- Title
- Collective behaviour in high and low-level youth soccer teams
- Creator
- O'Brien-Smith, Jade; Fransen, Job; Sheehan, William B.; Lenoir, Matthieu; Bennett, Kyle; Smith, Mitchell R.
- Relation
- Science and Medicine in Football Vol. 6, Issue 2, p. 164-171
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24733938.2021.1917774
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Background: An expert/non-expert paradigm often helps understand the underpinnings of sports expertise; however, this method is scarcely extended to the complexities of collective behaviour in youth soccer. Aim: Therefore, the objectives of the current study are to investigate differences in the collective behaviour of youth soccer teams by expertise level. Methodology: Soccer players aged 15 to 20 years from high (n = 35) and low (n = 40) playing levels competed in two age-matched 5v5 small-sided games. For each game, teams’ skill involvement (shot, pass, dribble, touch), passing networks (closeness, density, betweenness), and spatiotemporal characteristics (stretch index, effective area, length (L) & width (W), LpW ratio, synchrony) were measured using video footage and GPS coordinates. Results: High level teams had more attempted (p = .009), and completed skills (p = .003), particularly for the number of passes (p = .001) and shots (p = .012-.045). However, there were no significant between-group differences for either the passing networks or spatiotemporal characteristics. Conclusion: The findings from the current research suggest that the high-level teams can quickly and effectively move the ball within existing team structures and may better optimise their afforded space to execute desired skills when compared to the low-level teams.
- Subject
- sports performance; small-sided games; constraints; dynamical systems; social network; spatiotemporal analysis
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1459473
- Identifier
- uon:45688
- Identifier
- ISSN:2473-3938
- Language
- eng
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