Capturing complex human behaviors in representative sports contexts with a single camera

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: In the last years, several motion analysis methods have been developed without considering representative contexts for sports performance. The purpose of this paper was to explain and underscore a straightforward method to measure human behavior in these contexts. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Procedures combining manual video tracking (with TACTO device) and bidimensional reconstruction (through direct linear transformation) using a single camera were used in order to capture kinematic data required to compute collective variable(s) and control parameter(s). These procedures were applied to a 1vs1 association football task as an illustrative subphase of team sports and will be presented in a tutorial fashion. RESULTS: Preliminary analysis of distance and velocity data identified a collective variable (difference between the distance of the attacker and the defender to a target defensive area) and two nested control parameters (interpersonal distance and relative velocity). CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrated that the complementary use of TACTO software and direct linear transformation permit to capture and reconstruct complex human actions in their context in a low dimensional space (information reduction).