Athletes’ and coaches’ perspectives of performance analysis in women’s sports in Singapore

ABSTRACT

To date, little consideration has been given to the context in which performance analysis (PA) is used by female athletes, in women’s sports and in an Asian context. Through the use of an online questionnaire and follow-up semi-structured interviews, the perspectives towards the use of PA and feedback by athletes and coaches in two female’s sports in Singapore (water polo: one coach and 13 athletes; netball: one coach and eight athletes) were explored. Four key themes emerged from the inductive analysis of the data: (1) learning environment in teams, (2) considerations on the use of PA to aid development and learning, (3) application of game-related learning into practice through PA and (4) organisation of PA sessions: duration and design. The results indicated female athletes from Asian cultures welcomed group discussions, viewed information around areas for development in a positive light and were receptive to longer video reviews. Coaches and analysts should acknowledge the culture of the learner or group in addition to the session format when planning and delivering PA provisions to best meet the learners’ needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Perceptions
• water polo
• netball
• women
• video analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.