Interpersonal distance regulates functional grouping tendencies of agents in team sports

The authors examined whether, similar to collective agent behaviors in complex, biological systems (e.g., schools of fish and colonies of ants), performers in team sports displayed functional coordination tendencies, based on local interaction rules during performance. To investigate this issue, they used videogrammetry and digitizing procedures to observe interpersonal interactions in common 4 versus 2 + 2 subphases of the team sport of rugby union, involving 16 participants aged between 16 and 17 years of age. They observed pattern-forming dynamics in attacking subunits (n = 4 players) attempting to penetrate 2 defensive lines (n = 2 players in each). Data showed that within each attacking subunit, the 4 players displayed emergent functional grouping tendencies that differed between the 2 defensive lines. Results confirmed that grouping tendencies in attacking subunits of team games are sensitive to different task constraints, such as relative positioning to nearest defenders. It was concluded that running correlations were particularly useful for measuring the level of interpersonal coordination in functional grouping tendencies within attacking subunits.     

Unsanctioned aggression in rugby union: relationships among aggressiveness,anger, athletic identity,and professionalization

Aggressive players who intentionally cause injury to their opponents are common in many sports, particularly collision sports such as Rugby Union. Although some acts of aggression fall within the rules (sanctioned), others do not (unsanctioned), with the latter tending to be less acceptable than the former. This study attempts to identify characteristics of players who are more likely to employ unsanctioned methods in order to injure an opponent. Male Rugby Union players completed questionnaires assessing aggressiveness, anger, past aggression, professionalization, and athletic identity. Players were assigned to one of two groups based on self‐reported past unsanctioned aggression. Results indicated that demographic variables (e.g., age, playing position, or level of play) were not predictive of group membership. Measures of aggressiveness and professionalization were significant predictors; high scores on both indicated a greater probability of reporting the use of unsanctioned aggressive force for the sole purpose of causing injury or pain. In addition, players who had been taught how to execute aggressive illegal plays without detection were also more likely to report using excessive force to injure an opponent. Results provide further support that highly professionalized players may be more likely to use methods outside the constitutive rules of Rugby Union in order to intentionally injure their opponents. Results are discussed within the context of the increasing win‐at‐all‐cost attitude that is becoming more prevalent in sport and its implications for youth athletes. Aggr. Behav. 35:237–243, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Practice effects on intra-team synergies in football teams

Developing synchronised player movements for fluent competitive match play is a common goal for coaches of team games. An ecological dynamics approach advocates that intra-team synchronization is governed by locally created information, which specifies shared affordances responsible for synergy formation. To verify this claim we evaluated coordination tendencies in two newly-formed teams of recreational players during association football practice games, weekly, for fifteen weeks (thirteen matches). We investigated practice effects on two central features of synergies in sports teams – dimensional compression and reciprocal compensation here captured through near in-phase modes of coordination and time delays between coupled players during forward and backwards movements on field while attacking and defending. Results verified that synergies were formed and dissolved rapidly as a result of the dynamic creation of informational properties, perceived as shared affordances among performers. Practising once a week led to small improvements in the readjustment delays between co-positioning team members, enabling faster regulation of coordinated team actions. Mean values of the number of player and team synergies displayed only limited improvements, possibly due to the timescales of practice. No relationship between improvements in dimensional compression and reciprocal compensation were found for number of shots, amount of ball possession and number of ball recoveries made. Findings open up new perspectives for monitoring team coordination processes in sport.     

Uncontrolled manifold analysis of joint angle variability during table tennis forehand

This study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the variance structure of the trunk and racket arm joint angles in table tennis topspin forehand using the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) approach, regarding racket orientation as the task variable. Nine advanced and eight intermediate male collegiate table tennis players performed the topspin strokes against backspin balls. The trunk, upper limb, and racket were modeled as six rigid-link segments with a total of 16 rotation degrees of freedom. The UCM analysis was conducted using 30 trial datasets per participant to quantify the degree of redundancy exploitation needed to stabilize the vertical and horizontal angles of the racket. Irrespective of the performance level, the variance of the joint angle vector increased towards ball impact. The degree of redundancy exploitation increased towards ball impact. As a result, the variability of the racket angles was minimal at impact. Both groups of players used the relative movement between the racket and the hand to stabilize the racket angles at ball impact. The variance of the joint angle vector that affected the vertical racket face angle at ball impact was significantly smaller for advanced players than for intermediate players, and the degree of redundancy exploitation to stabilize that angle at impact tended to be larger for the advanced players. The ability to use the redundancy of the joint configuration to stabilize the vertical racket face angle at impact may be a critical factor that affects performance level.     

The decision to adopt a formal athlete leadership group: Qualitative insights from professional football coaches

ObjectivesAthlete Leadership Groups (ALGs) are increasingly being employed in professional football teams and whilst there is a growing body of quantitative research focussed on athlete leadership in other contexts, qualitative studies at the professional level are scant. The purpose of this study is to explore coaches' adoption of formal ALGs in professional football teams and what influences their decisions about the degree to which players are given leadership responsibilities and roles.DesignQualitative- Inductive.Method16 head coaches from 16 professional football teams, across four leagues (Super Rugby n = 4, National Rugby League n = 5, A League n = 3 and Australian Football League n = 4), participated in semi-structured interviews investigating why coaches are increasingly using ALGs in this environment and what influences the extent to which these ALGs are empowered.ResultsAn inductive thematic analysis indicated coaches' initial decisions to adopt an ALG model were influenced by a range of perceived benefits (team management, team functioning and performance) underpinned by personal factors (past experience, coaching philosophy, interpersonal style and understanding of social influence) and their appraisal of situational considerations (readiness, expectations and commitment), which influenced their ALG implementation decisions (how and to what extent players were empowered and leadership responsibilities delegated).ConclusionsOverall, the coaches' decision to use ALGs in the professional football environment was influenced by a belief that player ownership and autonomy, coupled with the influence of peer leadership underpins performance benefits on and off-field and plays a key role in team culture. However, findings suggest that coaches contemplating adopting an ALG model should take an individually tailored approach. For this approach to be effective, coaches consider and address a range of situational factors, and ensure the leadership model adopted reflects their personal beliefs and the capacity and context of the team.     

A cognitive-behavioural analysis of mental toughness in national rugby league football teams

This study examined the relations between demographic characteristics of rugby players and selected aspects of psychological performance in rugby league football. Mental toughness was assessed using Psychological Performance Inventory and Hardiness on the Personal Views Survey III-R. Participants (N=70) were international rugby league footballers representing four teams (Wales, France, Ireland, England) in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. Participants completed the questionnaires in training camp. Welsh-nationality players had a significantly higher mean score on two of the hardiness subscales. Hardiness measures displayed the greatest and most frequently statistically significant differences. The findings concur with previous work indicating superior hardiness is related to improved performance in sports.     

Identifying runners as football teammates from 400 msec. video clips

Ability to recognize a runner as a teammate from only a brief visual exposure is suggested from research on gait recognition with point-light displays and has particular importance for ball-passing in sports. 15 touch football players of mean age 20 yr. (SD=0.7), on two teams of 7 wk. standing, observed 31 400-msec, video clips of running individuals whose familiarity varied from high to low. These were their teammates, players from the other team, or nonfootball players. After viewing each clip, participants rated their certainty that each running player was a teammate. Despite the brevity of the visual display, overall performance at discriminating teammates from other runners was significantly better than chance, and accuracy did not differ between colour or black-and-white formats. Recognition of teammates was better if familiar nonteammates were removed from the set of analyzed clips and worse if unfamiliar nonplayers were removed.     

Just Win the Game: The Reception of Arab Minorities on Israel’s National Football Team

ABSTRACT

The presence of minorities and immigrants in national sports settings specifically in football, is well documented in many places around the world. The growing presence of Arab ethnic minorities on Israel’s national football team reflects this trend, and, as I will argue, it shows how sports in Israeli society is a gateway for the integration of minorities into Israeli society, yet at the same time, it also exposes the unique and complex tensions between diverse identity groups in Israeli society. The current study examined Jewish-Israeli football fans’ attitudes to the significant presence of Arab-Muslim players on the national team (whose starting eleven includes 4–6 Arab-Muslim players, including its captain since 2018). Based upon an analysis of fan comments posted to social media, related to the 2018–2019 UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Nations League campaign, this study reveals Jewish hegemonic attitudes toward Arab footballers, as well as Arab footballers’ relative autonomy. Admiration and empathy toward minority members are expressed after victories, but in the absence of these well-defined conditions for empathy, as in the cases of team defeats or manifestations of minority pride, Jewish football fans shifted immediately to blatant, derogatory, and patronizing comments that focused on Arab players’ loyalty and expressed patronizing superiority over the Arab players.     

Junior football players' classification of runners as their teammates from 400-msec. video clips

It was hypothesized that a specialized gait recognition skill enables humans to distinguish the gait of familiar from unfamiliar individuals, and that this may have relevance in team sports. Runners seen for less than half a second can be classified as teammates or not by adult players, so it may be asked whether this skill would also be demonstrated by young team players. In the current study, junior football players (M age = 10.0 yr., SD = 0.8, N = 13) viewed 400-msec. video clips of runners sprinting past a fixed forward facing digital video camera and similarly showed teammate recognition scores significantly above chance. Given the variation among the junior players in this skill, it seems possible for researchers to assess whether improvement can be obtained with structured training for young team players, where running teammates are seen in peripheral vision during training drills.     

Informational constraints shape emergent functional behaviours during performance of interceptive actions in team sports

Objectives

This study aimed to explain how defenders intercept the trajectory of a passing ball by understanding how they coupled their actions to critical information sources in a competitive performance setting in team sports.

Design

Time series data on movement displacements of fifteen senior male futsal performers were recorded and digitized during nine competitive futsal games.

Method

Performance was recorded by a digital camera and digitized with TACTO software. The spatial-temporal dynamics of performers during ten intercepted and ten non-intercepted passes were compared. Time to ball interception was calculated by the difference between the time of each defender to an interception point in ball trajectory and the time of the ball’s arrival at the same interception point. Initial distances between defenders and ball and velocity data of defenders and ball over time were also recorded.

Results

Time to ball interception revealed positive values when passes were not intercepted, and negative to zero values when passes were intercepted. At the moment of pass initiation defenders’ distances to the ball constrained their possibilities for successful interception. Analysis of defenders’ adaptations to the environment revealed that continuous changes in the defenders’ velocities constrained their success of the interception.

Conclusions

Intercepted passes seemed to be influenced by the continuous regulation of a defender’s velocity relative to the ball’s trajectory. Time to ball interception is a variable that captured the emergent functional behaviours of players attempting to intercept the trajectory of a pass in the team sport of futsal.     

Interpersonal coordination tendencies and perception of visual information for decision-making in futsal

This study investigated how futsal players visually perceived information on angular interpersonal coordination relations, between available sources such as nearest defender, goalkeeper position and ball, when deciding to shoot at goal. Experienced players (n = 180) participated in eighteen, video-recorded futsal matches, during which 32 participants wore an eye tracking device. Forty-five sequences of play were selected and edited from the moment a teammate passed the ball to the shooter, until the moment a shot was undertaken. Independent variables included the angle connecting the shooter to their closest defender and goalkeeper, and it’s rate of change (velocity and variability) during performance. Then eye tracking system (TOBII PRO) was used to examine gaze patterns of shooters during task performance. Findings revealed that: (i) futsal players adapted their gaze patterns differently between key information sources when shooting confirmed as: their closest defender, goalkeeper, ball, and court floor; and (ii), the ball was the information source which was most fixated on, regardless of the characteristics of interpersonal coordination tendencies that emerged when shooting. These findings can be interpreted as evidence of functional perceptual behaviours used to regulate actions needed to ensure precise contact with the ball when shooting at goal. Further, adaptations of fixation patterns, varied between marking defender, goalkeeper, and ball, may provide functional postural orientation to facilitate a successful shot at goal.     

Processing deceptive information in sports: Individual differences for responding to head fakes depends on the attentional capability of the observer

In team sports, players sometimes try to deceive their opponents by providing misleading information in order to gain a temporal advantage. Head-fakes are often applied when a player gazes in one direction, while passing/shooting the ball in another direction. The opponent is challenged to focus attention on the relevant information (i.e., pass direction), while ignoring the conflicting information (i.e., gaze direction). The present study aimed to identify the link between attentional capabilities and the effectiveness of head fakes. Twenty-seven novices performed in a basketball-specific head-fake task and in the attention-window task. A correlation between performances in both tasks revealed that participants with higher attentional capabilities were better able to focus their attention on the relevant feature (pass direction), when judging basketball situations, than participants with lower attentional capabilities. The results emphasize the relevance of high attentional capabilities in team sports and indicate that focusing one’s attention to the pass direction poses a possibility of reducing the effects of head fakes.     

Angular relationships regulate coordination tendencies of performers in attacker–defender dyads in team sports

This study examined the continuous interpersonal interactions of performers in dyadic systems in team sports, as a function of changing information constraints. As a task vehicle, we investigated how attackers attained success in 1v1 sub-phases of basketball by exploring angular relations with immediate opponents and the basket. We hypothesized that angular relations would convey information for the attackers to dribble past defenders. Four basketball players performed as an attacker and defender in 1v1 sub-phases of basketball, in which the co-positioning and orientation of participants relative to the basket was manipulated. After video recording performance behaviors, we digitized participant movement displacement trajectories and categorized trials as successful or unsuccessful (from the attackers’ viewpoint). Results revealed that, to successfully dribble past a defender, attackers tended to explore the left hand side of the space by defenders by increasing their angular velocity and decreasing their angular variability, especially in the center of the court. Interpersonal interactions and goal-achievement in attacker–defender dyads appear to have been constrained by the angular relations sustained between participants relative to the scoring target. Results revealed the functionality of exploratory behaviors of participants attempting re-align spatial relations with an opponent in 1v1 sub-phases of team games.     

Perception of Affordances for Striking Regulates Interpersonal Distance Maneuvers of Intermediate and Expert Players in Kendo Matches

In daily life and in many sports, people must adjust interpersonal distance between themselves and others based on task constraints and goals. For example, in martial arts such as boxing and kendo, players must adjust interpersonal distance before starting or defending strikes. However, it is not clear what players perceive and how players use this perceptual information to maneuver interpersonal distance and start strikes during real matches. We investigated players' perception of affordances and the criteria for perception and behaviors, and how these change with expertise, using real kendo matches as a one-on-one opponent task. Players perceived affordances for striking for themselves and for their opponent based on subtle interpersonal distance changes and clearly switched stepping forward and backward. In addition, players perceived affordances for strike success and entered closer interpersonal distance than the possible striking distance to increase their own striking ability and exited the closer distance to decrease their opponent's striking ability, respectively. Furthermore, expert players stayed in and moved into the critical interpersonal distance more frequently than intermediate players did. Our research indicates a relationship between action-scaled affordance perception of and maneuvers associated with interpersonal distance in one-on-one situations that occur in daily life and in many sports.     

Basketball players minimize the effect of motor noise by using near-minimum release speed in free-throw shooting

The aim of this study was to clarify the strategy used by basketball players during free-throw shooting to improve performance in the presence of motor noise. Two possible hypotheses were examined: the players minimize the release speed to decrease signal-dependent noise or the players maximize the shot success probability by accounting for their variability. Eight collegiate players and one professional player participated in this study by attempting shots from the free-throw line using a motion capture system. The solution manifold consisting of ball parameters at release was calculated and the optimal strategy was simulated by considering ball parameter variability; this result was compared with the actual data. Our results showed that participants selected the solution of near-minimum release speed. The deviation of the measured release angle from the minimum-speed angle was close to zero (2.8 ± 3.1^∘). However, an increase in speed-dependent noise did not have a significant influence on the ball landing position through simulation. Additionally, the effect of release angle error on the ball landing position was minimum when using the minimum speed strategy. Therefore, the players minimize the release speed to minimize the effect of the release error on performance, instead of minimizing the speed-dependent noise itself. In other words, the strategy is “near-minimum-speed strategy” as well as “minimum-error-propagation strategy”. These findings will be important for understanding how sports experts deal with intrinsic noise to improve performance.     

Role ambiguity,role conflict,team conflict,cohesion and collective efficacy in sport teams: A multilevel analysis

ObjectivesThis study examines how perceptions of role ambiguity, role conflict, team conflict, and cohesion can predict collective efficacy in sports teams.DesignWe adopted a longitudinal perspective, taking measures at the beginning, the middle, and the end of a sport season.MethodsThe participants were professional female and male football players, who participated in the First and Second Divisions in Spain. They completed a multi-section questionnaire assessing role ambiguity, role conflict, cohesion and collective efficacy.ResultsMultilevel modelling analysis showed that perceptions of team conflict and cohesion, at the interpersonal and interteam levels, can predict changes in collective efficacy. However, individual perceptions of role ambiguity and role conflict were not relevant in establishing a team's confidence.ConclusionsThese results suggest interesting practical applications for coaches and sports psychologists in the professional sphere.     

Transformational leadership and team performance in sports teams: A conditional indirect model

This study tests how transformational leadership fosters team performance through team cohesion and how that relationship is moderated by previous team performance and leadership consensus. We computed a moderated-mediation model based on a sample of 690 professional players in 59 top professional teams in interactive team sports leagues (basketball, handball, roller hockey, and indoor football/soccer) in Spain. Our findings suggest that transformational leadership indirectly influences objective team performance through the mediation role of team cohesion and that this indirect effect is more prominent when the level of previous performance is higher. We also found that the indirect effect of transformational leadership on team performance via cohesion is stronger in teams with higher consensus regarding their coaches' leadership. Overall, our results demonstrate the importance of integrating dispersion and contextual variables into research models, in particular, previous performance and leadership consensus.     

Changes in motor synergies for tracking movement and responses to perturbations depend on task-irrelevant dimension constraints

We investigated the changes in the motor synergies of target-tracking movements of hands and the responses to perturbation when the dimensionalities of target positions were changed. We used uncontrolled manifold (UCM) analyses to quantify the motor synergies. The target was changed from one to two dimensions, and the direction orthogonal to the movement direction was switched from task-irrelevant directions to task-relevant directions. The movement direction was task-relevant in both task conditions. Hence, we evaluated the effects of constraints on the redundant dimensions on movement tracking. Moreover, we could compare the two types of responses to the same directional perturbations in one- and two-dimensional target tasks. In the one-dimensional target task, the perturbation along the movement direction and the orthogonal direction were task-relevant and -irrelevant perturbations, respectively. In the two-dimensional target task, the both perturbations were task-relevant perturbations. The results of the experiments showed that the variabilities of the hand positions in the two-dimensional target-tracking task decreased, but the variances of the joint angles did not significantly change. For the task-irrelevant perturbations, the variances of the joint angles within the UCM that did not affect hand position (UCM component) increased. For the task-relevant perturbations, the UCM component tended to increase when the available UCM was large. These results suggest that humans discriminate whether the perturbations were task-relevant or -irrelevant and then adjust the responses of the joints by utilizing the available UCM.     

Eye colour and reaction time to visual stimuli in rugby league players.

Subjects with dark eye colour are thought to perform better on reactive tasks in comparison to light-eyed subjects, whereas light-eyed subjects show enhanced performance over dark-eyed subjects on self-paced activities. This study examined reaction time using unrestricted and peripheral vision and success at the self-paced activity of goal kicking in 59 elite male Rugby League players. Subjects with dark eye colour did not react significantly faster than the light-eyed subjects when tested using unrestricted vision or peripheral vision. Examination of the self-paced activity of goal kicking showed that the percentage success rate was not significantly higher in the light-eyed group than the dark-eyed group. In conclusion, there was no significant difference in reaction time to a visual stimulus or success in goal kicking between dark- and light-eyed Rugby League players.     

Expert anticipation from deceptive action

Expertise in sports enhances the ability to anticipate forthcoming events from the observation of a player’s actions. In the present study, we investigated whether this ability is applicable to deceptive action. In three experiments, performance at anticipating the direction change of a running opponent was examined with experienced rugby players and novice counterparts. These experiments were conducted with reaction-time and temporal-occlusion tasks, in combination with eye movement recordings and the presentation of filmed actions and their point-light representations. The main finding was that the experienced players were superior to the novices in their anticipation of deceptive actions, although their performance was still impaired by the deception, in comparison with their anticipation of nondeceptive actions. We also found that the experienced players anticipated nondeceptive actions less accurately than the novices, suggesting that the players’ expectations of deceptive actions worked negatively on their judgments of nondeceptive actions. The results obtained with the point-light representations closely resembled those obtained with the filmed sequences, indicating that anticipation was based on the kinematics of the running action. These results are discussed in the context of recent developments in research on expertise and deception in sports.