Match analysis in team sports

Match Analysis is a major subject among coaches, team managers and sport scientists and it is gaining an increasing relevance day by day. Information and the relevant data processing are the key factors while referring to this aspect of the sport training methodology. Currently the concept of “Match Analysis” is used in several countries to define the process of observing and evaluating a “whole of behaviours” performed by the players during a match, applying different methodologies and using specific instruments and tools,in order to: 1. collect and process the relevant data concerning the different features of games or athletic disciplines, under different points of view; 2. provide relevant presentations, appropriately formatted, in order to show the collected and processed data in an accessible way to all the concerned people, at different levels (i.e. coaches, players, sport scientists, officials, managers, journalists, etc.); 3. provide an interpretation of the collected and processed data, in order to define better some specific feature of the investigated performance (i.e. the physiological side of the performance or the biomechanics or the tactical features of a match or a game) with the ultimate aim of improving these aspects through the appropriate administration of the relevant training processes. The aims of the thesis may be summarized as follows: 1. providing a large-scale overview of what is currently the role of the Match Analysis procedures in the general context of the training methodology; 2. analysing the professional profile (Study 1, Chapter 11) required to operate in this specific field and the attitudes of the possible Match Analysts, the Sport Sciences students, through a questionnaire purposely designed; 3. providing an example of Quantitative Biomechanics Analysis, (Study 2, Chapter 7) investigating a specific hockey technical skill, (the “Push”) often performed during a match in order to cope efficiently with the “Competition Invariants” situations (Free Hits, Corners, Penalty Stroke, etc.); 4. in order to define the relevant physiological performance indicators (match analysis, level 1) in field hockey, an extensive analysis of the motor abilities and the fitness levels has been carried out and presented (Study 3, chapter 7) for elite (international level) and sub-elite (national level) women hockey players; 5. describing some applied Qualitative and Quantitative Match Analysis procedures (Field Hockey, Football; Study 4 and 5, Chapter 8 and 13), through the process of: · analysing the commercial Video Match Analysis software available on the market at date; · using a video match analysis commercial software to collect data at international/national level in team sports such as Field Hockey and Football; · designing a new software able to improve the efficiency of the used video data base; · analysing the collected information, by the means of Data Mining, in order to provide the relevant Performance Predictors, suitable to improve the training processes and to help consistently the work of coaches even in real-time situations. Some final considerations are provided, suggesting the need for more and further investigations for the most part of the third level of analysis (General Strategy and Tactic). A greater involvement of the Universities is needed in order to qualify the future Match Analysts, ensuring them the appropriate knowledge of several and different disciplines that combine a pertinent interdisciplinary approach.