Test to evaluate the shot accuracy in a penalty
situation of Water Polo athletes
Abstract
The Water Polo players perform many actions during a match, such as swimming at
high intensities, fighting actions, driving the ball, shooting among others. It is intended
by means of the study, to elaborate and to value preliminary the quality of tests for the
verification of the shot accuracy in penalty situation of Water Polo players. The
objective of this research is to propose a test that, based on the particularities of the
competition, confirms the accuracy in the shot in a penalty situation in youth Water
Polo players. A potential test situation is selected from the catalog of motor actions of
the player, which is part of the technical arsenal of the athlete in this sport. The
potential test situation accomplish the fundamental requirements for the competitive
exercise chosen as the driving content of the test that is developed: culminating with a
shot on goal. Methods, such as survey, documents analysis, scientific structure
observation, measurement and evaluation for specialist criterion. Based on these
budgets, it is possible to prepare the test that is subsequently submitted to the
preliminary evaluation process. A sample made up of eight Water Polo specialists from
Villa Clara province was used for this investigative task. The result of the applied
survey made it possible to gather conclusive elements of the preliminary evaluation
process, concluding that the proposed tests allow to verify the accuracy of the shot in a
penalty situation in high-level Water Polo players.
Keywords: test, shot, penalty, accuracy
Introduction
There are many actions that players perform during a Water Polo match such as
swimming at high intensities, fighting actions, driving the ball, shooting, interceptions,
receptions and feints, just to mention a few.
The study carried out by sports researchers about the behavior of players during
competitive activity through quantitative analysis, has revealed timing, intensity, and
frequency of appearance, the results of which have allowed their use in the training
schedule. Training and controlling how you compete is a necessity in contemporary
sport.
However, during training it is also necessary to attend to and adjust the actions that lead
to the achievement of the motor objective pursued by sports teams, in order to win the
sports fight they establish with their opponents (score in the opposite goal). The shot at
goal, as well as the plays that precede it and enable the player in possession of the ball
to carry out this type of terminal actions during a match, allow the executing team to
appropriate marked possibilities of success during it. They are link actions due to the
quality that the players involved in them and in the launch as a finishing action can
exhibit in these skills.
The completions of the attack plays in team sports are determining situations of the
encounters, since they define success or failure, influencing the final position of each
team in the tournaments. This is why Lozano (2016) considers that the effectiveness of
the launch is a fundamental variable for performance.
Gómez, Cejuela and Sellés (2020) consider that recently more interest is being shown in
the study of the actions that occur in a Water Polo match and that among them there are
studies of the different types of launches, in this sense the results are observed de Lupo,
Tessitore, and Capranica (2010) who, in their analysis of 30 elite Water Polo players,
recorded a greater number of throws in the zone in front of 5 meters.
Also in this direction Peñaloza et al (2016) and González (2016) consider that in order
to have a good casting quality, psychological aspects must be taken into account, the
fact of having a greater or lesser effectiveness in the launches is also directly related
with their speed and precision (Manchado, Tortosa-Martínez, Vila, Ferragut and Platen,
2013).
All these factors previously exposed condition the quality of the throw and therefore, it
is important to know the effectiveness of the throw for each of the possible game zones,
which helps to establish game strategies and better understand the dynamics of the
same. It is evident that a determining skill in the Water Polo is the shot on goal, as it is
the only one through which the player tries to score the goal (Vila, 2016), so verifying
the accuracy of the shot on goal is a revealing element. the level of sports preparation
acquired by an athlete to achieve results in a goal sport.
The launch in a penalty situation is a fundamentally important basis for adding
annotations to the final score of the match, since its execution is carried out in an area
very close to the goal and in highly profitable conditions for the player who materializes
it, since its condition declares his fight only before the goalkeeper. When carrying out
an extensive bibliographic review in search of the procedures used by the coaches of
this sport to satisfy the claim of the verification of this ability, it was found that the
resources conceived for this objective are scarce.
Other aspects that reaffirm the current state of the subject under study and constitute
reference for analysis when raising the foundations of the research, are the result of
surveys and interviews carried out with sports teachers of this discipline, when
developing behavioral models of competitive activity where the lack of instruments and
means of control are manifested for the verification of the effectiveness of the precision
in the launch in a penalty situation in the Water Polo players.
The objective that directs this research is to propose a test that, based on the
particularities of the competition, confirms the precision in the launch in a penalty
situation in young Water Polo players.
Methodology
The population under study was made up of the 12 Water Polo athletes belonging to the
youth team of the Héctor Ruiz Pérez Sports Initiation School (SIS). This population is
conceived as an object of study, since it will be subjected to the basic quality criteria for
the preliminary validation of the test.
Other populations and samples that are described below were used in the research
process:
• A sample of 8 specialists who collaborated in its preliminary phase. They are
professionals who have trained sports teams in this discipline, having as a precondition
having more than 5 years of experience as a sports coach. These trainers, who
functioned as specialists in the construction of the proposal, participated in three tasks
of the investigative process.
• A population of 10 trainers in this discipline to whom a survey was applied that
functioned as a diagnosis of the current state of the variable under study.
The following scientific methods were used:
Survey: it was applied to the high-performance Water Polo coaches in the province of
Villa Clara to find out the theoretical and practical references they have about the
knowledge of the routes used to measure the precision of the throws.
Review of official documents: it allowed to study and analyze the documents related to
the preparation of the athlete in the Water Polo (IPSP), to know the methodological
indications to comply with in the training, particularly how the precision in shooting on
goal is measured in the plans training, how this skill is controlled, in what moments of
the preparation, what means are used to work it and if there are guidelines for the
coaches to work on this skill.
Structured scientific observation: It was used to know the number of launches that
penetrate the areas enabled for this purpose in the precision network. The number of
goals achieved that penetrate for each preset angle, for each series of work were
counted. An observation protocol was enabled that allowed the annotation of the shots
made and those recorded by each of the zones into which the precision net is divided.
Measurement: It allowed the results themselves to be expressed in numbers. The total
number of shots scored in the goal enabled with the precision net was counted.
Mathematical-statistical: Different calculation formulas were used to provide
quantitative indices that characterized the effectiveness of the sports foundation studied.
To conjecture the effectiveness of the shots, the ratio (the quotient of two numbers or
two comparable magnitudes, which reflects their proportion) between the number of
goals scored and the number of shots taken was calculated.
Shooting efficiency= Number of goals scored
Number of launches
For the calculation of the percentage of defects, the calculation formula proposed by Utkin
(1988) in his book "Biomechanical aspects of sports tactics" was used where by means of the
quotient of two numbers (the number of failures and the total number of actions performed) its
proportion is obtained.
Below is this:
Percentage of defects =Number of failures
Total number of launches made
Evaluation by criteria of Specialists: Those who have a high degree of current experience in the
matter for which it is required are considered by the theory as specialists. The specialists were
selected based on the accumulated experience in sports training tasks for Water Polo players,
their academic qualifications and the results of these coaches with teams of this sport in order to
guarantee their ability to offer assessments about the validity of the content of the tests.
In addition, specialists in this sport were employed, who at this time do not act as
coaches, but teach at the Faculty of Physical Culture of the "Marta Abreu" University of
Las Villas and were athletes of national teams or coaches of provincial teams of this
sport. These requirements for their selection are attributes that guarantee experience,
training and real and objective potentialities to make value judgments about the subject
under study.
To fulfill the research task, a model (estimate endorsement) was used that explained the
content validity, where the key question referred to whether the task posed in the test
actually measures what it says and wants to measure. The specialist may be based on
three categories: efficient, relatively efficient and inefficient to express his
considerations. It was applied with the aim of enabling the verification of one of the
main quality criteria. Once the test was built, these specialists were again used in order
for them to assess the potential possibilities that the tasks grouped together in the
selected test situation to be applied in sports practice. They made their judgments on the
basis of two groups of criteria that were called: acceptance criteria and questionability
criteria depending on the meaning of their evaluations.
Results and Discussion
Results obtained in the diagnosis made to the SIS Water Polo coaches "Héctor Ruiz
Pérez"
Below are the main results obtained from the survey applied to the Water Polo coaches
with the aim of knowing the current status of the object of study. These results are
presented by organizing them based on the order given to the questions asked in the
applied instrument.
a. The 100% of the coaches surveyed consider that precision in the shot at goal is
important as a distinctive quality of the Water Polo player
When justifying their answer, the main reasons raised refer to:
• The victory in the Water Polo as a sport of invasion and goal is materialized through
goals and these are the product or are achieved through shots on goal.
• When skillful goalkeepers are found in their actions, they can only be beaten by
throwing with a high degree of precision.
• Many consider the strength and speed of the shot as a determining factor in the
production of goals; however, the accuracy of the shot to one of the corners of the goal
plays a fundamental role in the vulnerable conditions of goalkeepers.
• Placing the shot at one of the door angles makes the goalkeepers' task more difficult.
b. Although they recognize the importance as a distinctive quality of the Water Polo
player, precision in the shot on goal, only 30% of the coaches surveyed train shots on
goal with precision requirements as a preparation task. These coaches who express
training as a training task the accuracy of the shot on goal say they do it once a week,
although they admit that they are not aware of an institutionalized work methodology to
train this quality of the technical foundation of the shot on goal.
c. 100% of those surveyed refer that the Water Polo Athlete's Comprehensive
Preparation Program as a guiding document does not guide or conceive the performance
of tests to assess accuracy in the shot at goal.
d. 80% of the coaches surveyed state that they do not know elaborate tests to measure
precision. The remaining 20% state that they have read references in the scientific
literature about tests to measure casting precision, but which in turn lack standardization
protocols, which makes it almost impossible to reproduce the referenced procedure.
Structure of the specialized test used to verify the accuracy of the shot on goal
The structure of the specialized test used to verify the accuracy of the goal throw is
based on the one proposed by Morales (1995). The potential test situation selected is
chosen from the behavioral model of the competitive activity of the high-level Water
Polo player (de la Celda and García, 2016). The test is composed of the chaining of
several game actions that constitutes a microsituation that concludes with a shot on
goal, an aspect considered as the main objective of this work, as well as the object of
study of the research.
Name of the event: Precision shots at goal with both members with the ball from the
water.
Objective of the test: To verify the precision in a shot at goal from the introduction of
the ball into the goal through the holes arranged in the net for precision training.
Task: Throw the ball into goal with the greatest possible precision with each limb
(depleted limb and dominant limb) without performing feints.
Standardization Guidance
First: Carry out a previous warm-up on land and in water. That of water was mainly
made up of the technical foundations that were evaluated in the performance of this test.
Second: Always do it from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.
Third: Once the playing field has been set up with a dimension of 30 meters long by 20
meters wide (official measurements and regulated by FINA). We proceeded to the
location of the signs that allowed the athletes to execute the exercise with perfect
orientation clarity. The athlete positioned himself for the first series of throws at a
distance of 4 meters from the goal, being guided by the line that marks the four meters,
always seeking to find himself in the direction of the center of the gate. He executed
five throws, lifting the ball from the water first with the dominant member and after a
five-minute break he repeats the series respecting the enabled methodology, but with the
member in depletion. To carry out the throws to the goal, a precision training net was
used. (Figure 1) The net has five holes (each of them has a surface area of 40x40
centimeters) distributed as follows:
• Two top angles (right and left)
• Two lower angles (right and left)
• An upper middle zone
This net is placed in one of the goals and the shot is made from the two positions
described above (first series of shots from the penalty spot lifting the ball out of the
water and making the foundation selected first with the dominant member and then
repeated that action making another series of five throws this time with the member in
depletion). Fourth: The exercises were demonstrated to the athlete.
5
1
4
10
6
Figure 1. Pre-set zones in the training network
Fith The test was made in the following way-
Starting position: To perform the first series of throws: position of preparation for
lifting the body ready to execute a shot at goal from four meters (penalty spot).
Procedure: It will be placed on the four-meter line and at the teacher's signal the athlete
must begin to perform the throws, continuously. A player will be located near the player
who will reach the balls to make the throw. This player facilitating the action has the
five balls close to him so that the performer does not have to move to look for them and
thus the concentration of his attention is on the performance of the test.
Once this first series of five pitches is completed, they are given five minutes of rest to
go on to make the second series of pitches. The series must be carried out taking into
account that the player must not repeat the throw to the same hole of the precision net. If
the throw to the same hole of the precision net is repeated, the throw will be annulled
and it will obtain the qualification of zero points.
The first series is carried out with the right-handed member and the second with the
depleted member. The balls that do not penetrate the holes during the attempts made by
the player performing the test receive a score of zero. Only the ball that penetrates
through one of the holes of the precision training net scores for the final result of the
test.
Methodological indications
• Ensure that the requirements implicit in the test are met.
• If the athlete is not able to carry out the sequence of throws continuously as explained
in the description given, due to not being able to catch the ball at the time of executing
the action, he is allowed to continue once he has controlled the ball through his grip.
• Always insist on the correct methodological execution of the test in relation to not
repeating a shot at the same hole in the precision net in the series of throws.
• It is suggested, in order to organize the series of throws and respect the established
methodology to carry out the test, first throw to the holes in the upper area of the goal
(upper left corner, upper central angle, upper right corner) and then to the holes in the
lower area of the door (lower right corner and then lower left corner).
Sixth: It is proceeded to quantify the number of throws scored in the holes delimited by
the precision net used.
Means and Instruments
• Playing field used for official FINA competitions.
• Five Mikaza 6009 Water Polo balls.
• Signs made on a wooden base by placing a flag on its base, a detail that makes it
visible to athletes and coaches, being placed on the edge of the pool.
• Precision training network for shots on goal.
Qualification form
• The shots scored in the holes delimited by the precision net used.The quantity is
quantified noting this in the protocol developed to follow the incidence of the test.A
point rating is awarded to each ball that penetrates for each assigned angle.
Researchers: Three
• Two researchers to ensure compliance with the standardization conditions.One on the
four-meter line and the other observed and specified the number of throws made by the
holes.
• An investigator to record the incidents of the test in the protocol.
Protocol:
Record of shots scored by the player during the test of precision shots on goal with both
members with the ball from the water.
Table 1. Launch control protocol
Player First series of throws Second series of releases
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Acceptance and questionability criteria. Once the test is prepared, it is collected
through the survey for criteria of criteria of selected specialists, about the potentialities
that the procedure presents to achieve the objective for which it is intended. The
opinions offered by the specialists were condensed, grouping and organizing their
relationship into two groups: acceptance criteria and questionability criteria. Criteria o
of acceptance.
a.The selected test is directed and consumes a necessary and unavoidable process of
sports preparation: the control of a very important property that is little controlled by
coaches in the training process.
b. The test execution methodology and its components are within the reach of the
trainers, they do not require a sophisticated apparatus for its implementation.
c. The contents of the tests are selected from the Water Polo player's own training
context. Appropriate exercises were used and typical of the player's work in his sports
specialty, which bases his suitability.
d. The stated methodology to operationalize the test is standardized and functionally
efficient.
e. The declared test can enrich the arsenal of ways of a coach to verify properties and
abilities of the Water Polo player in addition to benefiting the specialized bibliography
on the subject dealt with.
Criteria for questionability.
a.It is suggested to graph the methodologies for carrying out the tests, which contributes
to enriching the analysis that is made about their construction and their application
dynamics.
b. Although it was considered that the declared methodology to operationalize the tests
is standardized and functionally efficient, the setbacks that the nature of the property
that is verified must be taken into account for the validation process.
Basic quality criteria.
García (2017) when referring to the test validation processes reflected on the use of
basic criteria to start a preliminary validation process. In this regard, he stated that there
are moments in which the validation process of a test situation passes in which the
researcher preliminarily assumes basic criteria that he manipulates to conjecture about
the quality of the test. Elements such as:
That accomplish with the content information level (logical). The content analysis of
the level of information by seasoned and experienced specialists in the sport under study
allows the always important question: does the task to develop in the potential test
situation, from the analysis of its content measure what it says to size?
The inclusion of specific content depends on the judgment of the author of the test. An
expert enough person can make a first assessment of what a test measures by examining
its content. This validity is invoked when it becomes immediately apparent that the
condition tests themselves represent the best possible criterion for the conditional
faculty or rationale under study.
Discriminatory validity can be used. Here it is talked firstly about the possibilities of
the test, to point out the minimal differences between the athletes and secondly about
the quality of the tests that ensure that the results obtained in this test unequivocally
demonstrate the presence of the subject. in the range that the test claims to measure,
since no other capacity or attribute of the foundation, other than the one indicated by the
test, could allow to achieve similar results.
Compliance with basic quality criteria
First criterion: Does the constructed test meet the content information level (logical)?
By responding to the estimate endorsement, the specialists are responding to the
problem faced by the researchers in this work, consisting of determining whether the
task set out in the test adequately represents the way to obtain an indicator that
distinguishes the precision in the shot at goal. in youth Water Polo players. 100% of
those surveyed gave a favorable evaluation of what the proposed test measures
considering its content. All responded that the proposed task fully corresponds to the
objective for which it is applied, which is why they awarded the category of efficient to
the content of the test and obtaining an indicator that distinguishes the precision in the
shot at goal in youth players of Water Polo. The test has content information level.
Its practical application allows issuing reliable criteria about the properties of the test to
distinguish it as a procedure.
Second criterion: Is there discriminative validity for the test subjected to preliminary
validation?
Is the result obtained when applying the test capable of pointing out the minimum
differences between the athletes and locating it within a group using the discrimination
tendency of the subjects according to their abilities?
Table 2 below shows the results obtained in the quantitative indices used (efficiency of
the throws and the percentage of defects) to demonstrate the potential of the procedure
to discriminate the athlete in a group from the results of the applied test, we can affirm
the existence of this type of validity as a basic quality criterion.
Table 2. Efficacy of the launches and the Percentage of defects
Athletes Throwing
efficiency
Position occupied within the
group
Percentage of defects Position occupied within the
group
1 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
2 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
3 4 / 10=0,4 1 60 40
4 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
5 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
6 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
7 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
8 3 / 10=0,3 2 70 30
9 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
10 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
11 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
12 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
1 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
2 2 / 10=0,2 3 80 20
Although, due to the characteristics and content of the test, there are several athletes in
the team with the same values of effectiveness and percentage of defects in the throw,
which may not allow in the individuals concentrated in the center of the list of results to
establish with The trend is clear, it is possible to know the most advantaged and the
least advantaged in the controlled foundation.
Other elements that the scoring system manages to provide can be considered in order
to improve the clarification of the trend, which does not affect the content of the
indicator established to measure the quality of the attribute of the rationale for control.
Conclusions
A test was built to verify the precision in the shot on goal in the Water Polo from a
potential situation extracted from the behavioral model of the Water Polo player
called: Precision shots on goal in a penalty situation with both members with the
ball from the water.
The application of the basic scientific-methodological criteria to preliminarily assess
the quality of the constructed test, allowed to affirm that it meets the primary quality
conditions to be considered a test that could reliably verify the precision of the shot
on goal in a situation of Penalty in water polo youth players.
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