The Causal Relationship between Dominant Region and Offense- Defense Performance - Focusing on the Time of Ball Acquisition

Abstract

In football games, quantitative evaluation of group sport skills has been an important issue. In this study, we examined the causal relationship between offensive-defensive performance and dominant region, which is defined as the area occupied by the team. The dominant regions of both teams in the team area formed by defense-side positions were calculated for various plays involving successful and unsuccessful offensive performances. The difference of the dominant regions between the offensive performances of both teams was then analyzed statistically. The results showed that the dominant regions of both teams in successful offense were significantly narrower than those for unsuccessful offense when the turnover position was located around the middle of the field. This finding indicates that the dominant region is closely related to offensive performance and suggests that group sport skills that have been evaluated qualitatively may be evaluated quantitatively in terms of the dominant region.