The existence of structure in sport competition is implicated in the widespread practice of using the information gathered from a past contest to prepare for a future contest. Based on this reasoning, we previously analysed squash match-play for evidence of signature traits from among the stochastic relations between the various types of shot. The mixed findings from these analyses led us to re-analyse squash match-play as a dynamical system. Here, we extend this line of investigation with some suggestions as to how various sports might be described further within this theoretical framework. We offer some examples of dynamical interactions in dyadic (i.e. one vs one) and team (e.g. many vs many) sports, as well as some predictions from a dynamical systems analysis for these types of sports contests. This paper should serve to initiate further research into the complex interactions that occur in sport competition.

In this article, we examine the space-time coordination dynamics of two basketball teams during competition. We identified six game sequences at random, from which the movement data of each player were obtained for analysis of team behaviours in both the longitudinal (basket-to-basket) and lateral (side-to-side) directions. The central position of a team was measured using its spatial (geometric) centre and dispersion using a stretch index, obtained from the mean distance of team members from the spatial centre. Relative-phase analysis of the spatial centres demonstrated in-phase stabilities in both the longitudinal and lateral directions, with more stability in the longitudinal than lateral direction. As anticipated, this finding is consistent with the results of an analysis of individual playing dyads (see companion article, this issue), as well as the more general principle of complex systems conforming to similar descriptions at different levels of analysis. Phase relations for the stretch index demonstrated in-phase attraction in the longitudinal direction and no attraction to any values in the lateral direction. Finally, the difference between the two stretch indexes at any instant showed phase transitions between two stable patterns when the difference was represented in binary form. This result is attributed to the reciprocity between teams in their amounts of expansion and contraction when possession of the ball is won and lost.

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