ABSTRACT

Performance analysis involves the investigation of actual sports performance or training. Performance analysis can be undertaken as part of academic investigations into sports performance or as part of applied activities in coaching, media or judging contexts. There is considerable overlap between performance analysis and other disciplines, as most performance analysis exercises are concerned with investigating aspects of performance such as technique, energy systems or tactical aspects. What distinguishes performance analysis from other disciplines is that it is concerned with actual sports performance rather than activity undertaken in laboratory settings or data gathered from self reports such as questionnaires or interviews. There are a variety of methods that can be used to gather data for performance analysis exercises, ranging from highly quantitative biomechanical analysis to qualitative analysis. There are cases where laboratory based biomechanics exercises can count as performance analysis. If the technique under investigation is an important skill within the sport of interest, then there is an argument that detailed biomechanical analysis of the technique is

performance analysis. This is an especially strong argument where a skill such as running stride, golf swing or tennis serve is critically important to success in the sport and where the detailed data required cannot be gathered during actual competition. Notational analysis is a method of recording and analysing dynamic and complex situations such as field games. It allows the data to be gathered in an efficient and abstract way that focuses on relevant detail. In early manual notational systems, short-hand symbols and tallies allowed data to be recorded efficiently. More recently, computerized notational analysis systems have followed advances in data entry technology and allowed flexible and highly efficient processing of match data. Qualitative analysis has been used in observational studies in sociocultural areas of sport and has potential for observational analysis of sports performance. The strength of qualitative analysis is that the data is not restricted to a predefined set of events. Physiological and other variables such as heart rate response and blood lactate accumulation can be gathered in many situations including sports competition where the nature of the sport allows such measurement to be made in a relatively non-invasive manner. The fact that the measurements relate to sports performance rather than a fitness test or laboratory-based test or exercise is enough to permit such method to be used within performance analysis investigations. The use of questionnaire instruments within performance analysis is possible where such instruments have been validated against other gold standard measurements. The profile of mood states (POMS) inventory or the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale are examples of self reports that can be used periodically during sports performance to record useful information about the performance.