Capture, analyse, visualise: An exemplar of performance analysis in practice in field hockey

Abstract

The goal of performance analysis is to capture the multitude of factors that affect sports strategy, and present them in an informative, interpretable, and accessible format. The aim of this study was to outline a performance analysis process in field hockey that captures, analyses and visualises strategy in layers of detail culminating in the creation of an RStudio Shiny application. Computerised notational analysis systems were developed to capture in-game events and ball tracking data of 74 matches from the Women’s Pro League 2019. Game styles were developed using k-means cluster analysis to reduce detailed in-game events into practical profiles to identify the attack types, game actions and tempo of a team’s strategy. Ball movement profiles were developed to identify the predictability (entropy) and direction (progression rates) of ball movements, and consequent distribution of possession in different attacking zones. The Shiny application, an interactive web-platform, links the information from simple game profiles with detailed game variables to understand each teams’ holistic game plan, how they are different, and how to exploit these differences. The process outlined can be applied to any team invasion sport to understand, develop and communicate successful strategies under different match situations.

Utilization of Sensor technology as a Sport Technology Innovation in Athlete Performance Measurement: Research Trends

“…2, October 2023 : 147 -158 150visualization is carried out based on the theme country and related issues. Similar visualizations were carried out in several previous studies with different themes[16]-[21].…”

Exploring the Dynamics of Women's Field Hockey Performance: A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Opponent Quality between Olympic Games and Chinese National Games

“…Early performance analysis research focused on tally counts of match actions using basic hand notation or computerized analysis software [2][3][4]. Outcome-focused frequencies of events like goals, shots and tackles were compared between successful and less successful teams using inferential statistics to identify key performance indicators related to success [5].…”