Beyond the Pitch: Unveiling the Concave Hull as Soccer's Ecological Niche in Practice Design.

An ecological niche is a field in a landscape of affordances, rich in information inviting its inhabitants to develop functionality and effectiveness of their behavior. This idea means that, in sports like soccer, the playing area encapsulates an ecological niche, replete with affordances inviting collective and individual technical-tactical actions, contextualized with associated psychological and physical demands. To examine the co-adaptive relationships framing players' actions in their ecological niche, the present study employed a crossover design with repeated measures to compare the players' transactions within 11 vs.

Frequency and intensity of change of directions in German Bundesliga soccer.

The aim of this study was to investigate the change of direction (COD) frequencies and intensities of high-performance soccer players of the German Bundesliga independent of tactical and match context. COD data were collected from 18 German Bundesliga soccer teams (season 2016-2017; 308 fixtures) by an optical tracking system (OTS) (TRACAB). CODs were tracked using a modified algorithm and were sub-categorized by entry velocity (<3.

The perspective during gestural executions alters hemispherical specialization.

Introduction: The left hemisphere may be particularly specialized for gestures from an egocentric movement perspective, i.e., when executing tool-use pantomime (TUP) gestures.

The dual problem of space: Relative player positioning determines attacking success in elite men's football.

The concept of space has been successfully modelled in football using spatiotemporal player data and Voronoi diagrams. Current approaches, however, are narrow in scope by focusing on an inter-team allocation of space to measure space . The present work extends this widespread perspective with an intra-team application of the Voronoi diagram and its dual Delaunay triangulation to measure space .

Factors that influence the angular error in active knee angle reproduction tests: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: The systematic review and meta-analysis investigated subject-independent test factors that influence the absolute angle error in active knee angle reproduction tests.

Methods: Five electronic databases were searched to identify relevant studies published before 20 December 2023. Studies were included that were published in either English or German and that investigated joint proprioception in the healthy knee.

Five-Week, Low-Intensity Blood Flow Restriction Rowing Improves V̇ o2 max in Elite Rowers.

Held, S, Rappelt, L, Rein, R, Deutsch, J-P, Wiedenmann, T, and Donath, L. Five-week, low-intensity, blood flow restriction rowing improves V̇ o2 max in elite rowers. J Strength Cond Res 38(6): e299-e303, 2024-This controlled intervention study examined the effects of low-intensity rowing with blood flow restriction (BFR) on maximal oxygen uptake (V̇ o2 max), peak power output during ramp testing (PPO), and 2000-m time trial performance (P2k).

Analysis of contextualized intensity in Men's elite handball using graph-based deep learning.

Manual annotation of data in invasion games is a costly task which poses a natural limit on sample sizes and the level of granularity used in match and performance analyses. To overcome this challenge, this work introduces FAUPA-ML, a Framework for Automatic Upscaled Performance Analysis with Machine Learning, which leverages graph neural networks to scale domain-specific expert knowledge to large data sets. Networks were trained using position data of match phases (counter/position attacks), annotated manually by domain experts in 10 matches.

Data Processing Strategies to Determine Maximum Oxygen Uptake: A Systematic Scoping Review and Experimental Comparison with Guidelines for Reporting.

Background: Gas exchange data from maximum oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text]) testing typically require post-processing. Different processing strategies may lead to varying [Formula: see text] values affecting their interpretation. However, the exact processing strategies used in the literature have yet to be systematically investigated.

Analysis of Motion Characteristics and Metabolic Power in Elite Male Handball Players.

While handball is characterized by repeated sprints and changes of direction, traditional player load models do not consider accelerations and decelerations. The aim of this study was to analyze the differences between metabolic power and speed zones for player load assessment with regard to the player role. Position data from 330 male individuals during 77 games from the 2019/20 German Men's Handball-Bundesliga (HBL) were analyzed, resulting in 2233 individual observations.

Low-intensity climbing with blood flow restriction over 5 weeks increases grip and elbow flexor endurance in advanced climbers: A randomized controlled trial.

Grip and elbow flexor strength and endurance are crucial performance surrogates in competitive climbing. Thus, we examined the effects of blood flow restricted (BFR) climbing on grip and elbow flexor performance. Fifteen trained climbers (8 females; 20.

Effects of body orientation and direction of movement on a knee joint angle reproduction test in healthy subjects: An experimental study.

Background: Joint position sense test assess patient mobility and proprioceptive ability. Yet, application used under different conditions may biases reproduction error resulting in different therapeutic consequences.

Objective: To investigate knee angle reproduction test under different test conditions.

Low-intensity swimming with blood flow restriction over 5 weeks increases VOpeak: A randomized controlled trial using Bayesian informative prior distribution.

Peak oxygen uptake (VOpeak) and speed at first (LT1, minimal lactate equivalent) and second lactate threshold (LT2 = LT1 +1.5 mmol·L) are crucial swimming performance surrogates. The present randomized controlled study investigated the effects of blood flow restriction (BFR) during low-intensity swimming (LiT) on VOpeak, LT1, and LT2.

Modeling Players' Scanning Activity in Football.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test models of scanning activity in football. Gibson's ecological approach of visual perception and exploratory activity provided the theoretical framework for the models. The video-based data analysis consisted of 17 selected matches and 239 players of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) U17 and U19 European Championship 2018 and the UEFA U17 and U21 European Championship 2019.

Speed Rope Skipping - Performance and Coordination in a Four-Limb Task.

This study investigated biomechanical characteristics of Speed Rope Skipping (RS) and estimated the contribution of the lower and upper limbs to overall performance. Lower (jumping), upper (turning), and whole-body (skipping) performance were examined in 23 rope skippers. All tests were recorded by 2 D video and nine skipping tests were performed in a 3 D motion capture system.

The Dirty League: English Premier League Provides Higher Incentives for Fouling as Compared to Other European Soccer Leagues.

Fouling in soccer has been studied from an ethical standpoint as a measure of aggression. However, there is limited research related to fouling for performance. The present study investigated fouling as a factor influencing performance in European soccer leagues.

Defending in 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 formation? small differences in footballers' collective tactical behaviours.

This study explored footballers' tactical behaviours, based on their position data, as an effect of two defending formations, 4-4-2 and 5-3-2, using an experimental approach. Sixty-nine youth footballers participated in this 11-versus-11 study, performing 72 trials of attack-versus-defence. Players' position data were tracked using a local positioning system, and processed to calculate measures of collective movement.

Scanning activity in elite youth football players.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the scanning behaviour of elite youth football players across different playing positions and age groups during high-level matches. Data was obtained by filming the 2018 UEFA European U17 and U19 Championship semi-finals and finals. A total of 53 outfield players from the four teams that reached the finals were analysed in both their respective semi-final and final matches, resulting in a total of 1686 attacking play situations.

The porous high-press? An experimental approach investigating tactical behaviours from two pressing strategies in football.

The aim of this study was to analyse footballers' tactical behaviours from their position data, as an effect of two contrasting pressing strategies, high-press defending and deep-defending, using a trial-based experimental approach. Sixty-nine youth footballers participated in this 11 versus 11 study, performing 72 trials of attack versus defence, in a counterbalanced crossover study design. Players' position data were captured using a local positioning system, and processed to calculate measures of inter-team distance, trial duration, distance to nearest opponent, dispersion, team length, team width, team shape, space control gain, inter-line distance, and individual area.

How does spectator presence affect football? Home advantage remains in European top-class football matches played without spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The present paper investigates factors contributing to the home advantage, by using the exceptional opportunity to study professional football matches played in the absence of spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. More than 40,000 matches before and during the pandemic, including more than 1,000 professional matches without spectators across the main European football leagues, have been analyzed. Results support the notion of a crowd-induced referee bias as the increased sanctioning of away teams disappears in the absence of spectators with regard to fouls (p < .

The Effect of Substitutions on Team Tactical Behavior in Professional Soccer.

Player substitutions are one of the main options for the coach to change tactical behavior of his team. : The present study therefore investigates the effect of player substitutions on tactical behavior in high-performance soccer using positional data. : The sample consisted of 659 substitutions from 234 matches played in the German Bundesliga during the season 2016-2017.

Balance training monitoring and individual response during unstable vs. stable balance Exergaming in elderly adults: Findings from a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Exercise-based fall prevention programs mainly refer to multimodal and challenging balance exercises. Individual load monitoring and interpretations are crucial to enable adequate adaptation responses on the individual level. Thus, assessing internal responses to external stimuli throughout an intervention period need to be adequately addressed.

A Systematic Review of Collective Tactical Behaviours in Football Using Positional Data.

Background: Performance analysis research in association football has recently cusped a paradigmatic shift in the way tactical behaviours are studied. Based on insights from system complexity research, a growing number of studies now analyse tactical behaviours in football based on the collective movements of team players.

Objective: The aim of this systematic review is to provide a summary of empirical research on collective tactical behaviours in football, with a particular focus on organising the methods used and their key findings.

A tactical comparison of the 4-2-3-1 and 3-5-2 formation in soccer: A theory-oriented, experimental approach based on positional data in an 11 vs. 11 game set-up.

The presented field experiment in an 11 vs. 11 soccer game set-up is the first to examine the impact of different formations (e.g.

Bearded capuchin monkeys use joint synergies to stabilize the hammer trajectory while cracking nuts in bipedal stance.

The transition from occasional to obligate bipedalism is a milestone in human evolution. However, because the fossil record is fragmentary and reconstructing behaviour from fossils is difficult, changes in the motor control strategies that accompanied this transition remain unknown. Quadrupedal primates that adopt a bipedal stance while using percussive tools provide a unique reference point to clarify one aspect of this transition, which is maintaining bipedal stance while handling massive objects.

"Which pass is better?" Novel approaches to assess passing effectiveness in elite soccer.

Passing behaviour is a key property of successful performance in team sports. Previous investigations however have mainly focused on notational measurements like total passing frequencies which provide little information about what actually constitutes successful passing behaviour. Consequently, this has hampered the transfer of research findings into applied settings.