Using a Situation Awareness Approach to Identify Differences in the Performance Profiles of the World’s Top Two Squash Players and Their Opponents
Purpose The pressure exerted on a squash player is a consequence of the quality of a shot coupled with the ability of the player to return the ball, namely, the coupling of the two players’ situation awareness (SA) abilities. SA refers to an awareness of all relevant sources of information, the ability to synthesize this information using domain knowledge and the ability to physically respond to a situation. Methods Matches involving the two best players in the world (n = 9) at the 2011 Rowe British Grand Prix, held in Manchester, United Kingdom were recorded and processed using Tracker software. Shot type, ball location, players’ positions on court and movement parameters between the time an opponent played a shot prior to the player’s shot to the time of the opponent’s following shot were captured 25 times per second. All shots (excluding serves and rally ending shots) produced five main SA clusters, similar to those presented by Murray et al. (2018), except a greater proportion of shots were categorized in the greater pressure clusters and less in the lower pressure ones. Results Individual matches were presented using cluster performance profile infographics which demonstrated how individual player’s performance profiles differed between matches. Conclusion It is suggested that it is the coupling, of the two player’s behaviors, that makes the examination of tactics so challenging. This inherently means that performance profiles vary in subtle ways, making consistent profiles that are independent of the opponent very unlikely for elite players. This approach should be further modified to determine within match changes in performance.
In search of invariant athletic behaviour in sport: an example from championship squash match-play.
Analysis of competitive sport performance from a priori observation is frequently used to prepare an athlete for a future contest. This practice necessarily assumes that the observed athletic behaviours are invariant, in that the data from an earlier contest apply to the next. We report different analyses of championship squash matches from 1987 and 1988 in search of such invariance and thus a general signature of athletic behaviour. The results show that once the preceding condition to an athletic response (shot) becomes more detailed, by either accounting for where on court the previous shot was played to, or by pairing the previous shot with its own antecedent, the corresponding response becomes more predictable (P > 0.25). This is especially the case for a squash champion when the forehand and backhand characteristics of his shot response are accounted for. The finding that the champion is more consistent if his forehand and backhand shot responses to a preceding shot are analysed separately, shows that the level of analytic detail is an important consideration if the derived information from sport analysis is to prepare an athlete reliably for future sport competition. Finally, we consider sport competition from an ecological perspective with regard to the natural organization and stability of non-linear systems in an attempt to explain the empirical data.
Research on health and oral health status of elderly living alone compared to elderly living with their families - based on the data (2014) from the 6th two-year Korea national health and nutrition examination survey -
Objectives: I examined the health and oral health status of elderly people living alone compared to elderly people living with their families by using data (2014) from the 6th Two-Year Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Methods: Among 1,454 health survey respondents aged 65 years and over who participated in the 6th Two-Year Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2014, 311 were elderly people living alone and 1,143 were elderly people living with their families. Results: In terms of socio-demographic characteristics, the percentage of elderly people living alone was high especially in women and when the subjects’ age, education level, and income level were low. In terms of oral health status, the percentage of elderly people living alone was high when elderly people thought that their subjectively viewed health was poor and the frequency of drinking and exercise was low. In terms of oral health status, the percentage of elderly people living alone was high among elderly people who did not have good oral health in their subjective view and did not get oral examinations for a year and had a lot of difficulty chewing. Conclusions: Family support or additional social support for elderly people who live alone should be considered to promote the healthy lives of elderly people.