Distinction

For the distinction, I am going to analyse how the skill components of a netball shot. Already having a basis from the notational analysis, this will then allow me to work out the areas for improvements and strengths of the specific athlete. From there, I can identify the positives and negatives from the performance. The first component I looked at was passing. As netball is a sport where only pivoting is the main form of movement when playing, passing is vital as this is how the ball travels down the court. By having the ability to pass the ball down the court through a range of passes, this can create shooting opportunities for the shooters. Throughout of the 2 games played. The average successful passing completion for game 1 was 77% and game 2 was 95%. This came out to an overall of 86% of successful passes through out of the 2 games. This showed that this was a strength as the athletes score of successful passes was very high and that they maintained this throughout the games. BBC sport (2015) has also stated that “successful passing in game allows a team to gain an advantage and enables easier play”. This shows how much successful passes have an effect upon a game. The higher the success rate, the longer and more efficiently a team will be able to retain possession of the ball and create opportunities to attack. The higher the possession, the higher the success rate of shots will be over the oppositions.

Unsuccessful passes can lead to possession of the opposition which then can lead them to gain an advantage. If the athlete is able to retain the possession of the ball through passes, this can increase their overall rate of getting the ball to the shooting third and shooting more points. Understanding the biomechanical concepts of a skill is essential to improving the overall performance of that specific skill, this is done through modelling, stimulation and measurement (Topend Sports Network, 2013). Threadgold (2015) also states that “By understanding the concepts of the biomechanics movements, it can aid the process of the main passes used in netball which improve results in a gaming situation”. From these quotes, it states that you fully understand the principles of passing and by making successful passes this can lead to a higher success percentage rate of shots and influences how successful an athlete can be. Due to the fact that this athlete was able to produce a number of successful passes, this provided an advantage for the athlete and team as the balls were able to go in the direction to the attacking circle which would increase the number of times shots would be put up. An example of this, this year Loughborough Lightning have become top of their league and this is due to the fact that their passes have become a lot smoother and more consistent between athletes. From last year finishing in the league 3rd to coming out 1st with an overall 7/7 wins. The coach Kate Atkinson has tracked the number of passes from last year to this year and has been an improvement of 23% of successful passes making their success rate to 93%. This lead them to gain an advantage over opponents.

Next, I looked at the rebounds. Both of the defensive and offensive rebounds allow the team to gain extra possession before the opposing team gets a chance to score. In this, we mainly looked at the offensive rebounds from their own shots. By reaching in for the rebound it allows the player to obtain the possession of the ball to then shoot again or position themselves better. It also enables the team to still have the ball in play on their side which reduces the chance of the opposing team to go for the steal. Rebounds happen when there has been an unsuccessful shot that has been put up. As the player I looked at was a goal attacker, it is important for them to get offensive rebounds as then it will stop the defenders from gaining possession but also if they miss the shot then they can go for the rebound and take another try. This enables them to increase the shots put up and shot success rate. Stats Insights (2014) state that “rebounds create possessions, and more possessions mean more points”. This links to the importance of rebounds in a game. Sport plan has also suggested that rebounding is an important element in netball as it can have an overall impact on performance “how they react to a rebounded shot might mean the difference between scoring or conceding a goal" - SportPlan (2016). Overall over the 2 games, the average success percentage was 34%. From this score, this athlete has an area for improvement in order to improve their performance and increase their rebound rate. However, if this rebound rate stays under 50% then this has an impact upon the team and can affect others performances. Within this performance, there is an impact upon the athlete as well as the team as if the success percentage rate stays low at 34% throughout of games then this can lead to an impact in the future games to come. It can result the team to move lower down into the league table due to the loss of possession with rebounds. In this case the oppositions were able to gain possession of the way which then gave them an advantage to get the ball down the court. An example of this is Celtic dragons this year in the 2017 league. They are currently towards the bottom of the table compared to last year coming quite far up. This was due to the amount of rebounds that were lost.

Lastly, the component I looked at was shooting. This is a fundamental part in netball as a successful shot determines winning or losing a game. The player I analysed is a goal attacker and their duty is to cover the centre third as well as their attacking third. As they are one of two who are allowed in the scoring D, it is very important that they have they correct positioning and spacing in order to put up a successful shot. This player had an average of 75% shooting success rate. This is quite high and overall had a high successful percentage rate for both games. If it were to drop any lower, this could lead to the athlete’s performance dropping significantly and would give the oppositions an advantage for a turnover. From this, there wouldn’t be any shots put up. A quote from Netball Fun 2016 stated that “shooting is arguably the most important aspect of the game. Without it, all netball games would end as 0-0 ties, so let’s agree that it is, to some degree, essential to the functioning of the sport". This indicates that a player needs to have a high success of shooting in a game in order to have one over their opponent. This allows them to gain an advantage in competition and increase the overall chance of winning. By having a high success rate in shooting, this has enabled the team to gain an advantage over their opponents as with the high success rate of passes into the attacking circle has let the player to be positioned well in order to shoot. If this is repeated within the next games then the team will benefit from moving up the league tables even further.

Methodology and Deterministic modelling

For the methodology, I have chosen to carry it out on the numerical analysis. When setting up the Go Pro, it was placed upon a tripod for support and stability which enabled the camera to remain stable mid shot. The camera lens was in parallel to the front of the tripod leg. This was because when analysed the angle of shots, there was something to determine the prime angle of the camera which had the whole action in shot. In order to get an accurate reading, we set up the camera in a sports hall against a plain background. This was due to the fact that the athlete would have markers on their joints so the background wouldn’t interfere with the action. Also it would be more of an accurate representation as the heights and angles can be analysed clearly compared to a still background rather than moving or busy backgrounds. 

In order to assess if the athlete was in the shot, we had to use scalers which would work out specific distances. This was done by placing a meter stick in the field of interest which then the measurements from that can be taken and placed in the kinoeva software to workout angles and distances. Once the scalers were in place, we had to place anatomical markers on the joints that were in use. In this case, joint markers were places on the toe, ankle, knee, hip, wrist, elbow and shoulder. This was done so that the specific joints used in the process were visible when analysing in kinoeva the angle of elbows/release and heights of release. If there were no markers to mark the joints, this would be more difficult to analyse as you wouldn’t know where to measure it from. To enable that the readings were correct, we recorded the same skill 3 times. This gave us an idea on which video is the clearest and most accurate to use.

In order to analyse the videos taken, we then imported them into kinovea to analyse the height of release, angle of release and angle of elbow. In order to analyse videos, I had to go through a number of steps which would prevent particular errors and improve the reliability and accuracy of the data imported. I imported my chosen video out of the 3 and also the scaling video. This was done so then we could work out the scaling factor of 0.5m. From this, we were able to create the angles and distances to a correct measurement. Once that scale was set, we removed it as this could have due to perspective error. By getting the correct scaling factor of 0.5m rather than measuring it from the video itself, it made our measurements more accurate.

Whilst in the process of videoing and analysing these videos we had to take into account parallax and perspective error. Parallax Error can be described as when a direction or the position of the same object differentiates when looking in different distances and positions, which would lead to getting a different reading of angles. In order to reduce this error, the athlete should be positioned well in shot and in the middle plane of view which then can minimise the results being incorrect. Also, another method to reduce this error can be to repeat the same skill more than once so then the internal validity of the results can increase to be more accurate. Error was also reduced by placing markers on the athlete so the movements were clear against the plain background. This was so that all the attention was focussed on the movements produced. Perspective error is known as when the correct height, width, depth and position is right when it comes to looking at three-dimensional objects and/or a two-dimensional surface. In order to reduce error for this we had to make sure the person didn’t move out of shot otherwise the focus of the lens would be shifted. We also needed to make sure that we maximise camera-subject distance whilst maximising the size of subject within field of view. This can be done by placing the camera at a perpendicular angle facing the athlete but with a distance away suitable. By reducing perspective error, we are keeping the results accurate; if the athlete moved closer or further away when completing the action, the measurements would change. This why we would place is far away and zoom in.

What is deterministic modelling?

It is a combination of all the biomechanical factors that determine an action or a movement. It starts off with primary levels and then broken down further into secondary, tertiary, quaternary and quinary. To start off with, you would look at the primary aspects like time, it would then be broken down to something like average speed or time taken, tertiary level would include stride lengths and stride frequency, and finally the quaternary factors can be take-off, and flight and landing distance as well as stride time. Finally, quinary factors include air resistance, angle/height of take-off and speed of take-off.

Why and how would this model be used?

It is used so then the breakdown of factors can be easier for the athlete and coach to plan a skill in finer details but also know what to work on and what strengths and weaknesses the athlete displays.It could include looking at the qualitative analysis, analysing the rhythm and posture of the motion, or by quantitatively looking into the sprint, watching the speed and distance covered. It would be used in training sessions so each component can be looked at and improved if needed. The coach would then analyse the relationship of skill performed to the motion produced.