Research Methods for Sports Performance Analysis

1 Research Methods FOR Sports Performance ANALYSISM odern techniques of Sports Performance Analysis enable the sport scientist, coach and athlete to objectively assess, and therefore improve upon, sporting Performance . They are an important tool for any serious practitioner in sport and, as a result, Performance Analysis has become a key component of degree programmes in sport science and Sports coaching. Research Methods for Sports Performance Analysis explains how to undertake a Research project in Performance Analysis including:selection and specifi cation of a Research topic the Research proposal gaining ethical approval for a study developing a Performance Analysis system testing a system for reliability analysing and discussing data writing up results.

2 Covering the full Research cycle and clearly introducing the key themes and issues in contemporary Performance Analysis , this is the only book that Sports students will need to support a Research project in Performance Analysis , from undergraduate dissertation to doctoral thesis. Including case studies, examples and data through-out, this book is essential reading for any student or practitioner with an interest in Performance Analysis , Sports coaching or applied sport science. Peter O Donoghue is Reader and Discipline Director for Performance Analysis in the Cardiff School of Sport, UWIC. He is also the editor of the International Journal of Performance Analysis of Sport.

3 Research Methods FOR Sports Performance Analysis Peter O Donoghue Published 2010by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4 RNSimultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 2010 Peter O DonoghueAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataO Donoghue, Methods for Sports Performance Analysis / Peter O bibliographical Sports sciences Research .

4 2. Sports Research . 3. Sports Study and teaching. 4. Sports Physiological aspects. I. 2010612 .044 dc22 2009036584 ISBN10: 0-415-49622-5 (hbk)ISBN10: 0-415-49623-3 (pbk)ISBN10: 0-203-87830-2 (ebk)ISBN13: 978-0-415-49622-3 (hbk)ISBN13: 978-0-415-49623-0 (pbk)ISBN13: 978-0-203-87830-9 (ebk)This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge scollection of thousands of eBooks please go to 0-203-87830-2 Master e-book ISBN CONTENTS List of fi gures vii List of tables ix Acknowledgements xi Preface xiii 1 Performance Analysis Research 1 2 Research processes 29 3 Selecting a Research question 55 4 Specifying the Research question 78 5 Ethical issues in Performance Analysis 103 6 Devising Methods 128 7 Measurement issues in Performance Analysis 149 8 Analysis of quantitative Sports Performance data 178 9 Analysis of qualitative Sports Performance data 21010

5 Writing up Performance Analysis Research 227 References 253 Index 271 Performance Analysis in a coaching context (Mayes et al., 2009) Data gathering and Analysis Methods Populations and samples in empirical Research The V shaped model of the quantitative Research process Moving from Research problem to Research question Deductive and inductive reasoning Problem structure Manual form for collecting tennis service data Tally system for boxing Analysis Classifi cation of point types in tennis Areas of shooting circle of a netball court Relative reliability of elapsed time in 800m running (using data from Brown, 2005) Relative reliability of split time in 800m running (using data from Brown, 2005)

6 Bland Altman Plot (using data from Brown, 2005) Decision tree of statistical tests Cross-tabulation of frequencies and chi-square test of independence Pearson s coeffi cient of correlation Nonparametric correlations Tests of normality Independent samples t-test Paired samples t-test 193 viii One-way ANOVA Repeated measures ANOVA A signifi cant interaction between two factors (fi ctitious example of percentage match time spent performing high intensity activity by soccer players) Two-way factorial ANOVA results Mann Whitney U test Descriptive statistics comparing medians between samples Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test Descriptive statistics comparing two samples Kruskal Wallis H test Friedman test and supporting Wilcoxon signed ranks tests for comparing pairs of related samples Adapted version of C t et al.

7 S (1995) method for analysing unstructured qualitative data Distribution of %HR max during match time in competitive netball (fi ctitious data) Proportion of high intensity activity performed in different quarters of a netball match (fi ctitious data) Mean number of shots played per rally in Grand Slam tennis tournaments (fi ctitious data) Distance covered (m) by different positions during a match quarter Mean running speed for 300m sections of international women s 1,500m races (fi ctitious data) The association between the percentage of points where the fi rst serve is in and the percentage of points won when the fi rst serve is in during women s singles tennis matches (fi ctitious data) Distribution of match time during Grand Slam singles tennis (fi ctitious data) Fraction of possessions starting in different court areas that lead to goals in international netball (data from Williams and O Donoghue, 2006) 246 Purposes of Performance Analysis relevant to the Analysis of different people Technical effectiveness ratings for soccer (Hughes and Probert, 2006)

8 Percentage error of point type in tennis in an inter-operator agreement test (data from Brown and O Donoghue, 2008b) Inter-operator reliability table for point type (data from Brown and O Donoghue, 2008b) Frequency distribution of point type in tennis in an inter-operator agreement test (data from Brown and O Donoghue, 2008b) Interpretation of kappa values (Altman, 1991: 404) An ordinal scale for rating aggressiveness of tennis shots (adapted from Boffi n, 2004) Inter-operator reliability of rating of aggressiveness of tennis shot (fi ctitious data using Boffi n s 2004 method) Weightings to be used when applying the weighted kappa statistic to inter-operator reliability of a shot aggressiveness in tennis Calculation of mean percentage error for split time (data from Brown, 2005) Summary of absolute reliability statistics(s) Type I and Type II errors 183 X Number of passes made by netball players per match (values in parentheses are percentages for the type of Performance ) (fi ctitious data)

9 Percentage of different types of points played at different tournaments (fi ctitious data) 240 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI d like to express my sincere thanks to all of the people who helped me during the writing and production of this book. In particular, I d like to thank Brian Guerin and Simon Whitmore from Routledge and my col-leagues in the Centre for Performance Analysis at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff. PREFACET here is a series of important textbooks that have been written about per-formance Analysis of sport and published by Routledge. The primary texts are The Essentials of Performance Analysis of Sport (Hughes and Franks, 2008), the second edition of Notational Analysis of Sport (Hughes and Franks, 2004) and Handbook of Soccer Match Analysis (Carling et al.)

10 , 2005). The textbooks edited by Hughes and Franks are excellent secondary sources covering system development, Research topics and the underlying area of feedback and communication in coaching contexts. Carling et al. s book was targeted at a practitioner audience and covers the use of up-to-date systems in professional soccer Analysis . There were many reasons for the author wishing to write this current textbook. First, three main text-books is a very limited base of secondary literature for the growing number of Performance Analysis undergraduate and postgraduate students to use. The leading academics in Performance Analysis are approaching retirement but the academic work in the subject must continue, especially with the rapid growth in the Performance Analysis profession over the last fi ve , the author has spent the last 10 years at the University of Ulster and the University of Wales Institute Cardiff giving similar advice to per-formance Analysis project students that cannot be found in the literature.