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Visualizing game dynamics at a specific time: Influence of the players’ poses for tactical analyses in padel

Javadiha, M. ORCID: 0000-0002-4867-1132, Andujar, C., Lacasa, E. , Shirato, G. ORCID: 0000-0001-6517-9994, Andrienko, N. ORCID: 0000-0003-3313-1560 & Andrienko, G. ORCID: 0000-0002-8574-6295 (2025). Visualizing game dynamics at a specific time: Influence of the players’ poses for tactical analyses in padel. Visual Informatics, doi: 10.1016/j.visinf.2025.100256

Abstract

Tactical elements are crucial in team sports. The analysis of hypothetical game situations greatly benefits from positional diagrams showing where the players are. These diagrams often show the layout of the players through simple symbols, which provide no information about their poses. This paper investigates if the visualization of player poses is benefitial for tactical understanding of positional diagrams in padel. We propose a realistic, cartoon-like representation of the players and discuss its integration into a typical positional diagram. To overcome the cost of generating player representations depicting their pose, we propose a method to generate such representations from minimal user input. We conducted a user study to evaluate the effectiveness of our pose-aware diagrams. The tasks for the study were designed to encompass the main in-game scenarios in padel, which include the ballholder at the net with opponents defending, the reverse situation, and transitions between these two states. We found that our representation is preferred over a symbolic one that only indicates player orientation. The proposed method enables coaches to produce such representations within a matter of seconds, thereby significantly facilitating the creation of detailed and easily analyzable depictions of game situations.

Publication Type: Article
Publisher Keywords: padel, positional diagram, tactical analysis, player pose
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GA Mathematical geography. Cartography
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure
Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Departments: School of Science & Technology
School of Science & Technology > Computer Science
School of Science & Technology > Computer Science > giCentre
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