In team sports, players’ collective movements are influenced by their role in a game. The team in possession of the ball seeks to create space while the opposing team attempts to close down space. Specific measures of team coordination, or coordination index, capture these collective movements. These measurements quantify the overall spatial dispersion of players on the field. They include the team spread, effective playing space, and surface area. The purpose of this article is to highlight key features of team games.
Group norms influence youth athletes’ behavior
Group norms are prevalent in a youth sport setting. These norms may be particularly relevant for athletes who are involved in competitive or social activities. Interestingly, the study found significant gender differences and team tenure in group norms. These differences may be relevant to how group norms influence youth athletes’ behavior in team sports. However, further research is needed to determine whether and how group norms can be effective in influencing youth athletes’ behavior.
Our study found that group moral climate is associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior among youth athletes. Although the relationship between moral climate and moral behavior was moderated by several study characteristics, the strongest association was observed for antisocial versus prosocial moral climate. The associations were stronger for team members than coaches and for the overall moral climate of the team. Further, the study’s findings are applicable to both sports practice and research.
Physical constraints constrain inter-player coordination
Individual players act as a coherence unit during team sport performances. This property is referred to as synergy. It is the collective property of task-specific organization of individuals that enables degrees of freedom to be coupled and co-regulated. A team has synergy if each of its members is able to maximize its contribution to the team’s success. Therefore, team synergy may be a potential source of intra-team synchronization.
The physical constraints of inter-player coordination in team sport are complicated. The physical constraints that teams face in a match may evoke tighter coupling between teams than would otherwise be possible. The physical constraints are most obvious during 11-vs.-11 soccer matches, where players and coaches are closely matched. But when players are on different teams, the constraints of both teams are very different, which may result in greater inter-player coordination.
Recovery between sprints drains liver and muscle glycogen stores
During a sprint, the duration of a sprint is variable, but it is typically only 2 to 4 seconds, and the recovery between sprints is even shorter, ranging from a few seconds to several minutes. A frequent bout of sprinting without sufficient recovery drains the muscle and liver glycogen stores, leading to underperformance and a diminished ability to maintain speed and power during multiple sprints. Fortunately, carbohydrate intake during training and competition is an excellent way to maintain muscle and liver glycogen stores.
Although glycogen is an important fuel source for endurance athletes, it is not necessary for every athlete to have a large supply of it in their bodies. During intense physical activity, glycogen is broken down in muscle cells and synthesized into glucose-6-phosphatase enzyme, which the muscles use as energy. The resulting glucose is used by the muscles and then signals the brain to produce more glucose. As a result, glycogen depletion leads to extreme fatigue and energy loss.