Tactical positioning behaviours in short-track speed skating: A static and dynamic sequence analysis

HEXT, Andrew, HETTINGA, Florentina Johanna and MCINERNEY, Ciarán (2023). Tactical positioning behaviours in short-track speed skating: A static and dynamic sequence analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences.

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Abstract

Tactical positioning is essential for success in short-track speed skating as the race format (direct, head-to-head competition over multiple laps) prioritises finishing position over finishing time. Despite this, current research into tactical positioning treats the race’s laps as discrete, independent events. Accordingly, the aggregate metrics used to summarise each lap’s tactical positioning behaviour do not allow us to explore the sequential nature of the data, e.g., Lap 2 occurs after Lap 1 and before Lap 3. Here, we capture the sequential relationships between laps to investigate tactical positioning behaviours in short-track speed skating. Using intermediate and final rankings from 500 m, 1,000 m, and 1,500 m elite short-track races, we analyse whole-race and sub-race race sequences of group and winner tactical positioning behaviours. This approach, combined with a large dataset of races collected over eight seasons of competition (n = 4,135), provides the most rigorous and comprehensive description of tactical positioning behaviours in short-track speed skating to date. Our results quantify the time-evolving complexity of tactical positioning, offer new thoughts on race strategy, and can help practitioners design more representative learning tasks to enhance skill transfer.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences; 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy; Sport Sciences; 3202 Clinical sciences; 4207 Sports science and exercise; 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2023.2238162
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Elements
Depositing User:	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2023 16:00
Last Modified:	27 Jul 2023 12:12
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/32175

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