Difference-based analysis of the impact of observed game parameters on the final score at the FIBA Eurobasket Women 2019

Evaluation in women's basketball is keeping up with developments in evaluation in men’s basketball, and although the number of studies in women's basketball has seen a positive trend in the past decade, it is still at a low level. This paper observed 38 games and sixteen variables of standard efficiency during the FIBA EuroBasket Women 2019. Two regression models were obtained, a set of relative percentage and relative rating variables, which are used in the NBA league, where the dependent variable was the number of points scored. The obtained results show that in the first model, the difference between winning and losing teams was made by three variables: true shooting percentage, turnover percentage of inefficiency and efficiency percentage of defensive rebounds, which explain 97.3%, while for the second model, the distinguishing variables was offensive efficiency, explaining for 96.1% of the observed phenomenon. There is a continuity of the obtained results with the previous championship, played in 2017. Of all the technical elements of basketball, it is still the shots made, assists and defensive rebounds that have the most significant impact on the final score in European women’s basketball. It can be noted that, unlike with the previous championship, inside play is no longer dominant, but there is a balance between inside and outside play, which has already been established as a developing trend in men’s basketball. The emergence of the offensive efficiency variable indicates that it is becoming significant in top-tier competitions as well but is still a challenge for coaches to grasp the causes of this multicomplex issue based on this indicator

A participative system for tactics analysis in sport training based on immersive virtual reality

The use of new technologies is becoming a common practice in many competitive sports, from soccer to football, basketball, golf, tennis, swimming, etc. In particular, virtual reality (VR) is increasingly being used to cope with a number of aspects that are essential in athletes’ preparation. Within the above context, this paper presents a platform that allows coaches to interactively create and modify game tactics, which can be then visualized simultaneously by multiple players wearing VR headsets into an immersive 3D environment

Proceedings of Mathsport international 2017 conference

Proceedings of MathSport International 2017 Conference, held in the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua, June 26-28, 2017. MathSport International organizes biennial conferences dedicated to all topics where mathematics and sport meet. Topics include: performance measures, optimization of sports performance, statistics and probability models, mathematical and physical models in sports, competitive strategies, statistics and probability match outcome models, optimal tournament design and scheduling, decision support systems, analysis of rules and adjudication, econometrics in sport, analysis of sporting technologies, financial valuation in sport, e-sports (gaming), betting and sports

He Shoots He Scores: The effect of Mortality Salience on Risky Decisions in a Basketball Task as a Function of Competition and Self-Esteem

The current study was designed to examine the effects of mortality salience (MS) and competition on risk-taking behavior in a sports-related setting as moderated by self-esteem. A basketball task was used to simulate sports risk, in which participants had the option of shooting from three lines: worth one point (least risky option), three points, and five points (riskiest option). Participants were either under the impression that they were competing with another participant or not. It was hypothesized that high self-esteem individuals, when primed with death thoughts and under the illusion of competition, would be most likely to shoot from the five point line, thus taking the greatest risk. It was also hypothesized that high self-esteem in general would positively predict risk taking. Results revealed an unpredicted gender effect, thus data were analyzed separately for male and female participants. For women but not men, self-esteem did positively predict risk-taking in the basketball task. While the original hypothesis was unconfirmed by the results, exploratory analyses, which replaced self-esteem with self-reported athleticism, exposed significant interactions between experimental conditions and athleticism for both genders

Improving managerial decision-making quality in the NBA draft: a closer look at the policy, behavioural economic dynamics, and cognitive biases

The thesis explores the intricacies of the NBA Draft. This mechanism is a policy a professional basketball league installed to foster competitive balance within their self-created market. The goals of this regulation are clear and noble. It provides great intentions and attractive potential benefits for most stakeholders involved. The entire league and its franchises would immensely profit from a perfectly functioning draft regulation. Nonetheless, historically it has failed to produce many of the positive outcomes it was intended to provide. This thesis explores this dissonance through the lens of behavioral economics. The application of the NBA Draft policy hinges on human decision-making. However, making choices in a complex environment like professional sports is incredibly difficult. It can be brutally unforgiving due uncontrollable factors. And yet, managerial decision-making quality within the mechanism can almost certainly be improved. The primary objective of this dissertation is to investigate the entire NBA Draft mechanism from a behavioral economic perspective. Using this approach, the overarching goal is to identify segments within the underlying managerial decision-making processes that offer room for decision-making quality improvement. These improvements in judgements and choices which ultimately could lead to a superior policy performance on a league-wide level, could either be achieved due to avoiding error-producing biases or enhancing the information subsequent draft decisions are based on. To reach this main objective, four academic papers were written to tackle important sub-issues. All articles provide sources for decision-making quality improvements within the NBA Draft setup. These are not only supposed to increase the performance of the individual managers and franchises, but also to enhance the results of the overarching league-wide policy with benefits for many stakeholders

Average Game Physical Demands and the Most Demanding Scenarios of Basketball Competition in Various Age Groups

The purpose of this study was to compare average physical demands and the most demanding 60-s scenarios of basketball match-play between five different age groups. Sixty-four male basketball players from five different age groups were monitored across eight regular-season home games. Physical demands were examined using a local positioning system and included total distance covered, distance >18 km.h(-1), the number of accelerations (>= 2 m.s(-2)) and decelerations (18 km.h(-1) in basketball players was assessed. More specifically, the Under-12 age group achieved the lowest values and showed significant differences with the other four teams in both game analysis techniques (p < .001; effect size = 0.53 - 1.32). In conclusion, average game demands are shown to remarkably underestimate the most demanding scenarios of basketball match-play, and there are multiple significant differences between particular age groups.The authors of this article would like to thank the basketball players who took part in this study and all the FC Barcelona performance department staff members who assisted in player monitoring. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of a Spanish government subproject Mixed method approach in performance analysis (in training and competition) in elite and academy sport [PGC2018-098742-B-C33] [Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (MCIU), la Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)]), which is part of the New approach of research in physical activity and sport from mixed methods perspective (NARPAS_MM) [SPGC201800X098742CV0] coordinated project

Algorithms for the Analysis of Spatio-Temporal Data from Team Sports

Modern object tracking systems are able to simultaneously record trajectories—sequences of time-stamped location points—for large numbers of objects with high frequency and accuracy. The availability of trajectory datasets has resulted in a consequent demand for algorithms and tools to extract information from these data. In this thesis, we present several contributions intended to do this, and in particular, to extract information from trajectories tracking football (soccer) players during matches. Football player trajectories have particular properties that both facilitate and present challenges for the algorithmic approaches to information extraction. The key property that we look to exploit is that the movement of the players reveals information about their objectives through cooperative and adversarial coordinated behaviour, and this, in turn, reveals the tactics and strategies employed to achieve the objectives. While the approaches presented here naturally deal with the application-specific properties of football player trajectories, they also apply to other domains where objects are tracked, for example behavioural ecology, traffic and urban planning

Modelling winning performance in invasive team games

This study reports a four-year investigation into winning performance in invasive team games. The aims of the study were; to identify patterns of winning performance in two invasive team games (Aim 1); and to propose a generic model of winning performance in these games (Aim 2). Four research questions were derived from these aims: Can data gathered by real-time notation systems be used to develop a model for coaches and performers of winning performance?; Do winning teams in rugby union or association football exhibit any observable patterns of behaviour?; Is it possible to profile performances of winning teams in invasive games as an ‘ideal type’?; Is it possible to construct a predictive model of winning performance in invasive team games? Data were collected by real-time hand and computer notation systems from 105 international fixtures (52 rugby union games and 53 association football games). The systems used underwent rigorous validity and reliability checks and were found to be valid and reliable research instruments. Data from the two sports were subjected to thirty investigations (16 for rugby union and 14 for association football) in order to identify patterns of winning behaviour. This behaviour was then presented as an ideal type model of winning in rugby union and association football. Whilst it was acknowledged that within-game and within-sport differences rendered the modelling of performance difficult, it was proposed that some extraneous factors, some key performance areas and some scoring characteristics could be combined to provide an ideal type of winning. A limited, generic model of winning in an invasive game was also proposed. It is concluded that an ideal type model sensitive to quantitative and qualitative data can be constructed for winning performance. It is noted that the spirit of ideal type modelling is sensitive to the dynamic interplay of structural components of games playing and individual action and virtuosity. Directions for future research are identified