To investigate the effects of situational factors (match location, strength of team and opponent) and environmental factors (relative air humidity, temperature and air quality index) on the technical and physical match performance of Chinese Soccer Super League teams (CSL). The generalized mixed modelling was employed to determine the effects by using the data of all 240 matches in the season 2015 collected by Amisco Pro®. Increase in the rank difference would increase the number of goal-scoring related, passing and organizing related actions to a small-to-moderate extent (Effect size [ES]: 0.37–0.99). Match location had small positive effects on goal-scoring related, passing and organizing related variables (ES: 0.27–0.51), while a small negative effect on yellow card (ES = −0.35). Increment in relative air humidity and air quality index would only bring trivial or small effects on all the technical performance (ES: −0.06–0.23). Increase in humidity would decrease the physical performance at a small magnitude (ES: −0.55–−0.38). Teams achieved the highest number in the physical performance-related parameters at the temperature between 11.6 and 15.1 °C. In the CSL, situational variables had major effects on the technical performance but trivial effects on the physical performance, on the contrary, environmental factors affected mainly the physical performance but had only trivial or small impact on the technical performance.

The aim of the present study was to identify the game-related statistics which discriminate between winning, drawing and losing teams in Chinese Soccer Association Super League. The sample included 1056 balance games from the 2012-2017 Chinese Soccer Association Super League. Physical and technical game-related statistics were gathered. A one-way analysis of variance and discriminant analysis of data was done. The results showed that winning teams were significantly higher for the following game statistics: shots, shots on target, 50-50 challenge won, offsides, sprinting distance, sprinting effort, sprinting distance in ball possession and high-speed-running distance in ball possession. Losing teams had significantly higher averages in the variable crosses, passes, forward passes, sprinting distance out of ball possession and high-speed-running distance out of ball possession. Discriminant analysis concluded the following: the variables that discriminate between winning, drawing and losing teams were the shots on target, sprinting distance in ball possession, quality of opposition, passes and forward passes. Coaches and players should be aware of these different profiles in order to design and evaluate practices and competitions for their teams.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on home advantage (HA) comparing games with the presence of spectators (pre-pandemic) and during ghost games in absence of spectators (post-pandemic). A secondary twofold objective was to analyse the influence of team ability on HA by (i) comparing HA for pre- and post- pandemic and (ii) comparing different team ability levels. Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to identify HA and home wins percentage (HW%) differences between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic games. Additionally, the Kruskal-Wallis test was run to identify HA and HW% differences between team ability levels (High to Low). Teams had higher HA and HW% during pre-pandemic than post-pandemic. In turn, low level teams present higher HA compared to the other team ability levels. Thus, low level teams are more benefited from playing at their home-court, resulting in a higher chance of winning comparing with playing away. However, for HW% low level teams showed lower HW% than medium and high team ability levels, showing that when a team is considerably weaker than the opponent, then this difference in ability will outweigh HA and the stronger team is likely to win both at home and away.

A simple method was designed to evaluate visual abilities such as disance visual acuity, binocular horizontal visual field, simple and choice visual reaction times, and stereoscopic vision in skilled 11- to 13-yr.-old basketball players participating in a 15-day summer training camp. On a test battery, visual abilities were monitored in 473 players of the Spanish Basketball Federation over a 5-yr. period. The players showed outstanding scores on distance visual acuity and stereoscopic vision, and good visual reaction times and horizontal visual fields. When scores were compared by sex and age, significant differences on certain visual measures were observed. Many layers showed crossed eye-hand dominance. Visual screening programs may help promote visual health among junior basketball players and could be used for performance training.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the role of every performance indicator in determining match outcome has varied from a long-term analysis (seasons 2012 to 2017) of the Chinese Soccer Super League (CSL). The sample included 1,429 CSL matches where 17 technical performance-related indicators, 11 physical performance-related indicators and two situational variables (match location and quality of opposition) were analysed. Binary logistic regression models were used to measure the level of association between these factors and match outcome over the six seasons studied. Results revealed that shots on target, possession, total distance in ball possession, total distance out of ball possession, and match location exerted a decreased influence on winning the matches from 2012 to 2014 seasons. However, these indicators play a more important role in winning matches from 2014 to 2017 seasons.Additionally, the quality of opposition has a continuously increased negative effect on the match outcome. The key performance indicators and their role in winning the matches changed over the six seasons studied reflecting the performance development of Chinese soccer. These results provide valuable information about key performance indicators and situational variables on winning the matches from a long-term approach.