Júlio Garganta

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Porto

The collective homeostasis model, grounded in ecological dynamics, has recently been proposed to explain the self-regulating individual-environment interactions that are necessary to conceptualizing sports teams as collective homeostatic systems. Based on these insights and given the capacity of humans to construct and adapt their ecological niches...

O presente trabalho apresenta uma reflexão sobre o valor estético do desporto, explorando a relação entre os conceitos de mudança e homeostasia, tendo em conta as dinâmicas emergentes e as necessidades evolutivas das equipes desportivas, utilizando como referência o exemplo do futebol. De acordo com a perspetiva do modelo de homeostasia coletiva pr...

Introduction Complex adaptive systems, such as football teams, are inherently chaotic and unstable but tend to settle into a few attractors, representing stable patterns of behavior [1]. This study aims to capture synchronization and cyclic attractors, focusing on players’ distance from the goal. Methods Positional data (2D) of twenty-eight profe...

Since the preparatory movement of a football goalkeeper's dive can be decisive for the outcome of a match, a biomechanical analysis was conducted on three distinct preparatory movement techniques (static, static with split-step and active with split-step) during the goalkeeper’s extension action for a save. The experimental setup consisted of an of...

The present study investigated the defensive performance of Futbol Club Barcelona players in the UEFA Champions League across the seasons 2015-2016 to 2018-2019 with a specific focus on match location (i.e., home, away) and competition stage (i.e., group stage, playoffs). The defensive golden index formula was applied to identify and rank 35 defens...

O desporto no mais alto nível competitivo é uma marca radicalmente humana que necessita de ser refletida, compreendida no tempo e no lugar específico, com as suas diferentes particularidades, sempre dependente da história, do tempo e do lugar do observador. Com isto queremos dizer que da mesma forma que ao analisarmos o desporto descobrimos mais so...

Analysis of synchronisation tendencies in elite football teams is of chief importance since such dynamic processes demonstrate how players manage to coordinate behaviours to achieve common performance goals. Here, we propose a novel method for capturing meso-level synchronisation tendencies considering the angle and distance of simplices (i.e., sub...

Understanding team tactics in football requires an in-depth knowledge of the dynamics emerging in different levels of complexity (micro-meso-macro). During competitive performance, teams tend to form specific subgroups of players that interact more frequently in the attacking and defending sub-phases of play. Therefore, our aim is to analyze and qu...

This paper proposes theoretical insights on how sports teams, conceptualised as homeostatic regulatory systems, can continually self-organise their ongoing interactions to maintain team functioning and organization during competitive performance. In the model, team performance is co-regulated as coordinated behaviours emerge through synergy (re)for...

Social network analysis (SNA) has been increasingly applied to performance analytics in team sports, seeking to better understand the dynamic properties of competitive interactions. Despite considerable potential to analyze individual (micro) and team (macro) behavioral patterns of play, there are important limitations that can undermine the potent...

In this study, we evaluate how anxiety impacts performance effectiveness and efficiency in soccer players using a Virtual Reality (VR) test.

Investigating synchronization tendencies in elite football teams is of paramount importance since such dynamic and emerging processes reveal how interdependent agents (i.e., the players) coordinate behaviours to achieve common performance goals. Traditionally, such processes have been assessed based on separated measures obtained for team-team (e.g...

A novel in-situ approach is developed to examine perceptual-cognitive of football players. The aim of the current study was to analyze the gaze behaviours, perception of effort and defensive tactical performance during game sequences involving 2 vs 1 + goalkeeper. Ten university-level players were evaluated and at the end of each playing sequence,...

The development of perceptual-cognitive skills enhances the ability to identify and process environmental information in order to select and execute the most appropriate actions. These skills are influenced by different interrelated constraints during in situ tasks, which are inherent to specific competitive demands such as the mental-physical work...

We examined the effect of physiological workload on gaze behaviour during defensive performance in 2 vs. 1 +goalkeeper game situations in football. Twenty-two players were assigned to either a high- or low-performing group based on a validated measure of tactical performance. A total of 12 game sequences (trials) were presented under high- and low-...

Water polo is a team sport that has been suffering rule changes aiming for a more attractive game. Our goal was to unveil whether different offensive playing styles or methods were adopted by elite national teams from Eastern Europe and from other world countries after the new rules framework was applied at the 2019 FINA World Championship. Additio...

Traditional talent identification and development programs have sought to identify and select the most promising children as athletes of the future, to provide them with specialised training and preparation for expert performance in sport from an early age. Traditional models of talent identification and development tend to be linear, emphasising t...

Goal scoring has been regarded as the ultimate indicator of offensive success in soccer. Research on patterns that characterize goal-scoring possessions have frequently employed reductionist approaches. This paper aimed to examine the patterns of numerical relations of open-play goal-scoring possessions of the 2014 FIFA™ World Cup winner team. We h...

This study sought to create a formula called the Defensive Golden Index (DGI) that assigns an index to each player according to his individual and collective defensive performance. This method helps identify the best-ranked players in defending play, designated as Defensive Golden Players. The study was organized in two main phases: (1) selection,...

Los procesos de preparación de los jugadores y de los equipos que pretenden alcanzar elevados niveles de prestación han desafiado los límites del rendimento humano, habiéndose recurrido a diversas áreas del conocimiento para refinar las metodologías utilizadas. En los juegos deportivos en general, y en el waterpolo en particular, tanto los científi...

El waterpolo, a semejanza de otros juegos deportivos, se caracteriza por ser un fenómeno complejo de interacción entre dos equipos que, enfrentados, buscan alcanzar la victoria. En cada desafío el objetivo es común a ambas formaciones, creándose un juego de suma cero, o sea, la victoria de un equipo representa necesariamente la derrota del oponente...

BACKGROUND: This paper presents an introduction and brief appraisal of the use of hyper networks metrics and its potential practical application in examining team dynamics' coordination patterns collective sports. AIM: Throughout their critique piece, we highlighted that game analysis, including the hyper network concept, may help overcome the limi...

O polo aquático, a par de outros jogos desportivos, é um jogo de invasão cuja complexidade se deve à grande variedade de ações que ocorrem numa partida. Assim, o processo de formação de um jogador de bom nível é bastante prolongado, especialmente no que diz respeito ao desenvolvimento das qualidades comportamentais necessárias à resolução eficaz do...

As frequentes e variadas tomadas de decisão, a imprevisibilidade, a aleatoriedade e a interação de comportamentos, são algumas das caraterísticas que tecem a natureza sistémica e complexa do jogo de futebol. Neste cenário, com o passar dos anos tem-se tornado uma evidência que as equipas que conseguem atingir melhores resultados em competição são a...

Researchers in soccer match analysis have been using limited procedures to express the dynamics of the game and mainly focus on the attack. Therefore, the aims of this paper were to detect the successful teams’ ball recovery defensive patterns of play and study the influence of tactical modelling, halves, match status, opponent quality and stage co...

Shooting performance of globally ranked winning, drawing and losing water polo teams was compared, and technical and tactical success indicators were identified. In total, 886 shots from a world championship final round were videotaped and teams were clustered for a performance evaluation (considering differences between game outcomes). Shooting sp...

The aim of this study was to systematically review the current literature that has investigated the relationships between anthropometric and physical fitness characteristics and match-play running demands in female and male soccer players at youth and senior levels. Using PRISMA guidelines, four databases were searched: PubMed/NCBI, Web of Science...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the independent and interactive effects of situational variables, opposition team formation, and playing position on running performance and network analysis in Brazilian professional soccer players (n=22). Global Positioning System technology was used to determine total distance covered, mean speed, max...

Previous work has sought to explain team coordination using insights from theories of synergy formation in collective systems. Under this theoretical rationale, players are conceptualised as independent degrees of freedom, whose interactions can become coupled to produce team synergies, guided by shared affordances. Previous conceptualisation from...

Understanding team behaviours in sports performance requires understanding the interdependencies established between their levels of complexity (micro-meso-macro). Previously, most studies examined interactions emerging at micro- and macro-levels, thus neglecting those emerging at a meso-level (reveals connections between player and team levels, de...

Research has revealed how inherent self-organizing tendencies in athletes and sports teams can be exploited to facilitate emergence of dynamical patterns in synergy formation in sports teams. Here, we discuss how game models, and associated tactical principles of play, may be implemented to constrain co-existing global-to-local and local-to-global...

Despite its importance in many academic fields, traditional scientific methodologies struggle to cope with analysis of interactions in many complex adaptive systems, including team sports. Inherent features of such systems (e.g. emergent behaviours) require a more holistic approach to measurement and analysis for understanding system properties. Co...

Aim: To analyze success and failure of offensive sequences and the adopted offensive method in under-15 (U-15) and under-17 (U-17) soccer players. Methods: The sample was composed of 218 offensive sequences performed by U-15 and U-17 players selected from 28 matches, being 18 matches of an Italian team and 10 matches of a Brazilian team. All offen...

Research in sports sciences is increasingly focusing on the effects caused by the manipulation of constraints regarding to the perceptual-cognitive skills underlying decision-making. This paper intends to clarify some of the research routes, methodologies used and scientific contributions about perceptual-cognitive skills in soccer. It has been obs...

The present study aimed to investigate how team’s tactical behavior varies within and between age categories in different Small-Sided and Conditioned Games’ configurations and conditions. Twenty non-elite youth male soccer players (U15, n = 10, mean age = 13.5 ± 1.2 years; U17, n = 10, mean age = 16.3 ± 0.5 years) were selected. Thirty-six Small-Si...

The research about soccer defensive phase shows many limitations regarding the procedures and operational definitions. The aims of this paper are to create an observational instrument based on Dynamic Systems concepts and evidence sufficient content validity to adequately and reliably recode defensive soccer behaviours. For these, a five-stage deve...

This study aimed to analyse the effect of game format and age-group on positioning and displacement of soccer players (age ranging from 6.94 ± 0.7 to 13.46 ± 0.5 years; height ranging from 125.36 ± 6.04 to 159.16 ± 7.78 cm; weight ranging from 27.16 ± 5.75 to 49.89 ± 8.89 kg). Linear and non-linear analyses were used to capture the spatial distribu...

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of different pitch surfaces (artificial turf, natural turf and dirt field) on positioning and displacement of young soccer players (age: 13.4 ± 0.5 yrs; body height: 161.82 ± 7.52 cm; body mass: 50.79 ± 7.22 kg and playing experience: 3.5 ± 1.4 yrs). Data were collected using GPS units which allowed t...

Background: Street football can be understood as the most natural way to learn football and it can be a great starting point to develop perceptual, decisional, tactical and motor skills. Importantly, players involved in Street football may develop a strong emotional bond to the game through their experiences playing in an informal setting and event...

O objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar a produção científica referente aos aspectos tático-técnicos nos JEC publicada em periódicos brasileiros entre 2000 e 2015. Por meio da busca online em 14 revistas, foram selecionados 335 artigos. Os trabalhos foram classificados nas seguintes categorias temáticas: Análise do desempenho tático-técnico, Met...

AIMS The aim of this study was to verify how European countries manage the type of game variants and their frequency during different age groups of youth competition. METHODS Data were collected from the official rules of youth football championships. To identify countries homogenous groups according to their game variants, Two Step Cluster Analys...

This study aims to analyse the effect of different pitch surface, i.e. artificial turf (AT), natural turf (NT) and dirt field (DF) on running activity and technical demands of young soccer players (age:13.4 ± 0.5yrs; height: 161.82 ± 7.52cm; body mass; 50.79 ± 7.22kg; and playing experience: 3.5 ± 1.4 yrs). Running activity data were collected usin...

This paper discusses how social network analyses and graph theory can be implemented in team sports performance analyses to evaluate individual (micro) and collective (macro) performance data, and how to use this information for designing practice tasks. Moreover, we briefly outline possible limitations of social network studies and provide suggest...

Aim The main aim of this study was to identify the effects of match location, quality of opponents and match status on possession during the 2015/16 Season of England Premier League. Methods Three hundred and eighty matches played by 20 teams were analysed. For each match, two values were recorded, resulting in 760 observations. Results Teams who...

p>Tactical behavior could be affected by changes in small-sided game (SSG) formats. The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of different pitch lengths during 7-a-side SSGs played by young football players. Fourteen male soccer players in each age group (13 and 14 years old, U13 and U14 teams) were divided in two teams of seven pla...

Water polo is one relevant sport but lagged behind on scientific research due to nonconsensual evaluation methodologies and game’s situational nature (Lupo et al., 2010). Still, notational game analysis has expanded, particularly focusing on team sport technical and tactical variables (Lupo et al., 2012 ; Canossa et al., 2016). It was observed that...

Visual search behavior was examined in situ according to high and low defensive tactical performance of soccer players. Ten university soccer players (24.25±2.51yrs) were evaluated. The field tests consisted of 2 v 1+GK small-sided conditioned game tasks. Player´s defensive tactical performance was assessed based on core tactical principles of socc...

The present study aimed to identify attacking game-patterns during small-sided games played by under-17 football players. SoccerEye observational protocol and recording software were applied in order to register the data, and SDIS-GSEQ software was used to perform the sequential analysis of the 260 attacking sequences. We have adopted a significanc...

O presente estudo analisou padrões de jogo ofensivos em situações de pequenos jogos praticados por jogadores de futebol sub-17. Recorreu-se ao protocolo de observação e software SoccerEye para o registo dos dados, e o software SDIS-GSEQ para a Análise Sequencial de Retardos das 260 sequências ofensivas recolhidas. Para a análise dos padrões de jogo...

The aim of this study was to evaluate and organize systematically the available literature on skill-related performance in young and adult male soccer players, in an attempt to identify the most common topics, ascertain the weaknesses and elucidate the main contributions of the scientific papers on this issue. A systematic review of Institute for S...

Small-sided and conditioned games (SSCGs) in sport have been modelled as complex adaptive systems. Research has shown that the relative space per player (RSP) formulated in SSCGs can impact on emergent tactical behaviours. In this study we adopted a systems orientation to analyse how different RSP values, obtained through manipulations of player nu...

This study aimed to identify potential differences regarding tactical behaviour and performance between futsal and soccer players. A total of 96 players were assessed (48 futsal players and 48 soccer players), from U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-20 age groups. Twelve players from each age group were assessed. The instrument used was the System of tactical...

This study aimed to identify potential differences regarding tactical behaviour and performance between futsal and soccer players. A total of 96 players were assessed (48 futsal players and 48 soccer players), from U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-20 age groups. Twelve players from each age group were assessed. The instrument used was the System of tactical...

We have evaluated water polo vertical jump and shooting success determinants, their interplay, identified its main variables and proposed a predictive model. Twenty-two sub-elite players (23.23±7.22yrs and 13.0±5.4yrs of experience) were tested for absolute vertical jump (146.41±6.96cm), relative jump (considering trunk and upper limb length) and h...

O estudo objetivou comparar comportamentos táticos de jogadores de futsal das categorias sub‐13, sub‐15, sub‐17 e sub‐20. O teste usado foi o FUT‐SAT, que avalia ações táticas de acordo com os princípios do jogo. A partir das diferenças significativas entre as categorias, verificou‐se que nas maiores os jogadores efetuaram mais ações táticas relati...

The present study aims to compare players' tactical behaviour in 3v3 and 6v6 soccer small-sided games (SSGs). The sample comprised 3,482 tactical actions performed by 18 U-11 youth soccer players from a Portuguese club, in 3v3 and 6v6 SSGs. All participants played eight minutes in both situations and field size was adapted according to the number o...

O presente estudo teve por objetivo verificar a influência do efeito da idade relativa no desempenho tático de jogadores de futebol da categoria sub‐13. A amostra foi constituída por 56 jogadores de futebol da categoria sub‐13. Os jogadores foram agrupados de acordo com seu trimestre de nascimento. Recorreu‐se ao instrumento FUT‐SAT para avaliar o...

The aim of this study was to verify which predictor of visual search behavior could explain the variance of anticipation performance in elite and non-elite soccer players. Sixteen soccer players were separated into two groups of eight each at elite level and non-elite level. Different test films were created for each one comprising ten different of...

The relative space per player formulated in small-sided and conditioned games can be manipulated either by promoting variations in player numbers or by modifying field dimensions. In this study we analysed how the same relative spaces per player, obtained through manipulations of player numbers and field dimensions, influenced inter-individual coor...

The present study aimed to evaluate the offensive behaviors performed by the six national soccer teams participating of the finals on 2006 World Cup and 2004 and 2008 Euro Cup, using the sequential analysis by the Lag Method, in order to verify the different offensive game patterns. There were evaluated 647 offensive game sequences. It was used the...

Soccer dynamics have evolved in response to environmental factors such as match status, type of competition, and competition stage. Observational analysis has shed light into the behavior of players, but few researchers have looked at the complexity of the interactions between players and their teams over time. Here we investigated the variables in...

Soccer dynamics have evolved in response to environmental factors such as match status, type of competition, and competition stage. Observational analysis has shed light into the behavior of players, but few researchers have looked at the complexity of the interactions between players and their teams over time. Here we investigated the variables in...

The functional asymmetry of the lower limbs has been regarded as a relevant factor of the performance of football players. We purposed to ascertain whether a specific technical training programme for the non-preferred foot has implications in the increasing utilisation rate of the respective member during the game. Young football players (n = 71) w...

The functional asymmetry of the lower limbs has been regarded as a relevant factor of the performance of football players. We purposed to ascertain whether a specific technical training programme for the non-preferred foot has implications in the increasing utilisation rate of the respective member during the game. Young football players (n = 71) w...

The functional asymmetry of the lower limbs has been considered an important factor in the performance of soccer players. In this sense, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of specific technical training for non-preferred foot on its utilization rate during the game; and to investigate if interruption of a technical training progra...

The relative space per player formulated in small-sided and conditioned games can be manipulated either by promoting variations in player numbers or by modifying field dimensions. In this study we analysed how the same relative spaces per player, obtained through manipulations of player numbers and field dimensions, influenced inter-individual coor...

Soccer is a predominantly tactical sport and tactical skills are particularly important for enhancing performance, since the actions are unpredictable, thus forcing players to constantly adapt to the situations. Our aim is to compare the tactical behaviour and performance of soccer players in 3v3 and 5v5 small-sided games (SSGs). The sample compris...

This study analysed the influence of field dimension and players’ skill level on collective tactical behaviours during small-sided and conditioned games (SSCGs). Positioning and displacement data were collected using global positioning systems (15 Hz) during SSCGs (Gk+4 v. 4+Gk) played by two groups of participants (NLP- national-level and RLP-regi...

In Association Football, the study of variability in players' movement trajectories during performance can provide insights on tactical behaviours. This study aimed to analyse the movement variability present in: i) the players' actions zones and ii), distances travelled over time, considered as a player's positional spatial reference. Additionally...

Similar to other complex systems in nature (e.g., a hunting pack, flocks of birds), sports teams have been modeled as social neurobiological systems in which interpersonal coordination tendencies of agents underpin team swarming behaviors. Swarming is seen as the result of agent co-adaptation to ecological constraints of performance environments by...

We aimed to describe and compare the general morphological, somatotype and training background characteristics of Iberian waterpolo players (22 Portuguese and 22 Spanish National Teams players) considering their playing positions. The International Working Group of Kinanthropometry guidelines was herein followed, and a somatochart was obtained thro...

The water polo shot skill, beyond technical and biomechanical constraints, is engaged to the strength capability of the shooter and its ability to grip the ball. This last, is important for the ball release velocity in the throw (1) and fastest shots increase the defensive difficulty to the opponent goalkeeper (2), which can be an advantage for the...

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1980-0037.2014v16n5p545 The attacking performance in elite soccer is a complex process that is influenced by several situational variables, such as match status. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of match status on the configuration of attacking patterns of play performed by elite soccer te...

The water polo shot skill, beyond technical and biomechanical constraints, is engaged to the strength capability of the shooter and its ability to grip the ball. This last, is important for the ball release velocity in the throw(1) and fastest shots increase the defensive difficulty to the opponent goalkeeper(2), which can be an advantage for the t...

The experience is as an important predictor of the football coach efficacy. To study its relevance in valuation of efficacy factors we used the CESp (Duarte et al., 2010), an adapted version of the Coaching Efficacy Scale (CES), of Feltz et al. (1999), in a sample of 60 football coaches from different competitive levels working in Portugal, which w...

The present study aimed to compare players' tactical behaviour in 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 soccer small-sided games (SSGs). The sample comprised 3,482 tactical actions performed by 18 U-11 youth soccer players from a Portuguese club, in 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 SSGs. All participants played eight minutes in both situations and field size was adapted accordin...

The throwing ability is identified as one of the most decisive actions in the game. The high level competitions are ideal moments to study the elite performance. The purpose of the present study was: (i) to find if there are differences of shooting speed between Australian national team and the finalists of the 2013 world championships; (ii) to fin...

The throwing ability is identified as one of the most decisive actions in the game. The high level competitions are ideal moments to study the elite performance. The purpose of the present study was: (i) to find if there are differences of shooting speed between Australian national team and the finalists of the 2013 world championships; (ii) to fin...