Analysing Team Sport Performance
A team sport is any sport where the individuals in a group compete against each other with a shared objective. These objectives may include scoring goals, winning a match or beating a competitor in a competition. Team sports involve the use of social interaction and strategic thinking to achieve a common goal. Examples of team sports are basketball, football, soccer and rugby.
The emergence of athlete tracking systems has allowed practitioners to collect raw trace data for analysing locomotor performance and skills during team sports. Practitioners are besieged with a range of metrics that are available to analyse; however, categorising these into their similarity and relevance across contexts is vital for appraising their utility in team sports. For example, comparing high-speed running distance in American football with that of a basketball player is less meaningful as the court size and position characteristics differ, respectively.
Team athletes are constantly collaborating with their teammates and coaches, often becoming positive role models for young players. As a result, team athletes develop communication skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. Whether listening to locker room pep talk, picking up on non-verbal cues during a game or participating in post-game debrief, team athletes learn to value their time and communicate effectively in a supportive environment.
Examining physical output via aggregate parameters is challenging for team sport athletes as these tend to experience periods of intensity far greater than averaged total game performance. Hence, identifying these significant changes requires a time-series approach that utilises moving minute intervals.