Evaluating the influence of a constraint manipulation on technical, tactical and physical athlete behaviour.

Evaluating practice design is an important component of supporting skill acquisition and improving team-sport performance. Constraint manipulations, including creating a numerical advantage or disadvantage during training, may be implemented by coaches to influence aspects of player or team behaviour. This study presents methods to evaluate the interaction between technical, tactical and physical behaviours of professional Australian Football players during numerical advantage and disadvantage conditions within a small-sided game.

The influence of individual, task and environmental constraint interaction on skilled behaviour in Australian Football training.

An important consideration for sport practitioners is the design of training environments that facilitate skill learning. This study presented a method to determine individual (age, games played, height, mass, and position), environmental (activity type) and task (pressure and possession time) constraint interaction to evaluate player training behaviour. Skill actions (n = 7301) were recorded during training activities (n = 209) at a single professional Australian Football club and four measures of player behaviour were determined: disposal frequency, kick percentage, pressure, and possession time.

A method to inform team sport training activity duration with change point analysis.

Duration is a key component in the design of training activities in sport which aim to enhance athlete skills and physical qualities. Training duration is often a balance between reaching skill development and physiological targets set by practitioners. This study aimed to exemplify change point time-series analyses to inform training activity duration in Australian Football.

Tracking Systems in Team Sports: A Narrative Review of Applications of the Data and Sport Specific Analysis.

Seeking to obtain a competitive advantage and manage the risk of injury, team sport organisations are investing in tracking systems that can quantify training and competition characteristics. It is expected that such information can support objective decision-making for the prescription and manipulation of training load. This narrative review aims to summarise, and critically evaluate, different tracking systems and their use within team sports.

Modelling the Influence of Task Constraints on Goal Kicking Performance in Australian Rules Football.

Background: The primary aim of this study was to determine the influence of task constraints, from an ecological perspective, on goal kicking performance in Australian football. The secondary aim was to compare the applicability of three analysis techniques; logistic regression, a rule induction approach and conditional inference trees to achieve the primary aim. In this study, an ecological perspective has been applied to explore the impact of task constraints on shots on goal in the Australian Football League, such as shot type, field location and pressure.

The influence of environmental and task constraint interaction on skilled behaviour in Australian Football.

The design of sports practice environments can be informed through data collected and analysed according to principles of the constraints-led approach. In this study, three manipulated environmental (area per player, number of players and team outnumber) and two task (activity objective and disposal limitations) constraints were measured during professional Australian Football training activities ( = 112) to determine their relationship with skilled behaviour. Linear regression modelling of the five manipulated constraints explained 68% of the variance in disposal frequency but only 22% in skill efficiency.

Methodological Considerations for Furthering the Understanding of Constraints in Applied Sports.

Commonly classified as individual, task or environmental, constraints are boundaries which shape the emergence of functional movement solutions. In applied sport, an ongoing challenge is to improve the measurement, analysis and understanding of constraints to key stakeholders. Methodological considerations for furthering these pursuits should be centred around an interdisciplinary approach.

Application of a continuous pressure metric for Australian football.

Pressure is an important constraint on sports performance and is typically measured through manual notational analysis. A continuous representation of pressure, along with semi-automated measurement, would serve to improve the efficiency of practice design and analysis, as well as provide additional context to player competition performance. Using spatiotemporal data collected from wearable tracking devices, the present study applied Kernel Density Estimation to estimate the density of players, relative to the ball carrier, at point of skill execution during elite Australian Football training.

Classification of Australian football kick types in-situation via ankle-mounted inertial measurement units.

The utility of inertial measurement units (IMUs) for sporting skill and performance analysis during training and competition is advantageous for enhancing the objectivity of athlete monitoring. This study aimed to classify Australian Rules football (AF) kick types in an applied environment using ankle-mounted IMUs. IMUs and video capture of a controlled protocol, including four kick types at varying distances, were recorded during a single testing session with female AF athletes (n = 20).

Applications of a working framework for the measurement of representative learning design in Australian football.

Representative learning design proposes that a training task should represent informational constraints present within a competitive environment. To assess the level of representativeness of a training task, the frequency and interaction of constraints should be measured. This study compared constraint interactions and their frequencies in training (match simulations and small sided games) with competition environments in elite Australian football.

Longitudinal Analysis of Tactical Strategy in the Men's Division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

This study explored longitudinal changes in contemporary mixed martial arts (MMA) combat within the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A secondary aim was to investigate how bout duration influences the contribution of performance indicators on outcome. Data were acquired via the official analytics provider to the UFC (FightMetric).

Prevalence of interactions and influence of performance constraints on kick outcomes across Australian Football tiers: Implications for representative practice designs.

Representative learning design is a key feature of the theory of ecological dynamics, conceptualising how task constraints can be manipulated in training designs to help athletes self-regulate during their interactions with information-rich performance environments. Implementation of analytical methodologies can support representative designs of practice environments by practitioners recording how interacting constraints influence events, that emerge under performance conditions. To determine key task constraints on kicking skill performance, the extent to which interactions of constraints differ in prevalence and influence on kicking skills was investigated across competition tiers in Australian Football (AF).

The relationship of team and individual athlete performances on match quarter outcome in elite women's Australian Rules football.

Objectives: To evaluate the relationships between the athlete distribution of team performance indicators and quarter outcome in elite women's Australian Rules football matches.

Design: Retrospective longitudinal cohort analysis.

Methods: Thirteen performance indicators were obtained from 56 matches across the 2017 and 2018 Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) seasons.

The influence of match phase and field position on collective team behaviour in Australian Rules football.

This study investigated the influence of match phase and field position on collective team behaviour in Australian Rules football (AF). Data from professional male athletes (years 24.4 ± 3.

A change point approach to analysing the match activity profiles of team-sport athletes.

In team-sport, physical and skilled output is often described via aggregate parameters including total distance and number of skilled involvements. However, the degree to which these output change throughout a team-sport match, as a function of time, is relatively unknown. This study aimed to identify and describe segments of physical and skilled output in team-sport matches with an example in Australian Football.

Machine and deep learning for sport-specific movement recognition: a systematic review of model development and performance.

Objective assessment of an athlete's performance is of importance in elite sports to facilitate detailed analysis. The implementation of automated detection and recognition of sport-specific movements overcomes the limitations associated with manual performance analysis methods. The object of this study was to systematically review the literature on machine and deep learning for sport-specific movement recognition using inertial measurement unit (IMU) and, or computer vision data inputs.

Weak Relationships between Stint Duration, Physical and Skilled Match Performance in Australian Football.

Australian Rules football comprises physical and skilled performance for more than 90 min of play. The cognitive and physiological fatigue experienced by participants during a match may reduce performance. Consequently, the length of time an athlete is on the field before being interchanged (known as a stint), is a key tactic which could maximize the skill and physical output of the Australian Rules athlete.

When Is a Sprint a Sprint? A Review of the Analysis of Team-Sport Athlete Activity Profile.

The external load of a team-sport athlete can be measured by tracking technologies, including global positioning systems (GPS), local positioning systems (LPS), and vision-based systems. These technologies allow for the calculation of displacement, velocity and acceleration during a match or training session. The accurate quantification of these variables is critical so that meaningful changes in team-sport athlete external load can be detected.

Discovering frequently recurring movement sequences in team-sport athlete spatiotemporal data.

Athlete external load is typically analysed from predetermined movement thresholds. The combination of movement sequences and differences in these movements between playing positions is also currently unknown. This study developed a method to discover the frequently recurring movement sequences across playing position during matches.

Variations in Hypoxia Impairs Muscle Oxygenation and Performance during Simulated Team-Sport Running.

To quantify the effect of acute hypoxia on muscle oxygenation and power during simulated team-sport running. Seven individuals performed repeated and single sprint efforts, embedded in a simulated team-sport running protocol, on a non-motorized treadmill in normoxia (sea-level), and acute normobaric hypoxia (simulated altitudes of 2,000 and 3,000 m). Mean and peak power was quantified during all sprints and repeated sprints.

Heavy Resistance Training in Hypoxia Enhances 1RM Squat Performance.

To determine if heavy resistance training in hypoxia (IHRT) is more effective at improving strength, power, and increasing lean mass than the same training in normoxia. A pair-matched, placebo-controlled study design included 20 resistance-trained participants assigned to IHRT (FIO2 0.143) or placebo (FIO2 0.

Inertial sensors to estimate the energy expenditure of team-sport athletes.

Objectives: To quantify the energy expenditure of Australian Football training and matches and the total daily energy expenditure of Australian Football players using tri-axial accelerometers.

Design: Cross sectional observation study.

Methods: An algorithm was developed for the MiniMax 4.