METHODS FOR STUDYING COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE IN SPORTS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The study conducts a systematic review focused on the methods privileged by researchers when they study collective performance in sports. For this purpose, 158 articles published between 2008 and 2019 were selected and submitted to an iterative process of qualitative analysis. Results showed that there are three main types of research methods to study collective performance in sports: (a) characterization of a high-achieving sport collective, (b) multifactorial impact analysis, and (c) experimentation of an intervention protocol. The results collected also tended to prove that research on performance in sports requires to deal with a wide range of factors at the same time, which makes it necessary to design a research method that's more systemic. Moreover, we identify and discuss two methodological approaches: “studying performance in order to infuse change” on the one hand; “infusing change in order to study performance” on the other.