than effects from match location and match outcome.

Light, Less-Filling, It's Blue Ribbon!

In an effort to draw support for his agenda of revenue sharing and salary limits, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig commissioned a Blue Ribbon Panel consisting of Richard Levin, Paul Volcker, George Will, and George Mitchell to make recommendations on reforming the national pastime. This commentary reviews and critiques the report. It concludes that the creation of the panel and its focus on competitive balance was a constructive step. In particular, the commentary praises the Report for focusing discussion on ways to ensure that all clubs have a regularly recurring reasonable possibility of postseason play. However, in several important respects, the commentary explains why the Report is unsatisfying. Its reasoning lacks the rigor and comprehensiveness one might have expected from such an expert Panel. The report establishes payroll disparity as a proxy for competitive imbalance but fails to provide a detailed analysis of causality in light of a history of competitive balance despite disparity. Its recommendation that weak teams be encouraged to increase payrolls, while wealthy teams be punished for maintaining high payrolls, harms the Panel's credibility as disinterested observers and creates the appearance of bias in favor of owners. Building on the Report, this Commentary suggests five concrete and plausibly acceptable proposals to improve competitive balance. Permitting cash sales of players subject to the Commissioner's oversight, establishing a mandatory minimum payroll at a level likely to permit clubs to viably contend for postseason play, imposing payroll maxima only on dominant teams, changing the Rule 5 minor league draft to limit the players on top teams that can be protected, and establishing procedures to reform or rid the industry of inept management, are all designed to give observers of the game the same hope for the future of our National Pastime that each fan perhaps will have, if these proposals are implemented, each springtime.

Performance analysis of elite women’s wheelchair basketball players according to team-strength, playing-time and players’ classification

The aim of the study was to analyze the game-related statistics that best differentiate the performance of women’s wheelchair basketball players according to team strength, playing time and players’ classification. Thirty-three games from the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships (2010) were analyzed for this purpose. The official game-related statistics were studied (FIBA box-scores). Team strength (stronger and weaker teams), playing time (important and less important players), and player class (1, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 classes) were used as independent variables. The results from MANOVA showed greater differences between low and high point players for most of the game-related statistics. The stronger teams had better values in assists, turnovers, fouls received and successful free-throws. Playing time was significant for all the game-related statistics with the exception of blocks and successful 3-point field-goals. The main interactive effects were identified between team strength and class for defensive rebounds, assists, successful 2-points field-goals, and unsuccessful 3-point field-goals; between class and playing time for defensive rebounds, blocks, fouls on, successful free-throws and unsuccessful 2-point field-goals; between team strength and playing time only for steals; and between class, team strength and playing time for defensive rebounds and unsuccessful 3-point field-goal attempt.

Folding Under Pressure or Rising to the Occasion? Perceived Time Pressure and the Moderating Role of Team Temporal Leadership

Team temporal orients teams toward managing the time-related aspects of their work. We examined how perceived time pressure affects team processes and subsequent performance under weak versus strong team temporal leadership. Results of a field study of 111 project teams show that the mediated relationship between perceived time pressure and team performance is non-linear. Moreover, this non-linear mediated relationship is moderated by team temporal leadership such that under strong team temporal leadership, the indirect effect of perceived time pressure on team performance is mostly positive; and under conditions of weak team temporal leadership, the indirect effect is positive at low levels of perceived time pressure and negative at intermediate to high levels. Implications for current and future time pressure research are discussed.

Ranking cricket teams

Teams are ranked to show their authority over each other. Existing methods rank the cricket teams using an ad-hoc points system entirely based on the winning and losing of matches and ignores number of runs or wickets from which a team wins. In this paper, adoptions of h-index and PageRank are proposed for ranking teams to overcome the weakness of existing methods. Each team is represented by a node in the graph with two teams creates a weighted directed edge between each other by playing a match and the losing team points to the winning team. The intuition is to get more points for a team winning from a stronger team than winning from a weaker team by considering the number of runs or wickets also in addition to just winning and losing matches. The results show that proposed ranking methods provide quite promising insights of one day and test team rankings. The effect of damping factor d is also studied on the performance of PageRank based methods on both ODI and test matches teams ranking and interesting trends are found.

Folding Under Pressure or Rising to the Occasion? Perceived Time Pressure and the Moderating Role of Team Temporal Leadership

“Team temporal leadership” orients teams toward managing the time-related aspects of their work. We examine how perceived time pressure affects team processes and subsequent performance under weak versus strong team temporal leadership. The results of our field study of 111 project teams show that the mediated relationship between perceived time pressure and team performance is non-linear. Moreover, this non-linear mediated relationship is moderated by team temporal leadership such that, under strong team temporal leadership, the indirect effect of perceived time pressure on team performance is mostly positive, while, under conditions of weak team temporal leadership, the indirect effect is positive at low levels of perceived time pressure and negative at intermediate to high levels. Implications for current and future time pressure research are also discussed.

Evaluating the ability of goalkeepers in English Premier League football

This paper examines the performance of goalkeepers in the English Premier League. A commonly used metric to assess goalkeeper ability is the saves-to-shots ratio. It is shown that goalkeepers playing in weak teams have to defend against on-target shots that have a relatively high probability of scoring as compared to their counterparts in higher-performing teams. This tends to produce a downwards bias in the save-to-shots ratio of goalkeepers in weak teams, an effect which may lead to their ability being underestimated. A logistic regression model is used to adjust goalkeepers’ saves-to-shots ratios for differences in save difficulty. The adjusted ratio is more stable across seasons, suggesting that it is a more reliable estimate of true goalkeeper ability than the unadjusted ratio.

Governance and Management Support for Mathematical Literacy Teaching and Learning at a School in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa

This paper reports on the findings of the study that assessed the capacity of the School Governing Body (SGB) and School Management team - SMT ( school principal, deputy principal and HODs) to support the teaching and learning of mathematics and science subjects at one school in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. In this paper, only findings of the mathematical literacy component are reported and findings on the other subjects are reported in other papers. A case study was conducted in one FET school and used a mixed- methods research design whereby qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The learners were from Grades 10 to 12. The data was collected in the year 2012 from the SGB, SMT, school learners, teachers, and general assistants at the school. The findings showed that though the students were enthusiastic to learn mathematical literacy subject, the SGB and School Management comprised of a weak team to support the students in pertinent areas needed to master the subject. It was concluded that lack of communication between the school administration, SGB, teachers, students and parents on issues pertaining to the execution of school policies, activities and security, could have contributed to lack of students’ engagement and assistance to master the subject. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p579

Identifying the effects from the quality of opposition in a Football team positioning strategy

The present study aimed to identify the collective tactical decisions from a high-level football team, by analysing team length, width and surface area in offensive and defensive phase. The sample was composed by six competitive matches, played against stronger and weaker level opponents. Multidimensional qualitative data was obtained using a computerized match analysis system (AMISCO®). The data was analysed using non-linear signal processing tools, such as relative phase to access coordination modes between teams and approximate entropy (ApEn) to measure randomness in each time-series. The results allowed identifying higher offensive length, width and surface area frequencies when playing against weaker teams. On the other hand, higher defensive length, width and surface area frequencies were found against stronger teams. In addition, the ApEn results of surface area shown that tactical behaviour tends to be repeated during the match, both in offensive and defensive phase. The present results contributed to better understand the use of pitch space and the team strategic framework, helping coaches to improve the accuracy of strategic planning.

Sectorial variation in the quality of environmental impact statements and factors influencing the quality

This paper assesses the overall quality of the EISs of four major sectors and the variation in quality of the EISs among the four sectors in Bangladesh. While there are ample studies on the overall quality of EISs irrespective of sectors, there is a lack of research focus in Bangladesh or elsewhere on how the quality of EISs varies by sectors. This study reviews 40 EISs of four major sectors in Bangladesh by using the Lee-Colley method. The review findings indicate that, in general, the quality of EISs in Bangladesh is satisfactory. However, there is a variation in the quality of EISs by sectors where EISs for two sectors are found to be below the satisfactory level. The reasons behind the variation in the quality of EISs by sector are analysed. Furthermore, this paper analyses the factors influencing the overall quality of EISs in Bangladesh as 35% of EISs are still poorly prepared. The factors responsible for the poor performance of EISs include inadequate study time, the lack of baseline data, weak EIA teams, the lack of EIA experts, inadequate funds and weak Terms of Reference.

Present status and reform recommendations on private medical institutions in Chongqing

The author probed into the inherent advantages and constraints of private medical institutions in Chongqing by means of qualitative interviews and questionnaire survey.The study found private medical institutions with small scale,weak technical team and hardship in survival,and recommended better supporting policies,long-term development strategy and fair competition environment.These efforts will boost scientific development of such institutions. Key words: Private medical institutions; Advantage; Constraints; Development; Reform

The Survey of Relationship and Comparison: Emotional Intelligence, Competitive Anxiety and Mental Toughness Female Super League Basketball Players

The applied word of emotions is Emotional Intelligence (EI) which defines as the ability to perceive, monitor, employ, and manage emotions within one and in others (Gill G.S, 2010). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence, competitive anxiety before a competition and mental toughness of female basketball players. Emotional intelligence questionnaire (Schutte et al., 1998), Competitive state anxiety inventory CSAI-2 (Martens et al., 1990) and mental toughness questionnaire were utilized in this study. The results revealed that although EI of two teams were significantly different (p < .05), but competitive anxiety and mental toughness of them didn’t confirm significant difference. Besides, results showed negative relationship between EI and competitive anxiety, but not significant. On the other hand, this study demonstrated that EI and mental toughness in weak team had negative correlation significantly (p < .05). According to findings of this study seem EI can be one of the factors for success in outstanding teams.

Leadership Development on the Wards: The Present Paucity

Poor leadership produces an inhibitory educational environment and fatigue among its members and subsequent risks for patient safety. Strong leadership skills result in better mentorship, clinical education, and patient safety. The current lack of leadership development among residents and faculty in medical schools fosters weak team dynamics and leadership skills in young physicians. To successfully teach leadership, a top-down approach is needed in which attending physicians and chief residents are effective leaders. With the ability to demonstrate empathy and effectively communicate with junior residents, students, and other staff, a strong leader in clinical teaching aims to foster team building and individual development with an underlying goal of strengthening each person’s ability to effectively cope with unforeseen change, inevitable miscommunication, and ethical dilemmas on and off the wards. Although it is understandable that attending doctors and senior residents might oppose taking on yet another responsibility, being a good leader in teaching hospitals needs to be recognized as essential for all clinical educators.

Effects of season period, team quality, and playing time on basketball players' game-related statistics

The aim of this study was to identify within-season differences in basketball players' game-related statistics according to team quality and playing time. The sample comprised 5309 records from 198 players in the Spanish professional basketball league (2007–2008). Factor analysis with principal components was applied to the game-related statistics gathered from the official box-scores, which limited the analysis to five factors (free-throws, 2-point field-goals, 3-point field-goals, passes, and errors) and two variables (defensive and offensive rebounds). A two-step cluster analysis classified the teams as stronger (69±8 winning percentage), intermediate (43±5 winning percentage), and weaker teams (32±5 winning percentage); individual players were classified based on playing time as important players (28±4 min) or less important players (16±4 min). Seasonal variation was analysed monthly in eight periods. A mixed linear model was applied to identify the effects of team quality and playing time within the months of the season on the previously identified factors and game-related statistics. No significant effect of season period was observed. A team quality effect was identified, with stronger teams being superior in terms of 2-point field-goals and passes. The weaker teams were the worst at defensive rebounding (stronger teams: 0.17±0.05; intermediate teams: 0.17±0.06; weaker teams: 0.15±0.03; P=0.001). While playing time was significant in almost all variables, errors were the most important factor when contrasting important and less important players, with fewer errors being made by important players. The trends identified can help coaches and players to create performance profiles according to team quality and playing time. However, these performance profiles appear to be independent of season period.

An application of attractiveness measures to evaluate the optimal structure of Currie Cup rugby

Recent remarks in the media suggest that the Currie Cup competition, the premier rugby union competition in South Africa, is in need of a revamp. This paper uses new measures of the attractiveness of rugby union matches to argue that the Currie Cup has become one of the less attractive competitions in the rugby-playing world and that the participation of weak teams has contributed significantly to this tendency. Against this background, the paper discusses two proposals for restructuring the competition to restore its attractiveness: a competition with only the five teams that have historically dominated Currie Cup rugby, and a competition with this five andone additional team. It is found that that the five-team structure should yield the most attractive outcomes, but a six-team competition also would be relatively more attractive than most rugby union competitions and would be more likely to be acceptable to key decision makers in South African rugby.

Estimating the Effect of the Red Card in Soccer: When to Commit an Offense in Exchange for Preventing a Goal Opportunity

We study the effect of the red card in a soccer game. A red card is given by a referee to signify that a player has been sent off following serious misconduct. The player who has been sent off must leave the game immediately and cannot be replaced during the game. His team must continue the game with one player fewer. We estimate the effect of the red card from betting data on the FIFA World Cup 2006 and Euro 2008, showing that the scoring intensity of the penalized team drops significantly, while the scoring intensity of the opposing team increases slightly. We show that a red card typically leads to a smaller number of goals scored during the game when a stronger team is penalized, but it can lead to an increased number of goals when a weaker team is punished. We also show when it is better to commit a red card offense in exchange for the prevention of a goal opportunity.

Assessing team leader effectiveness in a higher education institution of North Cyprus

The connected higher education systems will be integrated into its local and international environment and open to the world, its education, history, geography, cultures and people. The aim of this research which is still in progress is to investigate new role and meaning of team leadership in connected higher education systems and also provide an assessment tool for team leader effectiveness in higher education. The multiple data were collected by in-depth interviews, research observation rating scaling, and self reports. The research findings indicate that the institute has weak team leadership profile and requires special perspectives and collaborative work environment.

Efficiency of competitions

League competition is investigated using random processes and scaling techniques. In our model, a weak team can upset a strong team with a fixed probability. Teams play an equal number of head-to-head matches and the team with the largest number of wins is declared to be the champion. The total number of games needed for the best team to win the championship with high certainty T grows as the cube of the number of teams N , i.e., T approximately N(3). This number can be substantially reduced using preliminary rounds where teams play a small number of games and subsequently, only the top teams advance to the next round. When there are k rounds, the total number of games needed for the best team to emerge as champion, T(k), scales as follows, T(k) approximately N(gamma(k)) with gamma(k) = [1-(2/3)(k+1)](-1). For example, gamma(k)=95,2719,8165 for k=1,2,3 . These results suggest an algorithm for how to infer the best team using a schedule that is linear in N. We conclude that league format is an ineffective method of determining the best team, and that sequential elimination from the bottom up is fair and efficient.

Assessing organisational readiness for change: use of diagnostic analysis prior to the implementation of a multidisciplinary assessment for acute stroke care.

BackgroundAchieving evidence-based practice in health care is integral to the drive for quality improvement in the National Health Service in the UK. Encapsulated within this policy agenda are challenges inherent in leading and managing organisational change. Not least of these is the need to change the behaviours of individuals and groups in order to embed new practices. Such changes are set within a context of organisational culture that can present a number of barriers and facilitators to change. Diagnostic analysis has been recommended as a precursor to the implementation of change to enable such barriers and facilitators to be identified and a targeted implementation strategy developed. Although diagnostic analysis is recommended, there is a paucity of advice on appropriate methods to use. This paper addresses the paucity and builds on previous work by recommending a mixed method approach to diagnostic analysis comprising both quantitative and qualitative data.MethodsTwenty staff members with strategic accountability for stroke care were purposively sampled to take part in semi-structured interviews. Six recently discharged patients were also interviewed. Focus groups were conducted with one group of registered ward-based nurses (n = 5) and three specialist registrars (n = 3) purposively selected for their interest in stroke care. All professional staff on the study wards were sent the Team Climate Inventory questionnaire (n = 206). This elicited a response rate of 72% (n = 148).ResultsA number of facilitators for change were identified, including stakeholder support, organisational commitment to education, strong team climate in some teams, exemplars of past successful organisational change, and positive working environments. A number of barriers were also identified, including: unidisciplinary assessment/recording practices, varying in structure and evidence-base; weak team climate in some teams; negative exemplars of organisational change; and uncertainty created by impending organisational merger.ConclusionThis study built on previous research by proposing a mixed method approach for diagnostic analysis. The combination of qualitative and quantitative data were able to capture multiple perspectives on barriers and facilitators to change. These data informed the tailoring of the implementation strategy to the specific needs of the Trust.

BROADCASTING AND TEAM SPORTS

ABSTRACTTelevision rights are the largest component of revenues for major sports in large, rich nations. Among these nations, the market structure for rights varies due to different competition policies toward sports and television. This essay examines how game coverage, revenues, and competitive balance are affected by competition in commercial television and sales of rights. It argues that consumers are better off if television is competitive and leagues do not centralize rights sales. We conclude that centralization of rights sales does not improve competitive balance or benefit financially weak teams. Finally, while digital telecommunications are making television competitive, ending centralization of sales by leagues requires policy intervention.