Competing together: Assessing the dynamics of team-team and player-team synchrony in professional association football

Abstract

This study investigated movement synchronization of players within and between teams during competitive association football performance. Cluster phase analysis was introduced as a method to assess synchronies between whole teams and between individual players with their team as a function of time, ball possession and field direction. Measures of dispersion (SD) and regularity (sample entropy - SampEn - and cross sample entropy - Cross-SampEn) were used to quantify the magnitude and structure of synchrony. Large synergistic relations within each professional team sport collective were observed, particularly in the longitudinal direction of the field (0.89±0.12) compared to the lateral direction (0.73±0.16, p<.01). The coupling between the group measures of the two teams also revealed that changes in the synchrony of each team were intimately related (Cross-SampEn values of 0.02±0.01). Interestingly, ball possession did not influence team synchronization levels. In player-team synchronization, individuals tended to be coordinated under near in-phase modes with team behavior (mean ranges between -7 and 5° of relative phase). The magnitudes of variations were low, but more irregular in time, for the longitudinal (SD: 18±3°; SampEn: 0.07±0.01), compared to the lateral direction (SD: 28±5°; SampEn: 0.06±0.01, p<.05) on-field. Increases in regularity were also observed between the first (SampEn: 0.07±0.01) and second half (SampEn: 0.06±0.01, p<.05) of the observed competitive game. Findings suggest that the method of analysis introduced in the current study may offer a suitable tool for examining team's synchronization behaviors and the mutual influence of each team's cohesiveness in competing social collectives.

Keywords: 3020; 3720; Cluster phase analysis; Collective systems; Interpersonal dynamics; Sports teams; Team synchrony.