In search of invariant athletic behaviour in sport: an example from championship squash match-play

Journal of Sports Sciences
T McGarry, I M Franks

Abstract

Analysis of competitive sport performance from a priori observation is frequently used to prepare an athlete for a future contest. This practice necessarily assumes that the observed athletic behaviours are invariant, in that the data from an earlier contest apply to the next. We report different analyses of championship squash matches from 1987 and 1988 in search of such invariance and thus a general signature of athletic behaviour. The results show that once the preceding condition to an athletic response (shot) becomes more detailed, by either accounting for where on court the previous shot was played to, or by pairing the previous shot with its own antecedent, the corresponding response becomes more predictable (P > 0.25). This is especially the case for a squash champion when the forehand and backhand characteristics of his shot response are accounted for. The finding that the champion is more consistent if his forehand and backhand shot responses to a preceding shot are analysed separately, shows that the level of analytic detail is an important consideration if the derived information from sport analysis is to prepare an athlete reliably for future sport competition. Finally, we consider sport competition from an ecologi...Continue Reading

References

Jan 1, 1991·Journal of Sports Sciences·I M Franks, G Miller
Jan 1, 1986·Journal of Sports Sciences·I M Franks, D Goodman
Jan 1, 1985·Biological cybernetics·H HakenH Bunz
Dec 1, 1994·Journal of Sports Sciences·T McGarry, I M Franks
Dec 1, 1996·Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport·T McGarry, I M Franks
Jan 28, 2011·Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport·Tristan L WallheadDerek T Smith

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Citations

Jan 30, 2008·Journal of Sports Sciences·Alan NevillMike Hughes
Jun 25, 2009·Journal of Sports Sciences·Goran VuckovićMike Hughes
Feb 5, 2010·Journal of Sports Sciences·Jérôme BourboussonTim McGarry
May 22, 2013·Journal of Sports Sciences·João CarvalhoKeith Davids
Dec 20, 2012·Journal of Sports Sciences·Rob Mackenzie, Chris Cushion
Sep 19, 2018·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Colm P MurphyA Mark Williams

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