Although the body of literature in sport science is growing rapidly, certain sports have yet to benefit from this increased interest by the scientific community. One such sport is Ultimate Frisbee, officially known as Ultimate. Thus, the goal of this study was to describe the nature of the sport by identifying differences between winning and losing teams in elite-level competition. To do so, a customized observational system and a state transition model were developed and applied to 14 games from the (...) 2017 American Ultimate Disc League season. The results reveal that, on average, 262.2 passes were completed by a team per game and 5.5 passes per possession. More than two-thirds of these passes were played from the mid zone and the rear zone, nearest the team’s own end zone. Winning and losing teams do not differ in these general patterns, but winning teams played significantly fewer backward passes from the front zone to the mid zone, nearest the opponent’s end zone than losing teams = −4.980, p < 0.001, d = −1.16). Furthermore, losing teams scored fewer points when they started on defense, called breakpoints = −6.365, p < 0.001, d = 2.30), and committed significantly more turnovers per game = 5.85, p < 0.001, d = −1.18). Overall, this study provides the first empirical description of Ultimate and identifies relevant performance indicators to discriminate between winning and losing teams. We hope this article sheds light on the unique, but so far overlooked sport of Ultimate, and offers performance analysts the basis for future studies using state transition modeling in Ultimate as well as other invasion sports. (shrink)

The analysis of penalty kick has played an important role in performance analysis. The study aims are to get formal feedback on the relevance of variables for penalty kick analysis, to design and validate an observational system; and to assess experts’ opinion on the optimum video footage in penalty kick analysis. A structured development process was adopted for content validity, reliability and agreement on video usage. All observational variables included in OSPAF showed Aiken’s V values above the cut-off. Cohen’s Kappa (...) resulted in mean intra- and inter-rater reliability values of 0.90 and 0.86, respectively. It is recommended to combine at least three different viewing angles with standardization of video quality. Changing the viewing angles may influence the observer perception. The aerial and pitch-level viewing angle behind the penalty taker and pitch-level viewing angle behind the goalkeeper were indicated as most appropriate for observational analysis. The OSPAF met all requirements of instrument validation. It may be recommended as basis of future observational systems on penalty kicks. (shrink)