Activity profiles of the Australian female netball team players during international competition: Implications for training practice

Abstract

In elite sport, to remain competitive at the international level, it is critical to understand the game demands on players to ensure sport specific training programmes are designed for optimal athlete preparation and conditioning. In netball, recent research examining the activity patterns of players at the elite level is lacking, with only one study undertaken on this level of competition in the past 30 years. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide coaches with up to date knowledge of player activity patterns as a basis for the design of optimal sport specific training programmes. The Australian female netball team were analysed using video footage of three international test matches. Player activity was categorised into five movement and eight game-based activities; and further classified as work or rest. Results suggest that differences in the current game exist when compared to the previous analysis. Positional differences were also found with regard to player activity confirming the need for an individualised component of training based on player position.     

Exposing athletes to playing form activity: outcomes of a randomised control trial among community netball teams using a game-centred approach

This study evaluated whether exposing junior netball players to greater amounts of competition relevant activity (playing form activity) had an effect on game play outcomes and session involvement. A group-randomised controlled trial in one junior netball club in the Hunter Region, NSW, Australia. Ninety female athletes (mean age = 9.04 years, SD 1.53) were randomised by team (n = 11) into the intervention (n = 41) or 9-week wait-list control (n = 49) condition. The Professional Learning for Understanding Games Education into Sport (PLUNGE into Sport) programme was undertaken in the first half of nine training sessions (9 × 30 min). The intervention exposed athletes to playing form activity through a coach development programme within training sessions. Athletes’ decision-making, support and skill outcomes during a small-sided invasion game, and session involvement (pedometer step/min), were measured at baseline and 9-week follow-up. Linear mixed models revealed significant group-by-time intervention effects (P < 0.05) for decision-making (d = 0.4) and support (d = 0.5) during game play, and in-session activity (d = 1.2). An intervention exposing athletes to greater levels of playing form activity, delivered via a coach education programme, was efficacious in improving athlete decision-making and support skills in game play and increasing athlete involvement during sessions.     

‘Not Merely an Isolated Game’: Women’s Association Football in Australia

ABSTRACT

Australia has participated in the world-wide growth of women’s football particularly since the 1970s, but long before that the game was played recreationally and competitively by women in Australia. Women have struggled to overcome active opposition to their taking part in the sport and neglect of their achievements which are considerable. This article provides an outline of the history of the game both nationally and in its international context. It also tries to capture the experience of some of the pioneers of the women’s game and its modern practitioners, revealing some of the ways in which overt and covert discrimination still hinders recognition of their achievements.     

A Short Run: Australian Sports History on the 40th Anniversary of the Biennial Sporting Traditions Conference

Abstract

The 40th anniversary of the biennial Sporting Traditions Conference provides a timely opportunity to examine the health of sports history in Australia. This paper identifies three methods through which we can take the temperature of the field and judge its wellbeing. Usually neglected, the first approach is to explore the teaching of sports history in Australia. The second is an analysis of the individuals who have presented to the 21 Sporting Traditions conferences held since 1977 and the content of their papers. The third method is to consider the impact of research in Australian sports history through citations and the other methods used by the Commonwealth of Australia to judge research quality. All three methods support the conclusion that after 40 years sports history’s future in Australia remains far from secure.     

Playing Like Ladies: Basketball,Netball and Feminine Restraint

Women's basket ball, which was adapted into the game now known as netball, developed in the late nineteenth-century in the US when education for women was in its early stages. Exercise in these institutions was promoted by early educationists, partly to offset the deleterious effects of 'brain work' for women. While vigorous exercise for women was a contested activity, basket ball and then netball in England were accepted because despite being vigorous games they appeared to conform to dominant understandings of femininity as a form of physical restraint. This acceptance saw netball become the leading women's game in many Commonwealth countries throughout the twentieth century. Both games are examined as cultural artefacts, embodying the values of their time.     

Bone mineral density and body composition in elite female golf and netball players

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare bone density and body composition measurements in women participating in elite-level netball and golf, two sports with contrasting loading characteristics. Bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in 14 state-level netball players (20.8±3.4 years), 11 single-digit handicap golf players (22.4±2.1 years) and a control group (n=18) not training for sport (22.6±3.6 years). Trunk extensor endurance and grip strength were also measured using the Sorensen test and hand-grip dynamometry respectively. Netball players had significantly higher total body, lumbar spine and hip BMD than the golf players (P<0.001) and control subjects (P<0.001). The golf players had higher BMD than the control subjects only in the lumbar spine (P<0.05). The netball players were significantly taller than the golf players and control group (P<0.01) and had a higher body mass than the control group (P<0.001). After adjustment for body height and mass, the BMD values in the netball players remained significantly higher than the control subjects at all sites (P<0.01), while the golf players had significantly higher lumbar spine BMD than the controls (P<0.05). Elite-level netball participation is associated with increased total body, hip and lumbar spine BMD, while this response was only evident in the lumbar spine in elite golf players. The contrasting loading characteristics of these sports may be reflected in the site-specific differences in BMD when compared to non-athletic control subjects.     

Methods of performance analysis in team invasion sports: A systematic review

ABSTRACT

The objective of this review was to systematically describe the traditional and contemporary data capture and analytic methods employed in performance analysis research in team invasion sports, evaluate the practicality of these methods, and formulate practical recommendations on methods for analysing tactics and strategies in team invasion sports. A systematic search of the databases SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE and PubMed was performed. Keywords addressed performance analysis methods and team invasion sports, with all other disciplines of sports science excluded. A total of 537 articles were included in the review and six main themes of research identified. Themes included game actions, dynamic game actions, movement patterns, collective team behaviours, social network analysis and game styles. Performance analysis research has predominantly focused on identifying key performance indicators related to success by analysing differences in game actions between successful and less successful teams. However, these measures are outcome-focused and only provide limited insight into winning team’s strategy. Team invasion sports are now viewed as dynamic, complex systems with opposing teams as interacting parts. Strategies and tactics should be analysed using a holistic process-orientated approach by recording dynamic actions, collective team behaviours and passing networks, and viewing them in game styles.     

Knee loading patterns in a simulated netball landing task

Abstract

The knee is a common site of injury in netball players. In this study, 10 high-performance netball players underwent a biomechanical assessment of their single leg landing technique whilst receiving a pass. Three-dimensional video and ground reaction force data were recorded using a motion analysis system. Net internal knee joint moments were calculated using a rigid body analysis and inverse dynamics. The kinematics of the support leg and front-on video footage was used to investigate whether players adhered to guidelines on safe and effective landing strategies. Results indicated that for most players the internal valgus moment was the largest frontal plane knee moment during the landing phase. This may reflect a relatively greater need to resist varus knee excursion or may be related to the kinematics of the hip. For 6 of the 10 players the rapid change to an internal knee valgus moment coincided with hip adduction. Since an increase in the magnitude of the internal valgus moment may increase the compressive forces in the medial compartment of the knee, further work should be undertaken to determine if a neuromuscular training intervention to improve the strength of the hip musculature may be beneficial for these players. A large relative excursion of the knee compared to the hip may indicate that these players had a greater reliance on the more distal segments of the lower extremity for the attenuation of the ground reaction forces. This information may be used to better understand potential knee injury mechanisms in netball players.     

‘They Came to Sneer,and Remained to Cheer’: Interpreting the 1934–35 England Women’s Cricket Tour to Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

This paper focuses generally on the history of women’s cricket during the earlier twentieth century, primarily on the 1934–35 England women’s cricket tour of Australia and New Zealand, and more so on the New Zealand dimension. The tour occurred at a critical time for women’s team sport in both countries in that from the 1920s consistent local and then national competitions brought continuity to previously fragmented activities. Hence the tour provides a useful barometer for a wide range of attitudes to sporting participation by women and reveals contrasts between Britain and Australasia. At the same time, there are specific attitudes to the playing of cricket by women that need to be explored. Here there are some obvious differences between accounts in dedicated women’s cricket sources and the specialist women’s press, both of which sought to encourage the game on its own terms, and those in sources with a broader scope and male-dominated editorship which were more inclined to trivialize and disparage women’s cricket and to judge it against the men’s game.     

Team and seasonal performance indicator evolution in the ANZ Championship netball league

ABSTRACT

Analysis of netball has received scant attention in the literature and there is little understanding of the dynamics of netball game-play. This study aimed to analyse team and seasonal performance indicator (dis)similarity in the ANZ Championship (netball). Total season values for nine performance indicators were analysed for the ten ANZ Championship teams from 2009 to 2016. The data were analysed using a multivariate, distance-based, approach. Specifically, non-metric multidimensional scaling was used to examine seasonal and team (dis)similarity. After declining from 2009, shooting percentage, goal assists, centre pass receives, penalties and turnovers began to rise from 2011. Both penalties and turnovers declined from 2015, in addition to attempts at goal. The two-dimensional multivariate ordination plot showed relative similarity between each team and season over the observational period, suggesting stagnant game-play dynamics. Further, despite idiosyncratic seasonal profiles, teams generally followed similar directional progression across the ordination surface. Despite being observed in other team invasion sports, league-wide synchronous evolutionary tendencies were not observed within the ANZ Championships between the 2006 to 2016 seasons. However, certain teams did display seasonal fluctuation in their observed multivariate profile, with these seasonal idiosyncrasies being discussed relative to coaching and playing roster changes specific to the analysed team.     

Football events,memories and globalization

ABSTRACT

Key events and episodes in football’s history are central to the making of personal and collective understandings of the global game at local, national and transnational levels. To explore these themes, this paper is organized into three main parts. First, I explore how diverse key events are spotlighted in the game’s social history, including episodes that are socially contested and/or with aspects of ‘disaster’. Second, I outline how events connect to the shaping of identities through forms of biographical and collective memory. Third, I consider how football events and memories connect to wider socio-cultural and political-economic processes, with regard to knowledge production, globalization, commodification, and postmodernisation.     

Physical,physiological, and technical demands of national netball umpires at different competition levels

ABSTRACT

To compare demands of national netball umpires between levels of competition, 22 Netball New Zealand high-performance umpires participated in this investigation. These included from highest to lowest standard: 9 × semi-professional ANZ Championships (ANZC); 6 × National A Squad (NZA); and 7 × National Development Squad (DEV). Physical (global positioning system tri-axial accelerometry), physiological (heart rate) and technical (video analysis) demands were determined for 48 (16 per group) umpire match performances. Level of competition had no significant effect on physical or mean physiological demands. However, ANZC umpires spent a lower proportion of time at low heart rates compared to DEV, and a greater proportion of time at high, rather than moderate, heart rates compared to NZA. Compared to lower standard umpires, ANZC spent lesser proportions of time standing but greater proportions of time walking backwards and sideways, and turning to change direction. Furthermore, ANZC umpires spent lower proportions of time jogging, but greater proportions of time sprinting compared to DEV. Finally, ANZC umpires spent longer mean durations than DEV on the goal third side line. As such, the difference in demands experienced by national netball umpires between levels of competition is more technical than physical or physiological.     

Historical Frameworks and Sporting Research

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a wealth of research into how the game of association football developed. However, rather than establishing a common theme this research has led to competing theories with the debate dividing opinion on how the game of football was developed and propagated. While debate is healthy, the approach taken by some could lead to fellow academics looking to those engaged in sport history as unprofessional. This paper seeks to propose a way forward with academics working towards an all-encompassing history of the sport, by suggesting the adoption of a framework based on the work of Fernand Braudel, where indepth analysis of individual events is combined with the identification of transformational cycles. The paper concludes by suggesting that historians interested in soccer’s early history work together within the framework to develop a more detailed and all-encompassing early history of the sport. This framework will not claim that either the orthodox or revisionist view is accurate, instead it will determine how best to work those debates into an all-encompassing approach while searching for detailed evidence on what was actually occurring at local levels.     

A novel approach to standardizing landing and balancing tasks in netball using single-leg horizontal jumps

This study aimed to establish the reliability of a novel netball task using a single-leg horizontal jump (SLHJ). Twenty-five females 18–39 years performed SLHJs for maximal displacement and ground-reaction forces. Participants completed two trials for each leg on two occasions separated by 6 weeks of pre-season netball training. Paired sample t tests highlighted no significant differences within trials for either limb. Significant (p ≤ .05) changes are reported for displacement, and dominant and nondominant X and Y forces, after 6-week netball training. SLHJ displacement showed excellent within-session reliability at baseline for dominant (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC(2,1)) = 0.922, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.826–0.966) and nondominant (ICC(2,1) = 0.925; 95% CI 0.832–0.967) landings. At 6 weeks, within-session reliability remained excellent for dominant (ICC(2,1) = 0.967, 95% CI 0.926–0.985) and nondominant ICC 0.968 (95% CI 0.929–0.986) landings. The reliability of the single-leg horizontal jump task for netball remained strong after 6 weeks of netball training.     

Creating Appropriate Training Environments to Improve Technical,Decision-Making,and Physical Skills in Field Hockey

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of eight different small-sided games (SSG) on physical, technical, and decision-making demands of training environments in U14 field hockey. Methods: A total of 13 participants played eight different training games consisting of two 7.5-minute halves, where number of players (three per side or six per side) and/or field characteristics (normal game, cage hockey game, possession game, and two-goals game) was manipulated. Match performance was determined by using notational analysis, and physical demands were determined by using GPS analyses. Results: Findings revealed that lowering the number of players increased the number of technical actions performed per player and the physical demands of the SSG. Findings of the field characteristics manipulation revealed that the possession game forced players to control the ball more as a team, which resulted in more passes (+4.82 passes) and fewer dribbles (?1.48 dribbles) and tackles (?0.69 tackles) compared to the normal game. The two-goals game led to players scoring more goals (+0.61 goals) compared to the normal game, while the cage hockey game increased passing (+1.46 passes) and physical demands (+7.32 meters per minute) compared to the normal game. Conclusion: It can be concluded from these findings that coaches and trainers are able to promote a change in playing behavior, and in turn the development of skills, by manipulating specific constraints of the training environment.     

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane,Queensland 1921–1933: new perspectives on early competition

ABSTRACT

In September 1921, two representative women’s teams played association football (soccer) on the Brisbane Cricket Ground in Queensland, Australia. The crowd size, approximately 10,000, was not commensurate with those attending matches featuring Dick, Kerr Ladies in England during the same period, but it was nonetheless a significant crowd at a match now widely acknowledged as Australia’s first public game of women’s association football. New evidence suggests it may have been the first between representative female association football sides, with players selected from local teams.

Contemporary accounts note the match as a single event. Regular organised competition did not occur until the early 1970s, but led to the formation of a national association in 1974. An overview of current literature and new archival research highlights the emergence of a strong culture around woman’s association football that begins before the Brisbane Cricket Ground match. The evidence presents a possible imbalance between what occurred and what has been recorded, and suggests a much more prolonged, if somewhat fragmented, engagement with association football between 1921 and 1933 in southern Queensland. The emergence of competition in Brisbane in the 1920s foregrounds the city’s – and, with it, Queensland’s – contribution to the history and development of Australian women’s football.     

From Mitropa Cup to UEFA Cup: the role of UEFA in the establishment of a European scale in football, 1927–1972

ABSTRACT

Since the 1920s, many European exchanges began to exist in the domain of football. However, it was during the 1950s that a European scale was established primarily due to the creation of UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) in 1954, which quickly organized the first European tournament in the game’s history– The European Champions Clubs’ Cup. The present essay argues that Europeanization of the game has to be understood in a long-term perspective. The papers examines the creation and development of three competitions as key defining events, which represented different stages of the Europeanization of the game: Mitropa Cup (created in 1927), European Champion Clubs’ Cup (created in 1955) and UEFA Cup (created in 1971). Thus, afocus on these cases can help us better understand the background of the Europeanization of the game which happened during the 1990s.     

Bowling and the Warm-Up Effect

Abstract

College male subjects (N = 132) who participated in the Intramural Bowling League served as subjects for this study. During 5 weeks of bowling, one night a week, frame by frame and game by game score analysis was made. In game one, frames 5 and 10 yielded significantly greater scores than frame 1. As to the 3-game scores, the third game totals were significantly higher than the first game totals.     

Aboriginal Football in Australia: Race Relations and the Socio-Historical Meanings of the 2014 Borroloola Tour to the Brazil World Cup

Abstract

This paper tells the history of the Borroloola Tour to the 2014 Brazil World Cup, when eight Aboriginal adolescent footballers from the remote town of Borroloola in Australia’s Northern Territory were selected to be part of a tour to Brazil. In Brazil they followed the Australian team from the stands, socialized with football idols such as Tim Cahill, and visited a Brazilian Indigenous tribe. John Moriarty, the first Aboriginal Australian to be selected to Australia’s national football team executed this excursion. Considering that race relations within the Australian sporting arena have historically, been tense and contested, this paper brings to light an under-explored aspect of football in Australia. It is timely too, given the insertion of Australian football within the Asian Football Confederation. The paper examines the historical meanings of the Borroloola Tour through the lens of its key participants; as well as by unveiling John Moriarty’s history as the first Aboriginal person to be selected to play for the Socceroos. In conclusion, it reveals that both the past and contemporary history of Aboriginal people’s involvement in Australian football has an emerging face that will shape football in Australia and in Asia in the coming years.     

Physical movement demands of elite-level netball match-play as measured by an indoor positioning system

ABSTRACT

Physical movement demands in elite netball match-play have been limited to notational analysis or accelerometer-derived measures, due in part to the indoor environment in which they are played. Commercially available local positioning systems (LPS) using ultra-wideband communication have been designed to bring similar capabilities as global positioning systems (GPS) to indoor environments. This study aims to quantify both spatiotemporal and traditional accelerometer-derived measures, to assess the movement demands of all playing positions, during Australian national netball league matches. Total distance, metreage per minute, acceleration density, acceleration density index, acceleration load, jumps, velocity bands, acceleration bands and PlayerLoad variables have been presented for each position. Mean total distance-covered in match-play differed substantially between positions. Centre position accumulated the highest mean distance (5462.1 ± 169.4 m), whilst the Goal Shooter consistently covered the lowest mean distance (2134 ± 102.6 m). Change of direction relative to movement area was highest for the two most restricted positions based on average acceleration per 10 m covered during match-play (Goal Shooter; 7.21 ± 0.88 m · s ^{? 2} and Goal Keeper; 6.75 ± 0.37 m · s ^{? 2}, remaining positions; 5.71 ± 0.14 m · s ^{? 2}). The positional profiles outlined in this study can assist skill and conditioning coaches to prescribe training sessions that will optimise the athlete’s physical preparation for the demands of competition.