TY - JOUR
T1 - How do psychological and physiological performance determinants interact within individual athletes? An analytical network approach
AU - Neumann, Niklas
AU - Van Yperen, Nico W.
AU - Arens, Carolin R.
AU - Brauers, Jur
AU - Lemmink, Koen A.P.M.
AU - Emerencia, Ando
AU - Meerhoff, Rens
AU - Frencken, Wouter
AU - Brink, Michel
AU - den Hartigh, Ruud
PY - 2024/4/23
Y1 - 2024/4/23
N2 - Previous research on sports performance has mostly been conducted: (a) at a single point, or at most, a few points in time, (b) at the group level, and (c) as a causal chain of monodisciplinary predictor and outcome variables. In the present research, we argue and demonstrate that the next important step should be to monitor, analyze, and visualise the dynamic and individual-specific interactions of multidisciplinary determinants of sports performance. Hence, we apply a recently developed analytical approach, that is, (Time-Varying) Vector-AutoRegressive ((TV)-VAR) modelling, which captures the intra-individual interactions and changes of multidisciplinary determinants. We first measured critical psychological (e.g., self-efficacy) and physiological (e.g., heart rate) factors among youth male football (soccer) players at a professional club, on a daily basis across one season. Next, we assessed the temporal dynamics of the factors with (TV-)VAR models and visualised the findings in network graphs. We present the results of two show-cases that demonstrate how multidisciplinary key determinants of sports performance can dynamically evolve across a sports season, that is, interact and change in individual-specific ways over time. Specifically, the results of Player 1 revealed a stable network across the season in which self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of other determinants, whereas this was not the case for Player 2. These new insights improve our understanding of how key determinants of sports performance are dynamically related within individual athletes and may allow practitioners to develop and implement person-specific, targeted, and timely interventions.
AB - Previous research on sports performance has mostly been conducted: (a) at a single point, or at most, a few points in time, (b) at the group level, and (c) as a causal chain of monodisciplinary predictor and outcome variables. In the present research, we argue and demonstrate that the next important step should be to monitor, analyze, and visualise the dynamic and individual-specific interactions of multidisciplinary determinants of sports performance. Hence, we apply a recently developed analytical approach, that is, (Time-Varying) Vector-AutoRegressive ((TV)-VAR) modelling, which captures the intra-individual interactions and changes of multidisciplinary determinants. We first measured critical psychological (e.g., self-efficacy) and physiological (e.g., heart rate) factors among youth male football (soccer) players at a professional club, on a daily basis across one season. Next, we assessed the temporal dynamics of the factors with (TV-)VAR models and visualised the findings in network graphs. We present the results of two show-cases that demonstrate how multidisciplinary key determinants of sports performance can dynamically evolve across a sports season, that is, interact and change in individual-specific ways over time. Specifically, the results of Player 1 revealed a stable network across the season in which self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of other determinants, whereas this was not the case for Player 2. These new insights improve our understanding of how key determinants of sports performance are dynamically related within individual athletes and may allow practitioners to develop and implement person-specific, targeted, and timely interventions.
KW - graph theory
KW - time series analysis
KW - ergodicity
KW - networks
KW - soccer
KW - football
KW - multidisciplinarity
KW - nonlinearity
KW - nonstationarity
KW - personalized approach
KW - longitudinal data
U2 - 10.1080/1612197X.2024.2344108
DO - 10.1080/1612197X.2024.2344108
M3 - Article
SN - 1612-197X
JO - International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
JF - International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
ER -