The 5-0-5 Agility Drill

Today I would like to talk about one of my favourite agility drill: the 5-0-5 acceleration test.

The idea of this drill is to found out  how fast an athlete can fully stop from max speed and sprint back again.
This drill can be used in those sports where agility is a "must", such as American football, basket, football etc etc.

Let's see how this drill works.
Our pinkish cubic athlete will sprint from a distance that allows him to reach sub max speed before the 5 meters mark; generally, 10 meters away is a good distance. So, he will run toward the stop line, stop in front of it, turn back, and sprint again to the starting point.
The time starts when the athlete pass the 5m mark for the first time and we will stop the clock when he pass the 5m mark for the second time.

One key point of this drill is the stop phase. When the athlete reaches the stop line, he does NOT perform a change of direction (one foot on the line and sprint back); instead, he places boot feet in front of the line and then sprint back. Basically, he has to perform an 180° spin.
Moreover, the athlete, on the way back, has to sprint toward the starting point and not decelerate after the 5m mark.

We can adjust the marks according to our needs. For instance, we can start the clock at 10m and stop it when the athlete reach the 10m mark again.

In order to have an accurate result, is better to perform this test three time, allowing the athlete to have enough rest between sets. Moreover, we can do a practice set before the drill begin.

Netball: Possession analysis 1.5

As I promised in my last post, I watched a match on youtube to test my performance table.

Well... I watched only a quarter...

I came up with some improvements.

Column POSS.

If the team get possession because the opponents committed a fault, e.g. foot work, I will put F under this column.

Moreover, if the team loses possession because of a fault, I will draw a line over that possession.

It might happen that the team is defending and loses a rebound. I should put this under the REBOUND.DEF column, but in this way I will use a line for the possession and the team hasn't got the ball (my table track possession only).

So far, I put an L to remind me that they lost a rebound and to not count that line as possession; I think I should write them down somewhere else.... any idea?

Anyway, this is an infographic that I created to show the data of the 1st Quarter Commonwealth Netball Final between New Zealand and Australia.


Bye bye!

Netball: Possession Analysis 1.0

During our last lecture of Performance Analysis we have been asked to design a table to analyse the possession in netball.

I thought: "Cool! Eventually we begin to do practical stuffs!"

Yet, I have only a little concern. I have no idea how to play netball. Just a small detail.

In my country netball basically does not exist; the same goes for cricket for instance. So I decided to go to watch the training of one of the uni team.

After getting a vague idea how does this sport work, I came up with this table (click to enlarge):

I am considering all the output of the possession: shoot (miss or score) and losing ball (due to wrong pass or interception by an opponent). I am not counting the number of passes because it is irrelevant, unless there is a specific need, e.g. decrease the passes to get into opponent’s area.

Moreover, on the first column I am tracking down how the team got possession and the data concerned to rebounds is in the last two column.

Next image shows the table with some raw data in it. Bare in mind that is a “hand and paper” table. I just virtually recreate it for the purpose of this article.

I am going to explain how this table works.

Every line represents one possession and the output of that possession.

Column POSS.

If it is empty, it mean that the team get possession after a shot missed by the opposition, so they move the ball from their area or they keep possession after scoring. If they intercepted the ball, I put In; if they won a rebound in defence, I write down Re and I use Wr if they got the ball because the challengers missed the pass .

Column SHOOT\SCORE and SHOT\MISS

This one is very easy. If they score I put O and if they miss I put X under the right column.

Column WRONG\MISS and WRONG\INTER.

You will find an X under MISS if the team misses the pass. On the other column, you will find an X every time their passes are intercepted.

Still, there is one more output. If the pass is intercepted but the ball goes out (the team still keep possession). In this case, you will find X(F).

Column REBOUND\DEF and REBOUND\ATT

If the team win the rebound, I write O under the correct column (if it happens while attacking, under ATT and under DEF if it happens while defending); on the other hand, if they lose the rebound, I write X.

Apexes

You may have noticed that sometimes there is a number close to an X. I use this number (apex) to keep chronological information of the possession.

Let's have a look at the row 6. The team intercepts the ball and they manage to shoot but they miss (X¹); yet, they win the rebound (O²) and finally score (O³).

Let me know what do you think and how can I improve it.

One limit of this table is that is general and not specific to the single athlete; moreover, we do not know in which part of the court interceptions and missed passes take place.

I am going to watch more games (real one would be better; otherwise youtube is the place to be) to test it further more and to make some arrangement.