AUC KINANTHROPOLOGICA
AUC KINANTHROPOLOGICA

Acta Universitatis Carolinae Kinanthropologica (AUC Kinanthropologica) is an international peer reviewed journal for the publication of research outcomes in the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences, as applied to kinathropology. It is a multidisciplinary journal accepting only original unpublished articles in English in the various sub-disciplines and related fields of kinanthropology, such as Anthropology, Anthropomotorics, Sports Pedagogy, Sociology of Sport, Philosophy of Sport, History of Sport, Physiology of Sport And Exercise, Physical Education, Applied Physical Education, Physiotherapy, Human Biomechanics, Psychology of Sport, Sports Training and Coaching, Sport Management, etc. The journal also welcomes interdisciplinary articles. The journal also includes reports of relevant activities and reviews of relevant publications.

The journal is abstracted and indexed by CNKI, DOAJ, EBSCO, ERIH PLUS, SPOLIT, SPORTDiscus, and Ulrichsweb.

AUC KINANTHROPOLOGICA, Vol 57 No 1 (2021), 11–25

A hot mess: basketball coaches’ perceptions of ability versus actual performances of their athletes

Timothy Baghurst, Jeremy Lackman, Staci Drewson, Paige Spittler, Ryan Turcott, Matthew Smith, Gilberto Illescas-Marquez, Ali Boolani

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23366052.2021.3
published online: 16. 06. 2021

abstract

Data analytics are an increasingly popular method for talent identification, and are used for a variety of decision making purposes, such as rotations and playing time. However, coaches often rely on their perceptions and experiences to identify talent and player attributes that are important to success. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to evaluate differences between coach perceptions of player ability against actual performances as well as to determine whether these perceptions differed as a head or assistant coach. Participants were six (two head; four assistant) college coaches who were asked to collectively identify the five most important attributes when evaluating a basketball player. Then, before the season began, all coaches were asked to independently score each of their athletes on these attributes using a 100mm Visual Analog Scale. These scores were compared to player performances during the season. Results were mixed, and while there were correlations between some player performance variables and coach perceptions, they varied wildly, and coaches’ perceptions of their athletes had little consistent correlation to their performances. Furthermore, there were few agreements between head coaches and their assistants or between assistants. Findings suggest that while coach perceptions and talent identification have their place, the use of data analytics in sports may provide additional support when making coaching decisions such as playing time. Therefore, coaches should recognize their own limitations of player talent and balance these “feelings” with statistical evidence.

keywords: data analytics; sport analytics; coaching; coach; Visual Analog Scale

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