The deliberate practice: the sports excellence versus the musical excellence

[ENG] If we look around us, we can observe that there is someone who is the best in each field of activity. We could think that they are exceptional individuals. This Final Project aims to increase knowledge of the effects of Deliberate Practice in the domains of music and sport. This will define you a concept of Deliberate Practice and then focus on the diversity of situations in which it shows us how it is presented in real life. From a questionnaire that has been designed for this study and distributed to the music students, I have expected to obtain a result that allow me to come to the conclusion that exists a relation between the hours of practice and the expertise in the execution. This reality has been linked to the regarding situation in the sport practice, whose information has been provided by the coordinators of the different sports. Taking into account the limited number of references available, this work has focused on a qualitative analysis of the data, interpreted from my point of view and my personal experience, which has been confirmed in the results obtained. The statistics managed allow me to conclude that, although the argument is not definitive, the guide effort through deliberate practice is essential to achieve the excellence.

Exploring Game Performance in the National Basketball Association Using Player Tracking Data

Recent player tracking technology provides new information about basketball game performance. The aim of this study was to (i) compare the game performances of all-star and non all-star basketball players from the National Basketball Association (NBA), and (ii) describe the different basketball game performance profiles based on the different game roles. Archival data were obtained from all 2013-2014 regular season games (n = 1230). The variables analyzed included the points per game, minutes played and the game actions recorded by the player tracking system. To accomplish the first aim, the performance per minute of play was analyzed using a descriptive discriminant analysis to identify which variables best predict the all-star and non all-star playing categories. The all-star players showed slower velocities in defense and performed better in elbow touches, defensive rebounds, close touches, close points and pull-up points, possibly due to optimized attention processes that are key for perceiving the required appropriate environmental information. The second aim was addressed using a k-means cluster analysis, with the aim of creating maximal different performance profile groupings. Afterwards, a descriptive discriminant analysis identified which variables best predict the different playing clusters. The results identified different playing profile of performers, particularly related to the game roles of scoring, passing, defensive and all-round game behavior. Coaching staffs may apply this information to different players, while accounting for individual differences and functional variability, to optimize practice planning and, consequently, the game performances of individuals and teams.