Research Summaries Research Summary 40 Using Online Technology | Page 2

Using Online Technology to Analyse Team Performance
Introduction
Performance-analysis technology has traditionally been
associated with elite sport, but as technology becomes
cheaper, so performance sport at the amateur level has
the opportunity to benefit. Training time is precious at
the amateur level, and anything that can enhance how
a team functions when they are together could create
an advantage.
Video-based coaching systems provide this opportunity
by allowing players to analyse performance in advance at
a time that is suitable for them. Player involvement in this
type of analysis has also been shown to improve game
understanding and decision-making, help recognise
individual/team strengths, and develop analytical skills.
This research sought to uncover how coaches were
using technology to facilitate such collaborative
evaluation among players and between players and
coaches.
The theory
With this in mind, the researchers chose Complex
Learning Theory as a way to examine what is happening
between player and coach. Complex Learning Theory
was developed by Brent Davis and Dennis Sumara,
experts in learning theory and education, who saw it as
a way to draw together a number of different views on
how people learn. The theory provides three broad
ideas around learning: that it is active, social and a
process of interpretation. For players, this means they
are constantly evolving their thinking based on their
experience (active), they connect their relationship with
others to how they evolve their understanding and
development (social), and their learning is based on their
interpretation of the world (process of interpretation).
Online performance analysis is a good fit with such ideas
as it allows the player to learn by seeing and analysing
their own performance rather than accepting direct
instruction from the coach.
To analyse how coaches and athletes were using the
video-based coaching system, the researchers started
with the belief that learning from a coach is a complex,
multidimensional and dynamic process. Rather than the
coach simply passing down their knowledge to players, it
is more likely that players will ‘construct’ their learning by
considering what the coach says and how this relates to
their experience and view of the world.