ERROR RATE COMPARISON IN SUPER LEAGUE NETBALL TEAMS WHEN PLAYING AGAINST TEAMS OF THE SAME AND DIFFERENT QUALITIES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse and compare the error rate of British Super League netball teams when playing different qualities of opposition. The type of error, the area of court the error was made and the quarter in which the error occurred were recorded. A manual hand notation system was used to gather information for each team and each match played and recorded on a pre designed table. The data was collected post match using pre-recorded match videos. Reliability measures were utilised both inter and intra reliability and the tests were found reliable. The results were analysed using the Mann Whitney U test and the Friedman test and compared the results for top half and bottom half teams. The results identified that teams at the bottom half of the table were affected considerably more than top half team and the most errors were reported when bottom half teams played a stronger quality of opposition. Significant differences were found for the poor passing that occurred within the first quarter for bottom half teams playing similar calibre (P<0.05). Additionally, significant differences were found within the area of the court the error happened for bottom versus bottom and bottom versus top performances (P<0.05). The error rate was notably higher within the first quarter of the match for all match types. The results indicated that teams were affected differently when playing different qualities of opposition. Coaches and athletes can derive from this information which includes highlighting the opposition’s weaknesses and identifying components of the team’s performance which can be improved and addressed in training. Analysing errors can be beneficial to the coach making decisions for selection of the strongest starting team and can provide feedback to the team throughout the match. Feedback can be generated to prepare teams prior to a match when playing different qualities of opposition.