Networks Centrality

Identifying key processes and their actors is a task of great importance in enquiring or assessing systems performance. This quest is particularly relevant and challenging when the system is highly dynamic, that being the case of matches involving sport teams. In this chapter these dynamics are associated to different types of interactions between the system actors, i.e., the players. These interactions span from ball passing (the most common in the literature), proximity (e.g. supporting, marking) or opportunities for action. Consequently, Social Network Analysis have been considered to be a useful tool for that type of enquiry. Although this is the case for some time now, we argue that explicitly grounding it on system specific theories is capital to leverage their potential and avoid possible pitfalls. The chapter aims at that by identifying relevant network structural properties, notably those related to teams’ dynamics and their key actors. In this context particular attention is given to different centrality metrics and how their usefulness depends on being grounded in system theories or principles. The chapter concludes with illustrative applications of network metrics in the context of cooperative and competitive interactions and how these metrics relate with team performance.