A Sheffield Hallam University Thesis
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Important performance characteristics in elite grass court tennis: implications for practice FITZPATRICK, Anna Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/28940/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/28940/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. Important performance characteristics in elite grass court tennis: implications for practice Anna Fitzpatrick A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2021 i Candidate Declaration I hereby declare that: 1. I have not been enrolled for another award of the University, or other academic or professional organisation, whilst undertaking my research degree. 2. None of the material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award. 3. I am aware of and understand the University's policy on plagiarism and certify that this thesis is my own work. The use of all published or other sources of material consulted have been properly and fully acknowledged. 4. The work undertaken towards the thesis has been conducted in accordance with the SHU Principles of Integrity in Research and the SHU Research Ethics Policy. 5. The word count of the thesis is 44,723. Name Anna Fitzpatrick Date January 2021 Award Doctor of Philosophy Faculty Health and Wellbeing Director(s) of Studies Dr John Kelley ii Abstract Notational analysis has become a valued discipline and well-established tool in many sports. Historically, however, notational analysis and its potential for enhancing competitive performance have not been optimised in tennis, with a lack of grass court tennis research and associated practical applications particularly apparent. Additionally, tennis coaches have shown resistance towards technological advancements and are often unsure how to exploit the performance data available to them. In this thesis, a new, user-friendly data analysis method (Percentage of matches in which the Winner Outscored the Loser, PWOL) is developed and validated, to encourage tennis coaches to engage with notational analysis. The method is applied to Wimbledon match-play data, to identify the important performance characteristics in men’s and women’s elite grass court tennis. Points won of 0-4 shot rally length (i.e. short points) is revealed as the most important, so this characteristic is explored further, revealing the critical importance of serving and returning strategies. Accordingly, players’ tactical serving and returning behaviours are examined using Hawk-Eye ball-tracking data, with results highlighting that players tend to use first serves to put opponents under positional pressure by aiming for lateral areas of the service box, while opting for safer second serve strategies, typically targeting more central areas. Male winning players were also able to use their serves and serve-returns to force opponents out of position more often than losing players, hitting a comparatively higher percentage of serves and serve-returns to lateral areas of the court. Alongside the novel data analysis method, this thesis advances knowledge around the important aspects of grass court tennis match-play and provides insight into how matches are won at Wimbledon. Designed to inform practice, the practical application facilitates coaches aiming to develop evidence-informed practices for players during the grass court season, ensuring their training is representative of match-play. Implications for performance analysts and high-performance centres are also explored, to promote a more interdisciplinary approach to player development. iii Table of Contents Candidate Declaration…………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract……………………….……………….……………….……………………….. iii Research Outputs……………….……………….……………….……………………… ix Acknowledgements……………….……………….……………….…………………… x List of Figures……………….……………….……………….…………………………. xi List of Tables……………….……………….……………….………………………….. xiii List of Abbreviations………………….……………….………………………………... xv Chapter 1. Introduction and Thesis Structure……………….…………………………. 1 1.1. Introduction……………….……………….……………….………………………. 2 1.2. Thesis structure……………….……………….……………….…………………… 3 Chapter 2. Literature Review……………….……………….…………………………. 5 2.1. Introduction to performance analysis in elite sport……………….………………… 6 2.2. Performance characteristics in notational analysis……………….………………… 7 2.3. Contemporary notational analysis research within tennis…………………………... 9 2.4. Theoretical underpinning……………….……………….………………………….. 10 2.4.1. Ecological dynamics……………….……………….………………………. 10 2.4.2. Representative design……………….……………….……………………... 11 2.4.3. Constraints-led approach……………….……………….………………….. 12 2.4.4. Perturbations……………….……………….……………….…………….... 14 2.5. Important constraints in elite tennis……………….……………….……………….. 16 2.5.1. Court surface……………….……………….……………….……………… 16 2.5.2. Sex of a player……………….……………….……………….……………. 20 2.5.3. Time……………….……………….……………….………………………. 22 2.6. Important performance characteristics in elite tennis……………….……………… 24 2.7. Barriers to the application of notational analysis within tennis…………………….. 27 2.7.1. The cost of employing an analyst……………….……………….…………. 27 2.7.2. Tennis coaches’ resistance……………….……………….………………… 28 2.7.3. Complex datasets and methods……………….……………….…………… 28 2.7.4. Less-representative studies……………….……………….……………….. 29 iv 2.8. Summary……………….……………….……………….…………………………. 29 2.9. Thesis aim and objectives……………….……………….………………………… 30 Chapter 3. A simple new method for identifying important performance characteristics in elite tennis…………….……………….……………….……………... 32 3.1. Introduction……………….……………….……………….………………………. 33 3.2. Method……………….……………….……………….…………………………… 35 3.2.1. Matches……………….……………….……………….………………….. 35 3.2.2. Performance characteristics……………….……………….………………. 35 3.2.3. Data analysis……………….……………….……………….……………... 38 3.3. Results……………….……………….……………….……………………………. 40 3.3.1. Agreement between methods……………….……………….…………….. 43 3.4. Discussion……………….……………….……………….………………………... 43 3.5. Conclusion…………….……………….……………….………………………...... 48 Chapter 4. Acquiring, cleaning and assessing the reliability of grass court tennis match-play data…………………………………………………………………... 49 4.1. Locating and acquiring appropriate data…………………………………………… 50 4.2. Method……………………………………………………………………………… 52 4.2.1. Wimbledon’s data collection process………………………………………. 52 4.2.2. Performance characteristics………………………………………………… 53 4.2.3. Data cleaning process………………………………………………………. 54 4.2.4. Inter-rater reliability testing………………………………………………… 55 Chapter 5. Identifying the most important performance characteristics at Wimbledon: a longitudinal perspective…………………………………………………. 59 5.1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………. 60 5.2. Method……………………………………………………………………………… 61 5.2.1. Matches…………………………………………………………………….. 61 5.2.2. Performance characteristics………………………………………………… 61 5.2.3. Data processing and analysis……………………………………………….. 62 5.3. Results………………………………………………………………………………. 65 5.3.1. Men’s longitudinal analysis………………………………………………… 66 5.3.2. Women’s longitudinal analysis……………………………………………... 73 v 5.3.3. Recent match-play summary……………………………………………….. 81 5.4. Discussion…………………………………………………………………………... 82 5.4.1. Most important performance characteristics……………………………….. 82 5.4.2. Other important performance characteristics………………………………. 85 5.4.3. Less important performance characteristics………………………………... 86 5.4.4. Other notable findings……………………………………………………… 87 5.5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….. 89 Chapter 6. Identifying the most important performance characteristics at Wimbledon: close and one-sided matches………………………….………………… 90 6.1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………. 91 6.2. Method……………………………………………………………………………… 92 6.2.1. Matches…………………………………………………………………….. 93 6.2.2. Performance characteristics………………………………………………... 93 6.2.3. Match closeness……………………………………………………………. 94 6.2.4. Data processing and analysis………………………………………………. 96 6.3. Results……………………………………………………………………………… 98 6.3.1. Men’s results……………………………………………………………….. 98 6.3.2. Women’s results……………………………………………………………. 100 6.4. Discussion…………………………………………………………………………... 102 6.5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….. 106 Chapter 7. Important performance characteristics: investigating the court surface transition from clay to grass…………………………………………………….. 107 7.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 108 7.2. Method……………………………………………………………………………... 109 7.2.1. Matches…………………………………………………………………….. 109 7.2.2. Performance characteristics………………………………………………... 109 7.2.3. Reliability testing…………………………………………………………... 110 7.2.4. Data processing and analysis………………………………………………. 110 7.3. Results……………………………………………………………………………… 111 7.4. Discussion………………………………………………………………………….. 116 7.4.1. Performance characteristics associated with winning……………………... 116 7.4.2. Performance characteristics associated with losing………………………... 118 vi 7.4.3. Performance characteristics least associated with match outcome………… 119 7.5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….. 120 Chapter 8. Investigating the most important performance characteristic at Wimbledon: