Modeling competitive squash performance from quantitative analysis

Abstract

We report that a player's behavioral response to a preceding athletic event in competitive squash is consistent when competing against the same opponent (p > .25) but inconsistent when competing against different opponents (p < .25). Some evidence of systematic behavior within the inconsistent responses was identified, from which a consequent strategy was analyzed and tested using a stochastic (Markov) model. The a priori strategy, all things equal, would have been expected to enhance sport behavior in this instance. That sport data provide a mostly reliable signature of athletic response to a preceding behavioral event against the same opponent, but not against different opponents, bears practical relevance to current sport practice. Sport analysis can reliably assume a prescriptive application in preparing for future athletic competition, but only if consistent behavioral data can be established. The traditional planning of match strategies from a priori sport information (scouting) for later use against the same opponent would otherwise seem to be an expedient and necessary constraint.

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