Women’s international football is growing in terms of popularity, but to date there is limited published research in women’s football and even less that describes effective attacking strategies and the creation of goal scoring opportunities (GSO). The purpose of this research was to investigate and assess the factors related to the creation of GSO that led to a Top 4 position Canada Women’s World Cup 2015. Video footage of each match (n = 52) from the Women’s World Cup (Canada 2015) was analysed using SportsCode Software. The results revealed that the middle third of the pitch was the most effective area for gaining possession and creating GSO. The average time taken to create a GSO was under twelve seconds. The findings of the study can be used by coaches to design training sessions and interventions to successfully create GSO in women’s football. The data from the research may influence the tactical set up of women’s international football teams and help to evolve the game in the same way that research into the men’s game has.

The ability to accurately project (e.g. throw, kick, hit) an object at high speed is a uniquely human skill, and this ability has become a critical feature of many competitive sports. Nonetheless, in some sports, the target or end-point for a projected object is often not reached because an opponent intercepts or returns the object; thus, a player cannot use object landing location information to inform accuracy outcome. By comparing the landing location of serves performed without an opponent by elite badminton players to predicted landing points of serves delivered with an opponent, we aimed to determine whether object projection accuracy is affected by the presence of an opponent. Landing locations of serves to an opponent were predicted using a model developed through analysis of serves without an opponent present. The model predicted that 69% of serves to an opponent would have landed on or short (i.e. outside the permitted area) of the service line. Thus, serve trajectory in elite badminton players was considerably altered by the presence of an opponent, despite their aim to serve to a specific point on the court.

Introduction Australian Football is a dynamic team sport that requires many athletic traits to succeed. Due to this combination of traits, as well as technical skill and physicality, there are many types of injuries that could occur. Injuries are not only a hindrance to the individual player, but to the team as a whole. Many strength and conditioning personnel strive to minimise injuries to players to accomplish team success. Purpose To investigate whether selected polymorphisms have an association with injury occurrence in elite male Australian Football players. Methods Using DNA obtained from 46 elite male players, we investigated the associations of injury-related polymorphisms across multiple genes (ACTN3, CCL2, COL1A1, COL5A1, COL12A1, EMILIN1, IGF2, NOGGIN, SMAD6) with injury incidence, severity, type (contact and non-contact), and tissue (muscle, bone, tendon, ligament) over 7 years in one Australian Football League team. Results A significant association was observed between the rs1372857 variant in NOGGIN (p = 0.023) and the number of total muscle injuries, with carriers of the GG genotype having a higher estimated number of injuries, and moderate, or combined moderate and high severity rated total muscle injuries. The COL5A1 rs12722TT genotype also had a significant association (p = 0.028) with the number of total muscle injuries. The COL5A1 variant also had a significant association with contact bone injuries (p = 0.030), with a significant association being found with moderate rated injuries. The IGF2 rs3213221-CC variant was significantly associated with a higher estimated number of contact tendon injuries per game (p = 0.028), while a higher estimated number of total ligament (p = 0.019) and non-contact ligament (p = 0.002) injuries per game were significantly associated with carriage of the COL1A1 rs1800012-TT genotype. Conclusions Our preliminary study is the first to examine associations between genetic variants and injury in Australian Football. NOGGIN rs1372857-GG, COL5A1 rs12722-TT, IGF2 rs3213221-CC, and COL1A1 rs1800012-TT genotypes held various associations with muscle-, bone-, tendon- and ligament-related injuries of differing severities. To further increase our understanding of these, and other, genetic variant associations with injury, competition-wide AFL studies that use more players and a larger array of gene candidates is essential.

Detailed examinations of both the movement and muscle activation patterns used by animals and humans to complete complex tasks are difficult to obtain in many environments. Therefore, the ability to infer movement and muscle activation patterns after capture of a single set of easily obtained data is highly sought after. One possible solution to this problem is to capture force-time data through the use of appropriate transducers, then interrogate the signal's derivative, the yank-time signal, which amplifies, and thus highlights, temporal force-time changes. Because the countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) is a complex movement that has been well studied in humans, it provides an excellent preliminary model to test the validity of this solution. The aim of the present study was therefore to explore the use of yank-time signal, derived from vertical ground reaction force-time data, to identify and describe important kinematic (captured using three-dimensional motion analysis) and kinetic events in the CMJ, and to relate these to possible muscle activation (electromyography) events that underpin them. It was found that the yank-time signal could be used to accurately identify several key events during the CMJ that are likely to be missed or misidentified when only force-time data are inspected, including the first instances of joint flexion and centre of mass movement. Four different jump profiles (i.e. kinematic patterns) were inferred from the yank-time data, which were linked to different patterns of muscle activation. Therefore, yank-time signal interrogation provides a viable method of estimating kinematic patterns and muscle activation strategies in complex human movements.