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Transferring an Analytical Technique from Ecology to the Sport Sciences
Carl T Woods1, Sam Robertson2, Neil French Collier3
1Discipline of Sport and Exercise Science, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia. carl.woods@jcu.edu.au.
Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)
|August 26, 2017
Summary
Sport scientists can enhance critical thinking by applying ecological analytical techniques, like nonmetric multidimensional scaling, to sports performance data. This cross-disciplinary approach offers novel insights into athlete and team behaviors for improved analysis.
Area of Science:
- Sports Science
- Ecology
- Data Analysis
Background:
- Learning transfer involves applying prior skills to new tasks.
- Traditionally, sports science focuses on athlete-specific learning transfer.
- Cross-disciplinary learning offers benefits for critical thinking and metacognition in sports science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the utility of ecological analytical techniques in sports science.
- To apply nonmetric multidimensional scaling to team sports performance analysis.
- To analyze and visualize athlete, team, and competition behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Utilized nonmetric multidimensional scaling, a technique common in ecology.
- Presented three novel research examples analyzing sports performance data.
- Applied the technique to Australian Football League, National Rugby League, and Olympic basketball data.
Main Results:
- Analyzed technical behaviors of Australian Football League players (2001-2016).
- Delineated performance dissimilarities between high and low-ranked National Rugby League teams (2016).
- Visualized the evolution of gameplay in Olympic basketball tournaments (2004-2016).
Conclusions:
- Cross-disciplinary learning with ecological techniques provides novel solutions for sports performance research.
- Embracing techniques like nonmetric multidimensional scaling aids in analyzing complex, multivariate sports data.
- This approach can significantly enhance the analysis and visualization capabilities for sport scientists.
