Orientation and Decision-Making for Soccer Based on Sports Analytics and AI:A Systematic Review

Due to ever-growing soccer data collection approaches and progressing artificial intelligence(AI) methods, soccer analysis, evaluation, and decision-making have received increasing interest from not only the professional sports analytics realm but also the academic AI research community. AI brings gamechanging approaches for soccer analytics where soccer has been a typical benchmark for AI research. The combination has been an emerging topic. In this paper, soccer match analytics are taken as a complete observation-orientation-decision-action(OODA) loop.In addition, as in AI frameworks such as that for reinforcement learning, interacting with a virtual environment enables an evolving model. Therefore, both soccer analytics in the real world and virtual domains are discussed. With the intersection of the OODA loop and the real-virtual domains, available soccer data, including event and tracking data, and diverse orientation and decisionmaking models for both real-world and virtual soccer matches are comprehensively reviewed. Finally, some promising directions in this interdisciplinary area are pointed out. It is claimed that paradigms for both professional sports analytics and AI research could be combined. Moreover, it is quite promising to bridge the gap between the real and virtual domains for soccer match analysis and decision-making.

An integrated spatial planning of the mountainous landscapes for ski sports in a case area at the eastern Türkiye

Mountainous regions have disadvantages in economic development because of harsh physical and climatic conditions.However,winter tourism activities are one of the key components for supporting economic development in the highlands.Establishing a ski resort area supports direct and indirect employment in a region,and it stops immigration from mountainous regions to other places.This research aimed to assess the potential ski areas using a multi criteria evaluation technique in the Van region which is located in the eastern part of Türkiye.In this context,snow cover duration,sun effect,slope,slope length,elevation,population density,distance from main roads and lake visibility were used as input factors in the decision making process.Each factor was standardized using a fuzzy technique based on existing well-known ski centers in Türkiye.The weight of inputs was defined by applying a survey to the professional skiers.The most important factors were detected as transportation opportunities and snow covers whereas,the least important factors were elevation and population density.Additionally,lake visibility was very important to make a difference from other existing facilities in the region.Therefore,it was included as constraints and lake visible areas were extracted at the final stage of the research.Potential ski areas were mapped in three levels as professional,intermediate and beginner skiers.One of the suitable areas was selected as a sample projection and for the 3D simulation of the ski investment area.Potential costs and benefits were discussed.It was found that a ski tourism area investment can be amortized in 3 years in the region.

WINTER SPORTS FOR ALL

A golden age is dawning for China’s ice and snow industry Wang Tingwei,a southerner studying in northeast China’s Jilin Province,is amazed by the multifarious and frequent winter sports activities organized by his col ege,Changchun Normal University.Wang,once a rookie in winter sports himself,became a fan of skiing and volunteered to serve the joint opening ceremony of the 2018 China Changchun Ice and Snow Travel Festival

Refinement of saliva microRNA biomarkers for sports-related concussion

Background:Recognizing sport-related concussion(SRC)is challenging and relies heavily on subjective symptom reports.An objective,biological marker could improve recognition and understanding of SRC.There is emerging evidence that salivary micro-ribonucleic acids(miRNAs)may serve as biomarkers of concussion;however,it remains unclear whether concussion-related miRNAs are impacted by exercise.We sought to determine whether40 miRNAs previously implicated in concussion pathophysiology were affected by participation in a variety of contact and non-contact sports.Our goal was to refine a miRNA-based tool capable of identifying athletes with SRC without the confounding effects of exercise.Methods:This case-control study harmonized data from concussed and non-concussed athletes recruited across 10 sites.Levels of salivary miRNAs within 455 samples from 314 individuals were measured with RNA sequencing.Within-subjects testing was used to identify and exclude miRNAs that changed with either(a)a single episode of exercise(166 samples from 83 individuals)or(b)season-long participation in contact sports(212 samples from 106 individuals).The miRNAs that were not impacted by exercise were interrogated for SRC diagnostic utility using logistic regression(172 samples from 75 concussed and 97 non-concussed individuals).Results:Two miRNAs(miR-532-5p and miR-182-5p)decreased(adjusted p<0.05)after a single episode of exercise,and 1 miRNA(miR-4510)increased only after contact sports participation.Twenty-three miRNAs changed at the end of a contact sports season.Two of these miRNAs(miR-26b-3p and miR-29c-3p)were associated(R>0.50;adjusted p<0.05)with the number of head impacts sustained in a single football practice.Among the 15 miRNAs not confounded by exercise or season-long contact sports participation,11 demonstrated a significant difference(adjusted p<0.05)between concussed and non-concussed participants,and 6 displayed moderate ability(area under curve>0.70)to identify concussion.A single ratio(miR-27a-5p/miR-30a-3p)displayed the highest accuracy(AUC=0.810,sensitivity=82.4%,specificity=73.3%)for differentiating concussed and non-concussed participants.Accuracy did not differ between participants with SRC and non-SRC(z=0.5,p=0.60).Conclusion:Salivary miRNA levels may accurately identify SRC when not confounded by exercise.Refinement of this approach in a large cohort of athletes could eventually lead to a non-invasive,sideline adjunct for SRC assessment.

Creating Prep to Play PRO for women playing elite Australian football:A how-to guide for developing injury-prevention programs

Background:Developing context-specific,evidence-informed,and implementable injury-prevention programs is challenging.Women playing in the elite Australian Football League for Women are at high risk of serious knee injuries,and no specific injury-prevention program exists.The objective of the study was to describe the collaborative process used to create a context-specific injury-prevention program.Methods:A previously used intervention-development process was modified to incorporate a partnership with the sport’s governing organization and focus on engaging program implementers.The Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation and Maintenance(RE-AIM)Sports Setting Matrix guided program development and implementation strategies.Results:The 7-step process,aligned with the RE-AIM Sports Setting Matrix,was applied to develop the injury-prevention program and was titled Prep to Play PRO.The steps were:(Step 1)gaining organizational support and establishing a project partnership;(Step 2)using research evidence and clinical experience;(Step 3)consulting content and context experts;(Step 4)engaging the organization,experts,program implementers,and end-users to concreate the intervention and develop implementation strategies;(Step 5)testing the intervention acceptability and feasibility;(Step 6)evaluating the intervention and implementation strategies against theory;and(Step 7)obtaining feedback from early implementers and end-users.Conclusion:Engaging critical stakeholders at multiple ecological levels(organization,team,and athlete)throughout program development and implementation planning support real-world use.The processes and activities described can guide future sports injury-prevention program development and implementation.

Sporting Usefulness Potential of Nine Local Taxa of Grasses for Lawns in the Agro-Ecological Zone with Bimodal Rainfall in Cameroon

The Cameroonian flora has a very high biodiversity that remains largely unexplored. It contains many grasses that can be used for sports lawns, but are currently underutilized. In order to contribute to the improvement of the quality of sports lawns, nine local grass taxa from the agro-ecological zone with bimodal rainfall in Cameroon were evaluated for their potential for sporting use in natural lawns. The method of the Study and Control Group for Varieties and Seeds was used to evaluate the sports lawn characteristics of the taxa. The resistance to trampling and pulling, the density of the lawn, and the aesthetic appearance, which are factors in calculating the sports index, were monitored at two sites, including the experimental space at the University of Yaounde 1 in the Center region and Kagnol 2 in the East region, from January 2017 to January 2020. The monthly lawn characteristic data allowed for the differentiation between the means and the determination of the sports index of the taxa compared to commercialized lawn varieties. The sports index of the evaluated taxa varied: Cynodon dactylon (6.989), Eleusine indica (6.338), Sporobolus natalensis (6.301), Cynodon cf Cynodon dactylon (6.257), Eragrostis tremula (5.939), Sporobolus pyramidalis (5.583), Agrostis rupestris (5.335), Axonopus compressus (4.991), and Digitaria sp. (4.544). These results show that these grass taxa have potential for sporting use in lawn mixtures at different levels of sports disciplines.

Orchard Sports Injury and Illness Classification System (OSIICS) Version 15

Background:Sports medicine(injury and illnesses)requires distinct coding systems because the International Classification of Diseases is insuf-ficient for sports medicine coding.The Orchard Sports Injury and Illness Classification System(OSIICS)is one of two sports medicine coding systems recommended by the International Olympic Committee.Regular updates of coding systems are required.Methods:For Version 15,updates for mental health conditions in athletes,sports cardiology,concussion sub-types,infectious diseases,and skin and eye conditions were considered particularly important.Results:Recommended codes were added from a recent International Olympic Committee consensus statement on mental health conditions in athletes.Two landmark sports cardiology papers were used to update a more comprehensive list of sports cardiology codes.Rugby union protocols on head injury assessment were used to create additional concussion codes.Conclusion:It is planned that OSIICS Version 15 will be translated into multiple new languages in a timely fashion to facilitate international accessibility.The large number of recently published sport-specific and discipline-specific consensus statements on athlete surveillance warrant regular updating of OSIICS.

Discussion on the Core Strength Training Method for 100-Meter Event in Track and Field Sports

In track and field sports,the 100-meter race is an extremely intense sport that requires effective training of athletes’core strength.From the perspective of adolescents,in order to enhance core strength,it is necessary to effectively fix the pelvic position in the process of exercise,so that the core stability,balance,and coordination of athletes can be improved.The training process of the 100-meter event is mainly an anaerobic metabolic exercise,it is necessary to ensure that athletes maintain a high level of physical readiness during the exercises and concentrate highly on their core strength,so that they can achieve excellent results.This paper analyzes the core strength training for the 100-meter event in track and field sports,discusses its importance,and puts forward specific training methods,hoping to provide guidelines for relevant researchers.

Diplomacy In a Track Suit Sports emerge as a new area for China and Africa to promote exchanges and solidify friendships

The Chinese Ambassador’s Cup tournaments for numerous sports in African countries have been playing a vital role not only in the development of the sport in these countries,but also in the deepening of African people’s bonds with the Chinese people.Chen Zhihong,Chinese ambassador to Mali,reiterated China’s unwavering support in the realms of sports in his speech at the inauguration of the Chinese Ambassador’s Cup football competition in Mali on 8 October.

Research on Sports Public Service Supply in the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle under the Background of Regional Economic Development

Using literature,questionnaires,interviews,and mathematical statistics to investigate the current situation of sports public services in the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-city Economic Circle.The results show that there are some problems in Chengdu-Chongqing sports public services,such as big difference in the development level of supply between urban and rural areas,low supply level,low efficiency,supply mechanism defect,lack of social sports instructors,an outstanding contradiction between the quality of sports public service and residents’demand.To address the problems,government departments should accelerate the transformation of government functions,improve the relevant regulations and systems,increase the investment in sports public services,improve the quality of supply,cultivate the backbone team,integrate resources,and combine the national characteristics with regional characteristics,take into account the personalized needs of the residents,combine the sports public services with intelligence,and build the service system of“Internet+Fitness.”

The Impact of Sports Games on the Psychological Health of Middle School Students

This study conducted a 16-week comparative experiment with 160 students from Jinan No.5 Middle School in Shandong Province as the experimental subjects.During the implementation of the experiment,the subjects were divided into two groups:an experimental group and a control group.The experimental group was subjected to physical exercise interventions using sports game teaching methods during physical education class,while the control group followed traditional physical education teaching methods.The results showed that the psychological health status of the students in the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group after the experiment.The application of sports games helps to improve the psychological health of middle school students in the course of physical education,promoting a positive and forward direction in student psychology and is an effective means to enhance the psychological health level of middle school students.

The Influence of Swimming Athletes’ Burnout on Their Sports Participation Motivation in Hunan, China

Objective:This study aims to explore the effect of swimming athletes’burnout on their sports motivation in Hunan University,China.It seeks to understand how burnout influences various motivational factors,providing insights for optimizing swimming sports courses and enhancing student participation.Method:Employing random sampling,the study surveyed 260 swimming athletes from Hunan University.The research utilized a questionnaire divided into three parts:demographic information,the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire(ABQ),and the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory(IMI).Pearson’s r correlation analysis was conducted using SPSS to examine the relationships between burnout dimensions and motivational factors.Results:The study found significant correlations between a reduced sense of accomplishment and various motivational dimensions,including“interest/enjoyment,”“perceived competence,”“perceived choice,”and particularly“perceived tension.”Physical exhaustion showed a significant correlation only with“perceived tension,”indicating a strong link between psychological stress and physical fatigue.Sports devaluation was significantly correlated with“perceived tension,”suggesting that psychological stress impacts athletes’valuation of their sport.Conclusion:The findings highlight the complex interplay between burnout and motivation in swimming athletes.Psychological stress,as indicated by“perceived tension,”emerges as a key factor influencing both the physical and emotional aspects of burnout.The study underscores the need for holistic training approaches that balance physical training with psychological well-being,personalized coaching,and supportive environments to enhance intrinsic motivation and manage stress effectively.

Media Sporting Events as Platforms for‘Soft Power’and Digital Activism

Mediatic sporting events are increasingly used in the geopolitical arena to gain consensus, at the same time emerging as platforms for the discussion of social issues, such as human rights and sustainability. This article presents an investigation into the role of mediatic sporting events and digital platforms in sparking political debate and social engagement to bring about change, including discussions on global and local interests and the performances of activist fans to promote debate on specific issues. The investigation employs a quantitative methodology. The initial inductive analysis uses a matrix of cultural key-frames of the empowerment and protest that accompany media sporting events, verifying their presence and effectiveness in different communication milieus. An analysis of the representation of protests on social media was performed through content analysis. The results of the investigation show that mediatic sporting events are to be understood as a diverse range of generators of multiple political effects: from the exercise of power to mass mobilization and media criticism.

Sports Education Library Information Services

Library website,is the first window for readers to understand library information services.Sports Education academy library fully take advantage of homepage,combine open access resource searched with the library collections,after targeted collection,selection,sorting,processing,clustering or reorganization,establish a navigation system of open access resource of physical Sports Education.

English Training for College Student Volunteers at Sports Events

This paper studies English training for student volunteers at large scale sports events with a comprehensive investigation of the undergraduate student volunteers from Capital University of Physical Education who have taken part in large scale sports events.By examining the current volunteer training situation,the author finds that there is a sever lack of professional and systematical English training for student volunteers at large scale sports events.The study shows focusing on sports events knowledge and requirements of the volunteers’specific job is crucial to the service level of the volunteers.The study concludes that the problem can be solved by developing new course books,innovating new flexible training methods,and offering more comprehensive training content.The recommended training methods include intensive group training,computer aided teaching,task training and on-the-spot training to make them fit their work soon.

Health benefits of traditional Chinese sports and physical activity for older adults: A systematic review of evidence

Background: Traditional Chinese sports and physical activities(PAs) have a long history and are practiced by millions of Chinese. However,relatively few systematic reviews of the scientific evidence for their health benefits, especially for older Chinese adults, have been undertaken.Evidence acquisition: Between January and March 2016, a systematic search was conducted using the CNKI and Pub Med databases to identify studies published between 2000 and 2015. Studies were selected for review if they were designed specifically to evaluate the health benefits of traditional Chinese sports and PAs in adults aged 50 years and older in the Mainland of China. The studies included observational, uncontrolled,and randomized and controlled designs. Papers published without an English title or abstract were excluded.Evidence synthesis: The initial search identified a total of 229 studies. After removing duplicates and studies that did not meet the inclusion/exclusion criteria, 95 studies were selected for review. Special attention was given to studies of the most commonly practiced activities: Tai Ji Quan,Qigong, and Yangko exercises. A positive association between these types of exercise and health benefits was noted for healthy older adults and those with chronic diseases. Evidence on other types of activities was less clear due to the limited number of studies conducted.Conclusion: There is promising evidence that traditional Chinese sports and PAs provide many health benefits for older Chinese adults. While additional scientifically rigorous research is warranted, promoting these traditional and culturally-based sports and PAs as forms of behavioral medicine in primary and secondary prevention of diseases among the aging Chinese population will help fulfill an urgent public health need.

Scientific evidence is just the starting point: A generalizable process for developing sports injury prevention interventions

Background: The 2 most cited sports injury prevention research frameworks incorporate intervention development, yet little guidance is available in the sports science literature on how to undertake this complex process. This paper presents a generalizable process for developing implementable sports injury prevention interventions, including a case study applying the process to develop a lower limb injury prevention exercise training program(Footy First) for community Australian football.Methods: The intervention development process is underpinned by 2 complementary premises:(1) that evidence-based practice integrates the best available scientific evidence with practitioner expertise and end user values and(2) that research evidence alone is insufficient to develop implementable interventions.Results: The generalizable 6-step intervention development process involves(1) compiling research evidence, clinical experience, and knowledge of the implementation context;(2) consulting with experts;(3) engaging with end users;(4) testing the intervention;(5) using theory; and(6)obtaining feedback from early implementers. Following each step, intervention content and presentation should be revised to ensure that the final intervention includes evidence-informed content that is likely to be adopted, properly implemented, and sustained over time by the targeted intervention deliverers. For Footy First, this process involved establishing a multidisciplinary intervention development group, conducting 2targeted literature reviews, undertaking an online expert consensus process, conducting focus groups with program end users, testing the program multiple times in different contexts, and obtaining feedback from early implementers of the program.Conclusion: This systematic yet pragmatic and iterative intervention development process is potentially applicable to any injury prevention topic across all sports settings and levels. It will guide researchers wishing to undertake intervention development.

Effect of deep transverse friction massage vs stretching on football players’ performance

BACKGROUND Flexibility,agility and muscle strength are key factors to either win or lose a game.Recently the effect of a new technique,deep transverse friction massage(DTFM)on muscle extensibility as compared to traditional stretching techniques has been examined.AIM To compare the effect of DTFM vs static and dynamic stretching techniques on the hamstring’s extensibility,agility,and strength amongst Lebanese and Syrian football players.Recording the incidence of non-contact hamstring muscle injury was a secondary objective.METHODS This study is a single-blinded prospective longitudinal randomized controlled trial.The experiment took place over a period of four weeks.Football players were randomized into three intervention groups(static stretching;dynamic stretching;DTFM).Participants of each group were followed-up carefully by assessors during their intervention sessions three times per week,for a total of 12 sessions and during the data collection.Extensibility,agility,and strength were compared between intervention groups at(baseline;acute;and chronic)phases.Straight leg raise and 1 repetition maximum tests were used to measure the dominant leg hamstring muscle extensibility and maximal strength respectively.T-drill test was used to assess the lower extremities agility.RESULTS Of 103 Lebanese and Syrian male football players aged between 18 and 35 were sampled from Damascus-Syria and South of Lebanon to participate in this study.Between-groups measures of acute strength(P=0.011)and chronic extensibility(P=0.000)solely showed a significant difference,and the static group showed to be superior as compared to the other groups.No loss to follow-up or protocol violation was recorded.CONCLUSION Static stretching is showing to be superior to the other techniques used,regarding gaining long-term extensibility and short-term maximal muscle strength.In addition,DTFM showed improvements but did not outweigh the effects on footballers’performance when comparing it to static and dynamic techniques.Finally,no difference between the interventions is recorded regarding the rate of muscle injuries incidence.

Human Pose Estimation and Object Interaction for Sports Behaviour

In the new era of technology,daily human activities are becoming more challenging in terms of monitoring complex scenes and backgrounds.To understand the scenes and activities from human life logs,human-object interaction(HOI)is important in terms of visual relationship detection and human pose estimation.Activities understanding and interaction recognition between human and object along with the pose estimation and interaction modeling have been explained.Some existing algorithms and feature extraction procedures are complicated including accurate detection of rare human postures,occluded regions,and unsatisfactory detection of objects,especially small-sized objects.The existing HOI detection techniques are instancecentric(object-based)where interaction is predicted between all the pairs.Such estimation depends on appearance features and spatial information.Therefore,we propose a novel approach to demonstrate that the appearance features alone are not sufficient to predict the HOI.Furthermore,we detect the human body parts by using the Gaussian Matric Model(GMM)followed by object detection using YOLO.We predict the interaction points which directly classify the interaction and pair them with densely predicted HOI vectors by using the interaction algorithm.The interactions are linked with the human and object to predict the actions.The experiments have been performed on two benchmark HOI datasets demonstrating the proposed approach.

Epidemiology and risk factors for sports-and recreation-related eye injury:a multicenter prospective observational study

AIM:To identify the epidemiologic characteristics of sportsand recreation-related eye injuries in a large metropolitan city and investigate risk factors associated with visual impairment.METHODS:We performed a multicenter prospective observational study on patients using the regional eye injury registry data.This study included patients with sportsand recreation-related eye injury in four tertiary teaching hospitals in Daegu,Republic of Korea,from August 2016 to July 2018.The primary outcome was visual impairment at the first hospital visit.Distributions of sex,age,place,and causative materials were analyzed according to causative activities.To examine the association between causative activities and visual impairment,a Logistic regression analysis was used.RESULTS:Of the 349 sports-and recreation-related eye injuries,soccer was the most common causative activity,with 21.8%(n=76).Sports-and recreation-related eye injuries occurred mainly in teenagers,individuals in their 20 s,and men.Badminton and soccer were significantly associated with visual impairment at the first hospital visit compared with combat sports[(adjusted odds ratio(AOR),5.18;95%confidence interval(CI),1.67-16.09 for badminton and AOR,3.87;95%CI,1.36-10.99 for soccer].CONCLUSION:Intervention efforts such as deployment of protective eyewear in sports facilities and schools and promotion of wearing protective eyewear during these activities in teenagers and individuals in their 20 s are mandatory.