Adaptive behaviours of attacking futsal teams to opposition defensive formations

The Road to Becoming a World Champion in Futsal

PURPOSE

The aim of the current study was to report the training program and monitoring outcomes of the Portuguese national futsal team during the preparation and competition phases of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021™. For that, the variations in training load and wellness were measured, as well as their relationship.

METHODS

The study followed a retrospective cohort design. For all field training sessions, the volume, exercise structure, and area of play were identified. Player load, session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE), and wellness were collected. Descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for comparison purposes. A visualization method was used for load and well-being.

RESULTS

No significant differences were observed in the number of training sessions, session duration, and player load between preparation and competitive periods. sRPE showed significantly higher values in preparation than in competition periods (P < .05, d = 0.86) and significant differences between weeks (P < .05, d = 1.08). Wellness showed a general statistical difference between periods (P < .001, d = 1.28) and weeks (P < .05, d = 1.17). The correlation analysis for the overall period revealed a general linear relationship within variables of training load and wellness (P < .001). Variations occurred for preparation and competition periods. The visualization method through quadrant plots allowed us to understand the adaptation of the team and the players over the specific period under analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Through this study, it was possible to better understand the training program and monitoring strategies of a high-performance futsal team over a high-level tournament.

Sport Performance Analysis with a Focus on Racket Sports: A Review

Athletes, both professional and amateur, are always looking for ways to improve their performance. With the introduction and increasing availability of modern technologies and smart devices arose the need to measure and analyze performance, but likewise, the use of these innovations as a competitive advantage also arose. Scientific publications reflect the wide range of available approaches and technologies, as well as the growing interest in various sports. As a result, we concentrated on a systematic review of publications that presented performance analysis tools and methods in all sports, with a final focus on racket sports. Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science (WoS) and Elsevier Inc.’s SCOPUS databases were searched for 1147 studies that conducted performance analysis and sports research and were published in English. The data in the systematic review are current, up until 18 May 2021. A general review was performed on 759 items, and then 65 racket sports publications were thoroughly scrutinized. We concentrated on performance data, data collection and analysis tools, performance analysis methods, and software. We also talked about performance prediction. In performance research, we have identified specific approaches for specific sports as well as key countries. We are also considering expanding performance analysis in to E-sports in the future.

A systematic review of collective tactical behaviour in futsal using positional data

Although many studies on collective tactical behaviour have been published in the last decade, no study has revised and summarized the findings provided for futsal. The main aim of this systematic review was to identify and discuss the geometrical centre (GC), distance and area tactical variables used to assess team behaviour in futsal. In addition, it summarizes the findings on the tactical response during futsal competition and training. A systematic review of the relevant articles provided on futsal was carried out using seven electronic databases (SPORTDiscus, ProQuest, Cochrane Plus, Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed and Web of Science) until September 25, 2019. From a total of 1,209 studies initially found, 12 were included in the qualitative synthesis. There were some trends in the analysis of positional data in futsal with the most relevant situations analysed being 1 vs 1 and 5 vs 4+Goalkeeper. The distances and angles between two points were the most assessed tactical variables. Five types of distance variables were used to assess collective tactical behaviour in futsal: GC-GC, GC-player, player-player, player-ball and player-space. Pressure (GC-GC) was greater in shots on goal than in tackles during professional futsal matches. Area variables were reduced to occupied space, exploration space and dominant area. Occupied space was measured only during competition while the dominant area was measured only during training sessions. The surface area and dominant regions were greater when players were attacking in comparison to when they were defending. In addition, two non-linear techniques (i.e. relative phase and entropy) were applied to analyse synchronisation and complexity and regularity or predictability. Defenders were highly synchronous, while attackers tried to break this coordination to achieve possibilities for action. Task constraints are suitable to induce different regularity patterns. This review is an opportunity to develop studies aimed at bridging the gap in collective tactical behaviour in futsal.

The Role of Hypernetworks as a Multilevel Methodology for Modelling and Understanding Dynamics of Team Sports Performance

Despite its importance in many academic fields, traditional scientific methodologies struggle to cope with analysis of interactions in many complex adaptive systems, including team sports. Inherent features of such systems (e.g. emergent behaviours) require a more holistic approach to measurement and analysis for understanding system properties. Complexity sciences encompass a holistic approach to research on collective adaptive systems, which integrates concepts and tools from other theories and methods (e.g. ecological dynamics and social network analysis) to explain functioning of such systems in their natural environments. Multilevel networks and hypernetworks comprise novel and potent methodological tools for assessing team dynamics at more sophisticated levels of analysis, increasing their potential to impact on competitive performance in team sports. Here, we discuss how concepts and tools derived from studies of multilevel networks and hypernetworks have the potential for revealing key properties of sports teams as complex, adaptive social systems. This type of analysis can provide valuable information on team performance, which can be used by coaches, sport scientists and performance analysts for enhancing practice and training. We examine the relevance of network sciences, as a sub-discipline of complexity sciences, for studying the dynamics of relational structures of sports teams during practice and competition. Specifically, we explore the benefits of implementing multilevel networks, in contrast to traditional network techniques, highlighting future research possibilities. We conclude by recommending methods for enhancing the applicability of hypernetworks in analysing team dynamics at multiple levels.

Attacking Profiles of the Best Ranked Teams From Elite Futsal Leagues

This study aimed to (i) explore the discriminatory power of the task-related variables and the context in establishing differences in the elite futsal leagues of Portugal, Spain, and Russia and (ii) understand how these variables vary according to the match outcome. Methodological issues concerning efficiency (goals and shots), offensive organisation (positional attack, counterattack, set pieces, or 5vs4+Goalkeeper), 1st goal scored during matches (home or away team), match type (balanced or unbalanced), and match outcome (winner, loser, or drawer) were discussed. Archival data were obtained from the 2017–2018 season of Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian professional futsal leagues for all play-off matches. Crosstabs analysis was conducted to establish the significance relationship between the elite futsal leagues and the situational variables. Afterward, discriminant analysis was used to identify the task-related variables that maximise mean differences between different league teams for defining offensive profile, and the variations found when the condition of the winner, loser, or drawer is taken into account. The results allowed to understand that the Portuguese and Russian teams used the positional attacks more, and less the counterattacks and set pieces than the Spaniards, who present a more balanced offensive profile. Overall, winners were better discriminated by goals scored, whereas 5vs4+Goalkeeper strategy discriminated loser teams. Coaches should be aware of these different offensive profiles in order to increase control over the match planning and decrease predictability against opposing teams.

What's Next in Complex Networks? Capturing the Concept of Attacking Play in Invasive Team Sports

The evolution of performance analysis within sports sciences is tied to technology development and practitioner demands. However, how individual and collective patterns self-organize and interact in invasive team sports remains elusive. Social network analysis has been recently proposed to resolve some aspects of this problem, and has proven successful in capturing collective features resulting from the interactions between team members as well as a powerful communication tool. Despite these advances, some fundamental team sports concepts such as an attacking play have not been properly captured by the more common applications of social network analysis to team sports performance. In this article, we propose a novel approach to team sports performance centered on sport concepts, namely that of an attacking play. Network theory and tools including temporal and bipartite or multilayered networks were used to capture this concept. We put forward eight questions directly related to team performance to discuss how common pitfalls in the use of network tools for capturing sports concepts can be avoided. Some answers are advanced in an attempt to be more precise in the description of team dynamics and to uncover other metrics directly applied to sport concepts, such as the structure and dynamics of attacking plays. Finally, we propose that, at this stage of knowledge, it may be advantageous to build up from fundamental sport concepts toward complex network theory and tools, and not the other way around.

Goal effectiveness after players' dismissals in professional futsal teams

The purpose of this study was to analyse the effect of players' dismissals on the outcome of attacks in elite futsal matches, and to establish the performance profile of the attacks made in numerical superiority by elite futsal teams. One hundred and twenty five attacking game situations in numerical superiority (dismissal of opponents from defensive team) were analysed from the regular season of the Spanish professional Futsal League. The effect of contextual-related variables (quality of opposition, match-location, match-periods, opponent team's fouls, match-status, attack-duration and match-type) on goal effectiveness was analysed using binomial logistic regression and two-step cluster analysis. Results from the binary logistic regression showed that the highest attack effectiveness was achieved when the teams play at home, perform the attack during minutes 33-36 and the opposing team has 3 fouls. Secondly, the two-step cluster analysis technique allowed identifying four types of attacks when the teams were playing with numerical superiority. The results showed the great importance (in order) of match-type, match-status, attacking team's fouls, match-period, quality of opposition, opposing team's fouls, match-location, goal situation, and attack duration. The identified trends may help coaches to design the superiority/inferiority scenarios more specifically during training and to monitor them during competition.

Parkour as a Donor Sport for Athletic Development in Youth Team Sports: Insights Through an Ecological Dynamics Lens

Analyses of talent development in sport have identified that skill can be enhanced through early and continued involvement in donor sports which share affordances (opportunities for action) with a performer’s main target sport. Aligning key ideas of the Athletic Skills Model and ecological dynamics theory, we propose how the sport of parkour could provide a representative and adaptive platform for developing athletic skill (e.g. coordination, timing, balance, agility, spatial awareness and muscular strength). We discuss how youth sport development programmes could be (re) designed to include parkour-style activities, in order to develop general athletic skills in affordance-rich environments. It is proposed that team sports development programmes could particularly benefit from parkour-style training since it is exploratory and adaptive nature shapes utilisation of affordances for innovative and autonomous performance by athletes. Early introduction to varied, relevant activities for development of athleticism and skill, in a diversified training programme, would provide impetus for a fundamental shift away from the early specialisation approach favoured by traditional theories of skill acquisition and expertise in sport.

Hypernetworks Reveal Compound Variables That Capture Cooperative and Competitive Interactions in a Soccer Match

The combination of sports sciences theorization and social networks analysis (SNA) has offered useful new insights for addressing team behavior. However, SNA typically represents the dynamics of team behavior during a match in dyadic interactions and in a single cumulative snapshot. This study aims to overcome these limitations by using hypernetworks to describe illustrative cases of team behavior dynamics at various other levels of analyses. Hypernetworks simultaneously access cooperative and competitive interactions between teammates and opponents across space and time during a match. Moreover, hypernetworks are not limited to dyadic relations, which are typically represented by edges in other types of networks. In a hypernetwork, n-ary relations (with n > 2) and their properties are represented with hyperedges connecting more than two players simultaneously (the so-called simplex-plural, simplices). Simplices can capture the interactions of sets of players that may include an arbitrary number of teammates and opponents. In this qualitative study, we first used the mathematical formalisms of hypernetworks to represent a multilevel team behavior dynamics, including micro (interactions between players), meso (dynamics of a given critical event, e.g., an attack interaction), and macro (interactions between sets of players) levels. Second, we investigated different features that could potentially explain the occurrence of critical events, such as, aggregation or disaggregation of simplices relative to goal proximity. Finally, we applied hypernetworks analysis to soccer games from the English premier league (season 2010-2011) by using two-dimensional player displacement coordinates obtained with a multiple-camera match analysis system provided by STATS (formerly Prozone). Our results show that (i) at micro level the most frequently occurring simplices configuration is 1vs.1 (one attacker vs. one defender); (ii) at meso level, the dynamics of simplices transformations near the goal depends on significant changes in the players' speed and direction; (iii) at macro level, simplices are connected to one another, forming "simplices of simplices" including the goalkeeper and the goal. These results validate qualitatively that hypernetworks and related compound variables can capture and be used in the analysis of the cooperative and competitive interactions between players and sets of players in soccer matches.