Classical performance analysis techniques in golf have focused on classes of shots, such as putting, driving, etc. Because these measures remove shots from their original context within the round, such measures do not describe a player's ability to perform a specific type of shot. Rather, these...

Existing performance metrics utilized by the PGA TOUR have biases towards specific styles of play, which make relative player comparisons challenging. Our goal is to evaluate golfers in a way that eliminates these biases and to better understand how the best players maintain their...

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the bank shot and ultimately determine the optimal target points on the backboard for the bank shot in mens basketball. The study used over one million three-dimensional simulations of basketball trajectories. Four launch variables were...

A country's size in terms of population and economic status play a major role in the resources available to a national soccer team. Additionally, the national expectations for the team define what a successful result is. The purpose of this paper is to present a prediction for the 2010...

Three of the most celebrated football leagues in the world include the English Premier League (EPL), Italys Serie A, and Spains La Liga. To date, little football research has been conducted that attempts to determine why these leagues are so successful. What is it that the EPL, La Liga, and...

This article presents a multivariate analysis of Olympic decathlon data based on maximum likelihood factor analysis. All results explicitly account for model selection uncertainty, which is inherent in any data-based selection process but mostly ignored in reports related to multivariate sports...

Using data from the Bundesliga, the top German football league (American soccer), we analyze the effects of yellow and red cards on the probability of victory for a team. For the team receiving the cards, we find that yellow and red cards decrease the probability of victory. However, the number...

This study analyzes the terminating actions (serve, attack, block and opponent error) resulting in point scoring for each team. These actions are then taken as reference indicators for observing the possibility of winning or losing a set in an elite mens volleyball competition. A total of 45...

In soccer knockout ties, which are played in a two-legged format, the team having the return match at home is usually seen as advantaged. For checking this common belief, we analyzed matches of the UEFA Champions League knockout phase since 1994/1995. It is shown that the observed differences in...

One measure of sports league competitive balance uses a ratio: the standard deviation of team winning percentages is divided by the so-called ideal standard deviation, which assumes a game between evenly-skilled teams is equally likely to be won by either team. In fact, a team is more likely to...