The influence of previous sport experiences in transfer of behaviour patterns among team sports

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine how players’ positional data can be used to assess the transfer of behaviour patterns among team sports (basketball, football and rugby) in early specialized and diversified sport careers. Thirty-four college students were divided into early specialization and early diversification groups, according to information provided by a questionnaire designed to obtain detailed information about their sports career. In-game derived variables were calculated based on players’ positioning data, collected by GPS and processed with non-linear techniques (approximate entropy). For each positional variable (distance to both team and opponent team centroid and distance to target and opponent target) a top-10 ranking was computed based on approximate entropy values in basketball, football and rugby game performance. The results suggested that students belonging to the early diversification group are over-represented (top-10) in all positional variables regardless of sport. This trend, especially in football and rugby, confirms that it is possible that transfer of behavior patterns occurs more significantly in early diversified approach.