IMPLICATIONS OF SPORT BIOMECHANICS ON TEAM BALL GAMES

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the development of team and individual skills in young ice hockey, soccer and basketball players in the age group seven to ,- nineteen. Both transversal and longitudinal studies were canied out. The number of subjects were in ice hockey, soccer, and basketball 342, 138 and 85, respectively. The development of team skills in match conditions were explained by game understanding including rules and player behaviour in selected situations of the games, decision- The development of team skills were evaluated in all games using the total number of manoeuvres with ball or puck, passes, receptions, interceptions, dribbles, scoring shots and percentage of successful actions related to the mentioned manoeuvres. The basic match analysis in all games were achieved using a video recording and playback system and observation sheets with the operationally defined qualitative and quantitative variables. Selected conventional field soccer tests were curried out on ice hockey, soccer and basketball. The relationships between skills in test and match was evaluated with multivariate analysis. Also the relative successful actions in match conditions were described with regression analysis methods using selected background tests as ' independent variables. Small differences were found in the average values between teams in the same age category. Large differences were found in the individual skills, perceptual abilities, game understanding and physical abilities. As a dependent variable, the successful actions in match conditions were explained with independent variables (skill, speed, strength, endurance, and their combinations). In all games skill and speed explained, dominantly, the success in match conditions. Also, the organisational (team selection and training) and team sociological factors played important role with respect to the success of the teams.