DISCUSSION:

C hapter Three

3.1 INTRODUCTION :

Match analysis may be defined as a fairly objective assessm ent: an observer can easily be trained to observe and record a player's performance in a match, particularly if he is provided with a suitable location from which he has a good view allowing him to interpret the events easily. This assessm ent can be made of any aspect of play and when carried out fully is known as m atch analysis. This statistical analysis of a match or a player can. when interpreted by a coach or m anager, provide an accurate diagnosis of its /h is strengths and weaknesses.

It is a widely accepted fact that improvements in performance are partially related to the quality of feedback given to players after a game. Moreover, this feedback should be given as soon after completion of the event as possible. However, if managers and coaches can give information based only upon subjective assessm ent then improvements in performance can not be optimised. Since one can only view the main parts of the game action most of the peripheral play action is missed. Consequently, the managers and coaches m ust base their feedback on practical information about an individual's performance during the game. This feedback is often inadequate and as such, the opportunity is m issed to fully improve the player's performance in subsequent games.

Given the above problems with a qualitative analysis of team performance, w hat are the alternatives? The obvious answer is to quantify as many aspects of the game as possible. There are many aspects of quantification of performance which are familiar to all of us, namely goals scored; yet game results alone can not measure ail of the specific features of play th at are of concern to the m anagers and

Chapter Three coaches. Thus, other aspects of the game need to be quantified in order for the m anagers and coaches to evaluate and plan for subsequent coaching processes, A method of analysis needs to be defined th at will objectively m easure the players’ behaviour during each game.

The major barriers to the successful and meaningful analysis of sports are caused by the need for efficiency, practicality and validity in the techniques of data collection and recording related information. This applies especially to complex team sports, such as soccer with all its different facets. Soccer can be described as a non-determ inistic sport. That is, there is a large number of events giving a high degree of player choice of action, combined with a relatively high uncertainty of the other players’ actions. Soccer requires the performance of a highly specific, predeterm ined event or sequence of events. Due to the greater complexity of interactions in a non-determ inistic sport, analysis of this is more difficult. In addition, the problem s of identifying important events during the game are more complicated.

To a cynic, match analysis may seem to be a long-winded way of finding out what the managers and coaches already know. It should be noted that most managers and coaches have a genuine desire to leam

more about their sport, and now there is enough evidence to convince ! i even the cynics that match analysis has an im portant role to play in 1

!

the coaching process.

The best of all possible worlds, of course, is to combine the j t knowledge, experience and intuitive judgm ent of the sport with the | accuracy, objectivity and rigour of a good match analysis system.

i

The present chapter is aimed at examining the suitability and

accuracy of the methods used for obtaining objective data on patterns t

Chapter Three of play for different standard soccer teams, and to examine the validity of watching and analysing live matches using the notational method of the study in comparison to video recording and subsequent analysis. It attem pts to answer the following questions:

(i) Is filming of all th e soccer players during a m atch successful and can it be used to study their patterns of play 7

(ii) How successful is film ing th e p ath of th e ball in determ ining patterns of play in the game ?

(iii) How accurate and valid is a live m atch analysis technique compared with a video analysis technique ?

3.2 METHODS :

The detailed explanation of the method and the field work of the study was divided into the following sections:

Data source :

The data was based on the following games:

(i) Two Premier Division soccer reserve matches played at one of the professional parks in the Tayside region were observed and filmed.

(ii) Two first team university matches were observed and filmed.

(iii) Two am ateur and semi-professional m atches respectively were also filmed.

Notational analysis of live matches :

The same techniques were used as described in the Chapter Two, Section II, for recording, collecting and analysing the data for this system,

Chapter Three Video analysis technique :

The video analysis technique was as follows:

j^paratus :

The filming apparatus consisted of a small self-contained Panasonic portable colour video camera fWVP-A2E). It featured a high-band (3.9 MHZ) / inch integral strip filter (NEWVICON TM) tube. It received its power from a Panasonic portable video cassette recorder (NV-180 SERIES). The WVP-A2E is a high quality camera with an auto focus autom atic light/iris control zoom lens that produces 280 lines of horizontal resolution lum inance with recommended illumination of 140 footcandles (1400 LUX) at F4.0. It has a graphics display through a micro process which is able to select colour titles, data, time, stopwatch with lap time feature, record, fade and warning battery. Pilot work :

The pilot work was as follows:

Filming analysis of the whole pitch within a camera frame :

After preparing all the filming equipment required and visiting m ost of the am ateur and professional parks in the region a professional park was chosen as the most appropriate for filming. This was because firstly, there is some distance between the pitch and the stand so more of the pitch will fit into one frame of film. Secondly, it has a box specially built for television camera coverage of the game live on television.

A volunteer acted as a subject, conducting walking, jogging and running exercises on different parts of the pitch, while a wide angle

Chapter Three lens camera was mounted each time in different locations. A second wide angle lens camera was then brought in and positioned along side the first camera and then moved to other suitable places on the stand for filming in order to study all viewing possibilities. For analysis the film was replayed on a colour television monitor and the following points were noted:

(i) It was not possible to get the whole pitch within the camera frame, even using two cameras with wide angle lenses, each filming half of the pitch.

(ii) It was not possible from the film to identify the subject when viewed from such a distance. Therefore it is more difficult to identify the athletes in such a situation for analysis purposes.

Comparison between live and videotaping techniques :

Firstly, in order to examine the possibility of mapping out the path of a ball, the following pilot work was carried out. The pilot work involved analysis of two am ateur and semi-professional soccer matches played in different parks. The camera had to constantly follow the movement of the ball keeping it within the frame for a whole match. It should be noted that since the aim of the experiment was to film only the path of the ball, the camera was positioned level with the middle of the pitch, and 10 metres from the touch line. This resulted in a very clear image of the path of the ball. It was noted from replays of the matches on a colour television, that the filming of the path of the ball in a m atch was very successful in terms of the quality of film produced. This was due to the ability of the cam era frame to accommodate the ball and a sufficient area of the pitch at the same time.

Chapter Three Secondly, for the purpose of the comparison between a live match technique and a videotaping technique, two m atches played at professional level at their professional park in the Tayside region and two university matches played at the university park in the Fife region were chosen and filmed. The videotape recorder, together with the camera mounted on a tripod, was positioned in a television camera crew gantry or in the middle of the pitch 10 metres outside the touch line at the parks (see Figure 3.1) which had no special place for filming. The filming technique was to get the ball and as much of the pitch as possible within the camera frame. The camera had constantly to follow the movement of the ball keeping it within the frame. It was found to be much easier with two people filming for alternate 10 m inute periods, rather than one person filming the whole m atch alone. For the purpose of analysis the tape was replayed on a colour television monitor and it was indicated that the quality of the film produced was very clear and adequate for the analyses.

Data collections and recording of video analysis :

After the university and professional m atches were viewed on a colour monitor using the notational technique described in the Chapter Two, Section II, the data was analysed using the same computer techniques described in the Chapter Two, Section II.

3.3 RESULTS:

For the purpose of the com parisons between video and live techniques, an attem pt was made to find out which of these techniques was more suitable and reliable. For this reason, two of the reserve premier league matches and two of the university first team m atches were filmed using the technique described previously. Volunteers helped in filming and the researcher analysed the same

Figure 3.1 Apparatus for video analysis.

Chapter Three m atch simultaneously using the techniques described in the Chapter Two, Section II, (live visual analysis technique). After recording the m atch the tape was replayed on a high quality colour monitor and the researcher analysed the video of the match again using the techniques described in the Chapter Two, Section II. The data of both techniques were collected, recorded and converted into numerical data, then fed into the com puter, each as a separate file using the technique mentioned previously.

For the purpose of the analysis the computer programs were run for both sets of data, and the results of both techniques are shown in Appendix A1 pp. 367-383. These tables show that there were very few differences between the video recording and live m atch analysis techniques, the biggest difference being 0.003. It should be noted that the same researcher analysed both matches. It is possible that two different researcher may obtain somewhat larger differences between Eigenvalues.