- Title
- Physical and decision-making demands of Australian football umpires during competitive matches.
- Creator
- Elsworthy, Nathan; Burke, Darren; Scott, Brendan R.; Stevens, Christopher J.; Dascombe, Ben J.
- Relation
- Journal of strength and conditioning research Vol. 28, Issue 12, p. 3502-3507
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000000567
- Publisher
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- This study examined the physical and decision-making requirements of elite Australian football (AF) umpires during match play. Twenty-nine field umpires were assessed across 20 AF League matches. Physical demands were monitored using global positioning system devices to record the total distance covered and high-speed running (HSR; >14.4 km·h−1) demands across each quarter. Decision-making performance was assessed through video by 3 elite umpire coaches who reviewed free-kick accuracy during each match. These data were further analyzed according to the position (mid-zone or end-zone) of the umpire when each decision was made. The average distance covered was 10,563 ± 608 m, of which 1,952 ± 494 m was HSR. Significant reductions in distance covered were observed during the third (p = 0.006) and fourth (p = 0.001) quarters, compared with the first. An average of 44 ± 8 free kicks awarded per match with a decision accuracy of 84 ± 6%; however, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in these measures across a match. Significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher physical (HSR; relative distance) and decision-making requirements were observed within the mid-zone. The current data quantify the physical and decision-making demands of AF umpiring and demonstrated that despite a high physical workload, free-kick accuracy is maintained across a match. This suggests that decision making may not be directly compromised by the intermittent running demands of AF umpires. Positional rotations between the mid-zone and end-zone position allow for the demands to be shared among all field umpires during a match.
- Subject
- cognition; match analysis; motor skills; perception; perceptual-cognitive
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1294862
- Identifier
- uon:18891
- Identifier
- ISSN:1064-8011
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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