title: Interpersonal distance regulates functional grouping tendencies of agents in team sports.
abstract: The authors examined whether, similar to collective agent behaviors in complex, biological systems (e.g., schools of fish and colonies of ants), performers in team sports displayed functional coordination tendencies, based on local interaction rules during performance. To investigate this issue, they used videogrammetry and digitizing procedures to observe interpersonal interactions in common 4 versus 2 + 2 subphases of the team sport of rugby union, involving 16 participants aged between 16 and 17 years of age. They observed pattern-forming dynamics in attacking subunits (n = 4 players) attempting to penetrate 2 defensive lines (n = 2 players in each). Data showed that within each attacking subunit, the 4 players displayed emergent functional grouping tendencies that differed between the 2 defensive lines. Results confirmed that grouping tendencies in attacking subunits of team games are sensitive to different task constraints, such as relative positioning to nearest defenders. It was concluded that running correlations were particularly useful for measuring the level of interpersonal coordination in functional grouping tendencies within attacking subunits.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Kinetics, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. ppassos@fmh.ut.pt
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Passos
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Milho
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borges
authors.forename: Duarte
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Davids
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000523:psychology*; D005538:Football / Q000523:psychology*; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012420:Running / Q000523:psychology; D014743:Videotape Recording / Q000379:methods