Notational Analysis

The key criteria within a notational analysis includes movement, work rate, positional play and distance covered. Movement is broken down into patterns which an individual makes through a football match, in any position, using a variety of techniques and skills to create these. By analysing these, you can break down certain patterns they are following and spot their weaknesses. For example, if the team always travel down the middle, but are stopped halfway down the pitch, you may say they should play wider, allowing the opposition to be spread out more, decreasing the chance of a tackle. When identified, these techniques should be work upon in training sessions to develop the team/individual to the next level. Certain movement patterns are in a team or seen to be individual, depending on the situation and position.

Positional Play is what a coach/manager will look at if they are interested in one player, or how a position is played. For example, we will be looking at a particular player in right midfield, therefore need to see her strengths/weaknesses and what she is contributing to the game from that position. This can be done in a number of scenarios such as choosing the right player to substitute on, talent identification and selection. They would check whether they suit the team’s style of play, or whether they can fulfill their role correctly. As a biomechanist, their role is to find information and assist the manager with this feedback. To help yourself in this, video analysis is the most reliable because you can rewatch and go back on certain movements in the position to correct or to highlight as a strength.

Assessing a performer’s work rate can be quite a difficult task due to each person having different fitness levels and different rates are required in different positions. For example, the work rate between a right midfielder and goalkeeper will be very different. A basic way to find their work rate is by using a heart rate monitor because by using a simple equation (220-age) can find an approximate maximum heart rate, and percentages can be seen from there. However, there are other factors to consider such as the outcome of the work, opposition influence, style of play and so on, therefore gets more difficult to assess.

 

In some sports, such as rugby union, it is important for a performer to cover as much distance as they can, however, like in any sport, this must be productive. In football, a midfielder is typically the one to run the furthest due to the roles of their position, so they need to monitor their runs, and before running they need to know whether it’ll be necessary or not, as they don’t want to tire too easily, especially in the long halves. Furthermore, they may substitute they running (dribbling with the ball) to a long pass instead. However this compares to a striker, who should be completing short sharp runs to lose their defender and short passes to accompany this. Simple ways to track their distance is by the use of a pedometer, and measuring their average stride length, then multiplying these together. As a bio mechanist, this would be your responsibility, as well as potentially monitoring a large spurt of distance covered in one go, and measuring its successfulness. If it is, then it should be maintained, but on the other hand, if it is unsuccessful, you should try and help the performer identify alongside the coach which opportunities should be chased and those which you should watch.

Data from Jamie's games

Positional Play: Jamie managed to stay in her position throughout the first game, and she made her position effective towards the game and the end result, therefore I am identifying this as one of her strengths. She ran up and down the line to support the wide passes out, and from this she contribute to scoring opportunities by crossing the ball into the penalty box. She did move out of her position 6 times, and these were for the Centre midfielder's responsibilities when she did not cover them, which is a weakness, so we need to look further into what in particular made these unsuccessful and then work to improve them. 

In the second game, which was an actual fixture, Jamie successful positional plays decreased whilst the unsuccessful one remained the same. This is therefore a weakness because she did not contribute to the game as much because her positioning was incorrect. This includes her being to high or low on the field to support a pass or cross in, and therefore resulting in the loss of possession or an awkward pass.

 www.football-coach.net/ says ‘’A good supporting angle with good body positioning allows your teammate to easily reach you with a pass that bypasses a defender and cannot be cut out easily. This is encouraged by staying in your position in order to create as much space as possible for you to receive the ball’’.  If Jamie had changed her positioning in the second game, she may have been more successful because she would be more easily available for a pass, and it would encourage positive play. This could've helped towards the team's overall score, and performance, just by changing positions.

 

Distance Covered: Jamie covered more distance in her second game by 0.5km than in the first, where she only covered 6.5km. By looking further into the statistics of the games she played, we can identify whether these were useful and effective runs or whether they were not needed, and we found that they were successful making it a good strength in her overall performance. As a right wing midfielder, her position expects her to run up and down the line quite a bit, therefore the distance covered being quite a high figure is accurate. When looking at her movement patterns, we can see that she performs more in the second game, showing that her extra movement is being put to good use and is successful in the vast majority of cases. 

footballscience.net/ states that if a footballer covers a distance of between 6-9km in a 90 minute game of football, their team will benefit and will most likely win the game due to a high work rate. This supports the fact that her distance covered is a strength.

Movement Patterns: Her movement patterns in game one were mostly successful, but over a third were unsuccessful, which is not a good statistic. Out of 22 patterns made, 15 were successful and 7 were unsuccessful, only giving a 68% success rate. This may have been because she was playing in training where the stakes aren't as high, however, this would be identified as a weakness. This includes her moving around players, losing her defender or dribbling with the ball to get free for a shot. In game two, she improves these massively where only approximately a sixth were unsuccessful, which is half the mistakes in the training game, showing she is improving and working towards changing the strength to a weakness. As we can see in the statistics, out of 26 patterns, 22 were successful and just 4 were not, showing an 84% success rate. They were effective though when successful as she made quick sharp runs away from the defender and dribbles up and down the line to create more scoring opportunities.

 

Movement patterns are essential because if you get them wrong, the consequences are apparent. Research into movement patterns conducted Hughes, Robertson and Nicholson (1988),  by examined that “The unsuccessful teams ran with the ball and dribbled the ball in their own defensive area in different patterns to the successful teams. The latter played up the middle in their own half, the former used the wings more”. This shows that the position in which the players move and play the ball are vital to the outcome of the game. Therefore, the first game’s results could’ve been due to the lack of successful movement patterns, and the win in the second game may also have been down to the 84% success rate.

If these were maintained and increased, then the results could be more consistent. More consistent results will potentially increase the chances of higher forms of success. These can include winning the cup, winning the league (or just moving up several places on the table) and when it comes down to it, score more goals.