PerSoccer 2015 Abstracts


Full Papers
Paper Nr: 1
Title:

Enhancing Intuitive and Coordinated Decision-Making in Soccer - From Research to the Field within the 4P Strategy

Authors:

Gilles Kermarrec and Loic Plassart

Abstract: Since few years decision-making in team sports has been studied through a Naturalistic Decision-Making (NDM) approach and advances from research on team sports performance led to pedagogical principles and to tactical skills training strategies. Considering the need for coordinated and intuitive decision-making, implications from NDM framework are discussed according to literature on tactical skills training in team sports. For some years Small-Sided Games seems to be approved by a large majority of coach and researchers. Nevertheless, while the Teaching-Games-For-Understanding’s (TGFU) pedagogical model focused on explicit learning, the Led-Constraints approach led to implicit learning. A significant proposition from our program of work is that there is a need for a wide range of decision-making processes in team sports, so that a tactical skills training strategy should be based on a blend of implicit and explicit learning. In this perspective, the 4P strategy (i.e., Positioning; Practicing; Picturing; Post-analysing) is a four-step-strategy designed by scientists and coaches in soccer. An empirical study has been conducted within technological artefacts embedded into the 4P strategy. Results showed that youth players benefited from technological aids because they highlight relevant configurations of play and help to share “pictures” during small-sided games. This exploratory study suggested that the whole 4P strategy was well suited for intuitive and coordinated decision-making enhancement.
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Paper Nr: 2
Title:

SIDANE: Towards the Automatic Analysis of Football Tactics and Actions

Authors:

D. Vallejo, G. Alises, J. A. Albusac, C. Glez-Morcillo and J. J. Castro-Schez

Abstract: In recent years technology has been used as an engine to improve the performance of the players and the preparation offered by trainers in a great variety of sports. In some of them, such as football, technology has contributed enormously to improving monitoring of players so as to assess their performance and to prepare tactics and strategies that are so essential nowadays for making the difference, before facing a match. In this paper we present SIDANE, an expert system capable of detecting important situations in football, from a tactics point of view and assessing if the players involved took a good decision from the point of view of the trainer. The SIDANE reasoning engine uses Fuzzy Logic with the aim of tackling uncertainty and facilitating the definition of rules close to the way in which the trainer communicates with his or her players. In this way the distance between expert and machine is greatly narrowed. The results yielded show how powerful SIDANE is as a starting point for the automatic analysis of important situations in team sports.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 3
Title:

JFA Platform for Football Analysis

Authors:

Fábio Silva, Pedro Passos and Octavian Postolache

Abstract: The aim of the article was to present a Java Platform for Football Analysis, designed and implemented for football game analysis. The framework presents capability on game analysis based on players coordinates inputs and helping coaches and players to extract information from processed games. The analysis tools to achieve this aim used collective metrics based on player’s positioning on the three team sectors: defensive; middle and; offensive. This allows analyzed player’s collective behaviors before critical situations (e.g., shot on goal). Data revealed that a decrease on interpersonal distances between the defensive sector and the offensive sector affords an opportunity to score.
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Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Flexible Studs in Prevention of Football Injuries - A Preliminary Laboratory Study

Authors:

Andrea Ferretti, Carlo Mapelli, Silvia Barella, Andrea Gruttadauria, Davide Mombelli, Andrea Francesco Ciuffini, Cosma Calderaro and Daniele Mazza

Abstract: Lower limb injuries in football players can occur as a result of shock and impulsive stress that can damage their organic tissues. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary results of laboratory tests performed on a new type of flexible studs designed to reduce risk of injuries in football and other outdoor sports (American football, rugby, field hockey etc.)
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