Unit 5

Unit 5 Research Project

Worthing College Sports Science[INSERT STUDENT NAME HERE]

2015

Assessment Criteria Pages 3-17 & 27-38

• P2: carry out sport science or exercise science-based research

• P3: collect and record data from the research project conducted

• M2: correctly analyse collected data, describing techniques used

• D1: correctly analyse data, explaining techniques used

• P4: produce a full research report using a standard scientific structure

To research the importance of height in a premier league striker to see if it has an affect

on the total goals scored

P2: Carry out / P4: Produce

AbstractI have researched premier league strikers height and the goals they scored to find out if there are any trends between them. I have done this by taking the top 12 teams strikers that have played more than 10 league games. Looking at the physiological statures of players to see if it affects how they play in football is an important piece of research as football is always looking to see what the best way to improve there team is and my research can show them whether height has an important factor on whether strikers will score more goals in a season or not. I looked at the top 12 teams in the premier league season 2013/14 and looked at all the strikers that played more than 10 games and worked out the amount of goals scored per game they have achieved, the amount of goals scored by head and the amount of goals scored by feet. From this I found out that there is no trend with height and goals scored per game and this was the aim to my research so my research wouldn’t be able to be used for scouting for new players however I have found that there is a significant trend that players that are taller will score more goals with there head and my other graph showed that the smaller the player the more goals scored by feet will be scored (see Figures and Tables 2,3,4).


Contents: General• Page 5 - Contents: General • Page 6 - Contents: Appendices • Page 7 - Contents: Figures and tables • Page 8 - Acknowledgement • Page 9 - Introduction • Page 10 –Project hypothesis • Page 11 – Literature review and references • Page 12 – Method • Page 13 – Data Collection • Page 14 – Data Analysis • Page 15 – Results • Page 16 – Discussion • Page 17 – Conclusion • Page 18 - Assessment Criteria Pages • Page 19 – Review 1/3 • Page 20 – Review 2/3 • Page 21 – Review 3/3 • Page 22 – Further recommendation 1/5 • Page 23 - Further recommendation 2/5 • Page 24 - Further recommendation 3/5 • Page 25 - Further recommendation 4/5 • Page 26 - Further recommendation 5/5


Contents: AppendicesPage 27 - Research Project AppendicesPage 28 – Appendix 1Page 29 – Appendix 2Page 30 - Appendix 3Page 31 – Appendix 4Page 32 – Appendix 5


Contents: Figures and Tables

Page 33 - Research Project Figures and TablesPage 34 - Figures and Tables 1Page 35 – Figures and Tables 2Page 36 - Figures and Tables 3Page 37 - Figures and Tables 4


Acknowledgements

I would like to Paul Cox for helping me out with the questions that I had asked him throughout this work, an example being of him helping me out with using excel.I would also like to thank Luke Howard for giving me advice on my introduction.


Introduction

To research the importance of height in a premier league strikers from the top 12 teams in the 2013/14 league to see if it has an affect on the total goals scoredI chose this aim as football is something that I'm interesting in so to find out the aim would help me to understand the game further and it would be interesting to see if there was any trend between the height and the goals scored in total and the total goals scored with the head and feet.The project timescale for this project was 8 weeks and this was for me to get all the information that I needed.


Project Hypothesis

1. Height will not have an affect on the total number of goals scored

2. Players of a below average height will score a higher proportion of goals with their feet than players above the average height.

3. Players above the average height will score a higher proportion of goals with their head than the players below the average height.


Literature Review and References

https://worthingsportscience.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/unit-5-literature-review-kristian-hoem/


Method1) I carried out the research by going through data online and plotting it all down to create my own research.2) I started this by making a table where I would be able to plot down the data that I collect (see Appendix 1 ) this involved all the areas I needed to look at like height, player name, total games played, goals scored total, goals scored with head, goals scored by feet.3) After I had somewhere to put the data I collect into I went and gathered what I needed to gather the data this included a pen and paper.4) I then went and looked through the strikers of the top 12 teams from the 2013/14 season and put them into the chart.5) When this was done I looked at the total number of appearances to see if they can be used as a part of my research if they had played more than 10 games and then researched the goals they scored in the season I got this information from a data website called soccer base and another website called sportsmole. (see Appendix 4)6) Once I collected the data for this I had to use the premier league website a look at each match played from the top 12 teams to find out who scored a goal using there head or feet and this is what took the longest to do (see Appendix 5)7) After this I then took the research that I had collected and worked out average percentages on excel of the total goals per game, total goals scored by head per game and the total goals scored by feet per game.8) After this had been found out I used excel to make a scatter graph with my information and found a trend line for each graph that I had to find any trends.

P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques

Data CollectionThe data that I am collecting is from using secondary, I got my sources by googling what I needed to find out e.g. Liverpool vs. Man City 2013/14 match report, and then chose a reliable source that I could trust and for this I used the premierleague.com.I then used the information from the sources to put it together and put it into charts. I will do this by going on to the internet and finding information first on the top 12 teams strikers that had played more than 10 games in the season of 2013/14.

I then took the height of each player to put them into categories and to then find out how many goals each of these players have scored. I then found out how many goals were scored by either the feet or the head of the players and this is what will give me the data that I need to get results for my aim and hypothesis.


Data Analysis

Here I will be taking the data that I have collected and putting it together to create charts on the averages of these players and then looking through the quantitative data to see for any correlations that are to do with my hypotheses. The data analysis is key to this project as I it is what lets me reach my aims and objectives and it is what puts this project into place.


ResultsI have found that there is not a trend with the height of a player and the amount of goals that they score and you can see this from my trend line. (see Figures and Tables 2)

I have also found that height does affect the amount of goals scored with the player using his head and there was a strong trend line suggesting the taller the player the more headed goals they will score. (see Figures and Tables 3)

One last trend that I have found is that the smaller the player the more goals a player will have scored with there feet and this is backed up with my trend line (see figures and Tables 4) this isn’t a very strong trend line but it is still there and still suggests the smaller players score more goals with their feet then the taller players.


DiscussionMy results back up my hypothesis quite well as there doesn’t isn't any trend lines on the chart that shows if there is a difference with the amount of goals scored and the height of the players. (see figures and tables 2)

Another hypothesis of mine was that the taller the player the more headed goals will be scored and the trend line in the chart seemed to show a relatively strong trend with this so it is clear that the taller the player the more goals there will be scored with the players head. (see figures and tables 3)

Another hypothesis of mine was that the smaller the player there would be more goals scored with feet and this also came through in my results as there was a weak trend line suggesting that the smaller the player the more goals score by the feet there will be. (see figures and tables 4)


Conclusion‘To research the importance of height in a premier league striker to see if it has an affect on the total goals scored’ here I have managed to find out that my aim hasn’t actually got any beneficial data from it and what I have got from my results is me finding out I that there isn't an importance of height with the amount of goals that get scored, however two of my objectives which are ‘Objective 1: Does the height affect the amount of goals scored by the head in a season?Objective 2: Does the height affect the total goals scored by the feet in a season?’ actually do show that being smaller means you will score a few more goals with your feet and being taller means you will score a lot more goals with your head so you could come to the conclusion that if you want the best striking force then you should go for one small and one tall striker so that it is possible to make the most out of the chances that come in a game.

The key trends from my literacy review were that there wasn’t such a large sample size that I had used so I could have got a larger sample size to make my research more reliable. My work was done recently so that is different to the key trends of my literacy review where a lot of the research was done quite along time ago so my research is quite accurate. Another similarity with my work which was looking at the strikers height which some of the research I had looked at had also done but not in the way I needed to reach my aim and objectives.

My results and discussion do support my hypotheses and it shows that my predictions were quite accurate as I was able to predict some trends that came up in my results so I believe the research I carried out was good research. I believe that they do support my hypotheses mainly because of the results that came up with from doing my research and it gave me the trends in my charts to be able to prove my hypotheses that is why they support it.


Assessment Criteria Pages 19-26

• P5: carry out a review of the research project conducted, describing strengths, areas for improvement and future recommendations.

• M3: carry out a review of the research project, explaining strengths, areas for improvement and future recommendations.

• D2: carry out a review of the research project, justifying future recommendations for further research.

Review (1/3)

Project conclusions met project aims well because it let me explain what I had found out from my original aim of ‘to research the importance of height in a premier league striker to see if it has an affect on the total goals scored’ as I was able to link back to my research (see figures and tables 1,2,3,4) to show what I had found out in this project to be able to compare it to my hypotheses. I was able to draw conclusions from my project aim and objectives and example of this is ‘if you want the best striking force then you should go for one small and one tall striker so that it is possible to make the most out of the chances that come in a game’ this examples shows how my project conclusion's met my project aims.

P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Review (2/3)

The strengths of the research project was that I was able to gather all the information that I needed from doing desk research and this allowed me to be able to do the project from just a computer. Another strength would be that the research I did actually came up with some trends that is quite possibly beneficial (see figures and tables 1,2,3,4) my figures and tables showed trend lines in the research that I conducted to suggest that the taller the striker the more headers will be scored and that the shorter the striker the more goals scored by feet will be scored and that there isn’t a trend line with whether the height of a striker will affect the total number of goals scored. A example of the strengths of my research project is my discussion where I talk about how the results I got match up with my hypotheses.


Review (3/3)

The areas for improvement were that I could have put my data that I was collecting in excel first instead of putting it into word first as I wasted a lot of time doing the calculations on word (see Appendix 1) and I would have been able to get on with this project a lot quicker had I put it in excel in the first place.


Future Recommendations (1/5)

If this project was to be completed again and it was to be a more reliable research then I would take data from all the teams in the league and then look at it from more than 3 seasons and also look at more than 3 different leagues instead of what I did with just doing 1 league 1 season of the top 12 teams (see Appendix 2).

P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify


The benefits is that you will get a better more rounded research that is more reliable as ,although my research is still credible, it will prove further that the data collected isn't just a coincidence and that it is actually more viable data which will perhaps show more reliable results. An example of where research is done over a much larger group of individuals is from one of the bits of research in my literature review which looked a footballing league and two tournaments and multiple tournaments from different years and league seasons (see Appendix 3). From doing the research for more seasons etc. they are able to have more consistent and reliable data that has a lot more credibility and that is why I believe it would have made better data.



A proposal for further research would be for looking into whether height affects how many clean sheets a keeper gets in a season. This would allow a greater understanding about height in football and whether it allows a keeper to perform better and make the team better, this research could perhaps change how scouting for new keepers could be so this is why this research can benefit football and is a good proposal for further research.



State a proposal for further research (in total three proposals are needed and this is number two of three)Another proposal for further research would be to look at defenders height and clean sheets kept with them and see if being taller will affect how many clean sheets our kept in the defence and whether it has a great affect having 6ft6 average defence height or a 6ft1 average defence height. From this you would be able to perhaps improve scouting for teams if the research ended up being very significant. This is a good proposal for further research as I believe it ties in with what I was originally researching about with it being to do with height in football.



One more proposal for further research on this project to get a more in-depth look at how physiological attributes affect how footballers play on the pitch is to have a look at how the average height of a team affects the amount of total possession they have as a team and this can find out if a taller team are able to hold a ball for longer as they will likely be more strong or if a smaller team are able to hold the ball for longer as they will be able to hold on to the ball for longer and turn quicker due to there smaller centre of gravity making them more affective. This is another way that we would be able to look into the physiological properties of a team (this project being height) to see how it affects them playing.


Research Project Appendices

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

http://www.soccerbythenumbers.com/2012/07/height-discrimination-in-football-are.html

Appendix 4

http://www.soccerbase.com/players/ http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/premier-league/2013-14/top-goal-scorers.html

Appendix 5

http://www.premierleague.com/

Research Project Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables 1


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Goals per game percentage:

Goals per game percentage:Linear (Goals per game percentage:)


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Total goals scored from using the head compared to games played percentage:

Goals scored by head in the number of ap-pearancesLinear (Goals scored by head in the number of appearances)


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Total goals scored from using the feet compared to games played percentage:

Goals scored by feet mean percentage:Linear (Goals scored by feet mean percentage:)

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Date post:	07-Aug-2015
Category:	Sports
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