scholarly journals Passing Network Analysis of Positional Attack Formations in Handball

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Korte ◽  
Martin Lames

Abstract The aim of this study was to characterize handball from a social network analysis perspective by analyzing 22 professional matches from the 2018 European Men's Handball Championship. Social network analysis has proven successful in the study of sports dynamics to investigate the interaction patterns of sport teams and the individual involvement of players. In handball, passing is crucial to establish an optimal position for throwing the ball into the goal of the opponent team. Moreover, different tactical formations are played during a game, often induced by two-minute suspensions or the addition of an offensive player replacing the goalkeeper as allowed by the International Handball Federation since 2016. Therefore, studying the interaction patterns of handball teams considering the different playing positions under various attack formations contributes to the tactical understanding of the sport. Degree and flow centrality as well as density and centralization values were computed. As a result, quantification of the contribution of individual players to the overall organization was achieved alongside the general balance in interplay. We identified the backcourt as the key players to structure interplay across tactical formations. While attack units without a goalkeeper were played longer, they were either more intensively structured around back positions (7 vs. 6) or spread out (5 + 1 vs. 6). We also found significant differences in the involvement of wing players across formations. The additional pivot in the 7 vs. 6 formation was mostly used to create space for back players and was less involved in interplay. Social network analysis turned out as a suitable method to govern and quantify team dynamics in handball.

Author(s):  
Hiller A. Spires ◽  
Meixun Zheng ◽  
Manning Pruden

The purpose of this chapter is to present graduate students’ views of their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) development. These graduate students are also teachers. Data was collected using a mixed method approach founded on the TPACK Framework and social network analysis. Koehler and Mishra (2006) claim that effective teaching with technology requires TPACK, or an ability to integrate content, pedagogy and technology flexibly during the act of teaching. As part of a graduate course on new literacies and media, participants were required to design and implement lessons that incorporated a range of technologies, produce written reflections about their experiences, and engage in online interactions with participants in the class. Qualitative results from participants’ written reflections revealed four themes relative to TPACK. Additionally, a social network analysis demonstrated a positive relationship between participants’ views on their TPACK development and their interaction patterns within the online learning environment. This study shows that the TPACK framework can be a useful tool, giving educators a productive way to think about technology integration as they navigate the rapid changes prompted by emerging technologies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 030936462095882
Author(s):  
Cody L McDonald ◽  
Henry Larbi ◽  
Sarah Westcott McCoy ◽  
Deborah Kartin

Background: Information access is essential for quality healthcare provision and education. Despite technological advances, access to prosthetics and orthotics information in low- and middle-income countries is not ubiquitous. The current state of information access, availability, and exchange among prosthetics and orthotics faculty is unknown. Objectives: Describe information exchange networks and access at two prosthetics and orthotics programs in Ghana and the United States. Study design: Cross-sectional survey, social network analysis. Methods: An online survey of faculty at two prosthetics and orthotics programs using REDCap. The survey included a social network analysis, demographics, and prosthetics and orthotics information resources and frequency of use. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Results: Twenty-one faculty members completed the survey (84% response). Ghanaian faculty were on average younger (median Ghana: 27 years, United States: 43 years), had less teaching experience, and had less education than US faculty. Textbooks were the most commonly used resource at both programs. The Ghanaian network had more internal connections with few outside sources. The US network had fewer internal connections, relied heavily upon four key players, and had numerous outside contacts. Conclusion: Ghana and US faculty have two distinct information exchange networks. These networks identify key players and barriers to dissemination among faculty to promote successful knowledge translation of current scientific literature and technology development. Social network analysis may be a useful method to explore information sharing among prosthetics and orthotics faculty, and identify areas for further study.


Author(s):  
Donald N. Philip

This paper describes use of social network analysis to examine student interaction patterns in a Grade 5/6 Knowledge Building class. The analysis included face-to-face interactions and interactions in the Knowledge Forum® Knowledge Building environment. It is argued that sociogram data are useful to reveal group processes; in sociological terms, the community lies in the connections among the group. A classroom of unconnected individuals is unlikely to form as a Knowledge Building community; data analyses reported in this study show promise in understanding the dynamics of Knowledge Building in a consistent and measurable way. The strength of the work is not in particular patterns demonstrated but in new forms of assessment and their potential to inform work as it proceeds. The research reported shows that teachers and students are finding social network analysis useful and that through their engagement research-practitioner-engineer teams are better positioned to develop tools to advance Knowledge Building pedagogy.


Author(s):  
Mark W. Bruner ◽  
Colin D. McLaren ◽  
Niels Mertens ◽  
Niklas K. Steffens ◽  
Filip Boen ◽  
...  

Terrorist Activities worldwide has led to the development of sophisticated methodologies for analyzing terrorist groups and networks. Ongoing and past research has found that Social Network Analysis (SNA) is most effective method for predictive counter-terrorism. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is an approach towards analyzing the terrorist networks to better understand the underlying structure of a network and to detect key players within the network and their links throughout the network. It is also need of the hour to convert available raw data into valuable information for the purpose of global security. Comparative study among SNA tools testify their applicability and usefulness for data gathered through online and offline social sources. However it is advised to incorporate temporal analysis using data mining methods, to improve the capability of SNA tools to handle dynamic social media data. This paper examine various aspects of Social Network Analysis as applied to terrorism, taking empirical data, and open source data based studies into account. This work primarily focuses on different types of decentralized terrorist networks and nodes. The nodes can be classified as organizations, places or persons. We take help of varied centrality measures to identify key players in this network.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 98-102
Author(s):  
Aftab Farooq ◽  
◽  
Usman Akram ◽  
Gulraiz Javaid Joyia ◽  
Chaudhry Naeem Akbar

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