Predictors of Individual Player Match Performance in Junior Australian Football

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 853-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Tangalos ◽  
Samuel J. Robertson ◽  
Michael Spittle ◽  
Paul B. Gastin

Context:Player match statistics in junior Australian football (AF) are not well documented, and contributors to success are poorly understood. A clearer understanding of the relationships between fitness and skill in younger players participating at the foundation level of the performance pathway in AF has implications for the development of coaching priorities (eg, physical or technical).Purpose:To investigate the relationships between indices of fitness (speed, power, and endurance) and skill (coach rating) on player performance (disposals and effective disposals) in junior AF.Methods:Junior male AF players (N = 156, 10–15 y old) were recruited from 12 teams of a single amateur recreational AF club located in metropolitan Victoria. All players were tested for fitness (20-m sprint, vertical jump, 20-m shuttle run) and rated by their coach on a 6-point Likert scale for skill (within a team in comparison with their teammates). Player performance was assessed during a single match in which disposals and their effectiveness were coded from a video recording.Results:Coach rating of skill displayed the strongest correlations and, combined with 20-m shuttle test, showed a good ability to predict the number of both disposals and effective disposals. None of the skill or fitness attributes adequately explained the percentage of effective disposals. The influence of team did not meaningfully contribute to the performance of any of the models.Conclusions:Skill development should be considered a high priority by coaches in junior AF.

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78
Author(s):  
J. Fahey-Gilmour ◽  
J. Heasman ◽  
B. Rogalski ◽  
B. Dawson ◽  
P. Peeling

Abstract In elite Australian football (AF) many studies have investigated individual player performance using a variety of outcomes (e.g. team selection, game running, game rating etc.), however, none have attempted to predict a player’s performance using combinations of pre-game factors. Therefore, our aim was to investigate the ability of commonly reported individual player and team characteristics to predict individual Australian Football League (AFL) player performance, as measured through the official AFL player rating (AFLPR) (Champion Data). A total of 158 variables were derived for players (n = 64) from one AFL team using data collected during the 2014-2019 AFL seasons. Various machine learning models were trained (cross-validation) on the 2014-2018 seasons, with the 2019 season used as an independent test set. Model performance, assessed using root mean square error (RMSE), varied (4.69-5.03 test set RMSE) but was generally poor when compared to a singular variable prediction (AFLPR pre-game rating: 4.72 test set RMSE). Variation in model performance (range RMSE: 0.14 excusing worst model) was low, indicating different approaches produced similar results, however, glmnet models were marginally superior (4.69 RMSE test set). This research highlights the limited utility of currently collected pre-game variables to predict week-to-week game performance more accurately than simple singular variable baseline models.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. e82
Author(s):  
C. Tangalos ◽  
S. Robertson ◽  
M. Spittle ◽  
P. Gastin

Author(s):  
Adrian J Barake ◽  
Heather Mitchell ◽  
Constantino Stavros ◽  
Mark F Stewart ◽  
Preety Srivastava

Efficient recruitment to Australia’s most popular professional sporting competition, the Australian Football League (AFL), requires evaluators to assess athlete performances in many lower tier leagues that serve as pathways. These competitions and their games are frequent, widespread, and challenging to track. Therefore, independent, and reliable player performance statistics from these leagues are paramount. This data, however, is only meaningful to recruiters from AFL teams if accurate player positions are known, which was not the case for the competitions from which most players were recruited. This paper explains how this problem was recently solved, demonstrating a process of knowledge translation from academia to industry, that bridged an important gap between sports science, coaching and recruiting. Positional information which is only available from the AFL competition was used to benchmark and develop scientific classification methods using only predictor variables that are also measured in lower tier competitions. Specifically, a Multinomial Logistic model was constructed to allocate players into four primary positions, followed by a Binary Logit model for further refinement. This novel technique of using more complete data from top tier competitions to help fill informational deficiencies in lower leagues could be extended to other sports that face similar issues.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley J Cripps ◽  
Christopher Joyce ◽  
Carl T Woods ◽  
Luke S Hopper

This study compared biological maturation, anthropometric, physical and technical skill measures between talent and non-talent identified junior Australian footballers. Players were recruited from the under 16 Western Australian Football League and classified as talent (state representation; n = 25, 15.7 ± 0.3 y) or non-talent identified (non-state representation; n = 25, 15.6 ± 0.4 y). Players completed a battery of anthropometric, physical and technical skill assessments. Maturity was estimated using years from peak height velocity calculations. Binary logistic regression was used to identify the variables demonstrating the strongest association with the main effect of ‘status’. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to assess the level of discrimination provided by the strongest model. Talent identified under 16 players were biologically older, had greater stationary and dynamic leaps and superior handball skill when compared to their non-talent identified counterparts. The strongest model of status included standing height, non-dominant dynamic vertical jump and handball outcomes (AUC = 83.4%, CI = 72.1%–95.1%). Biological maturation influences anthropometric and physical capacities that are advantageous for performance in Australian football; talent identification methods should factor biological maturation as a confound in the search for junior players who are most likely to succeed in senior competition.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (12a) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Songül Pektaş ◽  
Betül Akyol

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of physical activity with music on motor development and performance in children with developmental deficiencies. The study includes twenty children with developmental deficiencies, aged between 10-15 years old. Children were classified into two groups randomly and both groups were given 1 hour of training 3 days a week for 20 weeks. Physical activity with English and Spanish verbal song was used for the first group and only physical activity for the second group. Each participant participated in shuttle, shuttle run, flexibility, standing long jump, vertical jump tests.  The fatigue parameter of children was evaluated using the Visual Analog Scale. As a result of this study, it has been shown that physical activity with music is more effective method to improve motor development and performance levels of children with developmental deficiencies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 685-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Berry ◽  
Bruce Abernethy ◽  
Jean Côté

The developmental histories of 32 players in the Australian Football League (AFL), independently classified as either expert or less skilled in their perceptual and decision-making skills, were collected through a structured interview process and their year-on-year involvement in structured and deliberate play activities retrospectively determined. Despite being drawn from the same elite level of competition, the expert decision-makers differed from the less skilled in having accrued, during their developing years, more hours of experience in structured activities of all types, in structured activities in invasion-type sports, in invasion-type deliberate play, and in invasion activities from sports other than Australian football. Accumulated hours invested in invasion-type activities differentiated between the groups, suggesting that it is the amount of invasion-type activity that is experienced and not necessarily intent (skill development or fun) or specificity that facilitates the development of perceptual and decision-making expertise in this team sport.


1983 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 919-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Thomas Ford ◽  
John R. Puckett ◽  
James P. Drummond ◽  
Kenneth Sawyer ◽  
Kyle Gantt ◽  
...  

To determine the effects of prescribed training programs on 5 physical fitness test items, each of 50 high school boys participated for 10 wk. in one of three programs (wrestling, softball, and plyometrics; weight training; and weight training and plyometrics). (a) On the sit-ups, 40-yd. dash, vertical jump, and pull-ups, each group improved significantly from pre-to posttest, (b) On the shuttle run, none of the groups improved significantly from pre- to posttest, (c) On the vertical jump, groups had a significant effect, but the interaction was nonsignificant. No effects were significant.


1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 330-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Gipson ◽  
Thom McKenzie ◽  
Steve Lowe

This paper focuses on our work as a performance-enhancement team of three providing services to the USA Women’s National Volleyball Team. We direct our efforts to both coaches and players to achieve systemic, self-sustaining improvements in team performance, with a secondary emphasis on services to individuals. To accomplish these goals we have provided seven primary services: (a) measurement of player and coach behavior, (b) improvement of player skill development activities, (c) enhancement of player performance, (d) enhancement of coach performance, (e) planning and management consultation, and (f) fund raising. We have received exemplary support for and cooperation with our efforts from coaches as well as players and have observed substantial desired changes in player and coach performance over the 1988 quadrennium.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid B. H. Olthof ◽  
Tahmeed Tureen ◽  
Lam Tran ◽  
Benjamin Brennan ◽  
Blair Winograd ◽  
...  

Basketball games and training sessions are characterized by quick actions and many scoring attempts, which pose biomechanical loads on the bodies of the players. Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) capture these biomechanical loads as PlayerLoad and Inertial Movement Analysis (IMA) and teams collect those data to monitor adaptations to training schedules. However, the association of biomechanical loads with game performance is a relatively unexplored area. The aims of the current study were to determine the statistical relations between biomechanical loads in games and training with game performance. Biomechanical training and game load measures and player-level and team-level game stats from one college basketball team of two seasons were included in the dataset. The training loads were obtained on the days before gameday. A three-step analysis pipeline modeled: (i) relations between team-level game stats and the win/loss probabilities of the team, (ii) associations between the player-level training and game loads and their game stats, and (iii) associations between player-level training loads and game loads. The results showed that offensive and defensive game stats increased the odds of winning, but several stats were subject to positional and individual performance variability. Further analyses, therefore, included total points [PTS], two-point field goals, and defensive rebounds (DEF REB) that were less subject to those influences. Increases in game loads were significantly associated with game stats. In addition, training loads significantly affected the game loads in the following game. In particular, increased loads 2 days before the game resulted in increased expected game loads. Those findings suggested that biomechanical loads were good predictors for game performance. Specifically, the game loads were good predictors for game stats, and training loads 2 days before gameday were good predictors for the expected game load. The current analyses accounted for the variation in loads of players and stats that enabled modeling the expected game performance for each individual. Coaches, trainers, and sports scientists can use these findings to further optimize training plans and possibly make in-game decisions for individual player performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando de Souza Campos ◽  
Fernando Klitzke Borszcz ◽  
Lucinar Jupir Forner Flores ◽  
Lilian Keila Barazetti ◽  
Anderson Santiago Teixeira ◽  
...  

IntroductionThe present study aimed to investigate the effects of two high-intensity interval training (HIIT) shuttle-run-based models, over 10 weeks on aerobic, anaerobic, and neuromuscular parameters, and the association of the training load and heart rate variability (HRV) with the change in the measures in young futsal players.MethodsEleven young male futsal players (age: 18.5 ± 1.1 years; body mass: 70.5 ± 5.7 kg) participated in this study. This pre-post study design was performed during a typical 10 weeks training period. HIIT sessions were conducted at 86% (HIIT86; n = 6) and 100% (HIIT100; n = 5) of peak speed of the FIET. Additionally, friendly and official matches, technical-tactical and strength-power training sessions were performed. Before and after the training period, all players performed the FIET, treadmill incremental, repeated sprint ability (RSA), sprint 15-m, and vertical jump tests (CMJ and SJ), and the HRV was measured. Training load (TL) was monitored using the session rating of perceived effort. Data analysis was carried out using Bayesian inference methods.ResultsThe HIIT86 model showed clear improvements for the peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), peak speed in the treadmill incremental test, first and second ventilatory thresholds, RSA best and mean times, CMJ, and SJ. The HIIT100 model presented distinct advances in VO2peak, peak speed in the treadmill incremental test, RSA mean time, and CMJ. Between HIIT models comparisons showed more favorable probabilities of improvement for HIIT86 than HIIT100 model in all parameters. TL data and HIIT models strongly explained the changes in the RSA mean and best times (R2 = 0.71 and 0.87, respectively), as well as HRV changes, and HIIT models explained positively VO2peak changes (R2 = 0.72). All other changes in the parameters were low to moderately explained.ConclusionThe HIIT86 proved to be more effective for improving aerobic, RSA, and neuromuscular parameters than HIIT100 during a typical 10-week futsal training period. So, strength and conditioning specialists prescribing shuttle-run intermittent exercises at submaximal intensities can manage the individual acceleration load imposed on athlete increasing or decreasing either the set duration or the frequency of change of direction during HIIT programming.


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