Unit 5 Research Project Worthing College Sports Science Cameron McIvor 2015

Unit 5 Research Project

Worthing College Sports ScienceCameron McIvor

2015

Assessment Criteria Pages 3-17 & 27-38

• P2: carry out sport science or exercise science-based research

• P3: collect and record data from the research project conducted

• M2: correctly analyse collected data, describing techniques used

• D1: correctly analyse data, explaining techniques used

• P4: produce a full research report using a standard scientific structure

The importance of height in relation to how many points are

scored in the NBA.

P2: Carry out / P4: Produce

Abstractmy aim was To investigate into the importance of height when trying to score points as an NBA point guard. I hunted the internet using just desk researching methods to find accurate sources of data that show the two most active point guards, (from each franchise) and the amount of points they managed to score in the NBA regular session. From looking at the final set of results I can conclude that being taller as a point guard will actually have a negative affect on the amount of points they manage to score, this is in comparison to the larger amount of points that smaller point guards score over the regular session.


Contents: GeneralPage 1: Title pagePage 2,18: Assessment criteria Page 3: AimPage 4: AbstractPage 5: Contents generalPage 6: Contents appendicesPage 7: Contents figures and tables Page 8: AcknowledgmentsPage 9: IntroductionPage 10: Literature reviewPage 11: Project hypothesesPage 12: Method Page 13: Data collectionPage 14: Data analysisPage 15: Results Page 16: DiscussionPage 17: Conclusion Page 19,20,21 ReviewPage 22,23,24,25,26 Future recommendations


Contents: Appendices 1) http://www.nba.com/

2) http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/scoring-per-game/sort/avgPoints/position/point-guards/count/41

3) http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/rosede01.html

4) I used the Google search engine to gather all point guard height data

http://www.nba.com/

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/scoring-per-game/sort/avgPoints/position/point-guards/count/41

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/rosede01.html

Contents: Figures and Tables

Page 27: Research project figures and tablesPage 28: Spearman table for point guards in the NBA, showing points scored over the regular session.Page 29: Scatter graph showing scoring data.


Acknowledgements

All of my research has been desk related and I had no contactwith any of the point guard participants because they areprofessional basketball athletes playing in the NBA located inAmerica, because I live in the UK this makes it an impossible taskto gain my data directly from the players/teams themselves, thisis why I have used desk research to find websites that displayedthe data I required. Because they allowed this project to happenby providing the data I feel the websites linked into my appendicespage deserve the acknowledgment as no one else was involved orcontributed to working on this research project.


IntroductionBy the end of my research project I aim to successfully investigate into the importance of height in relation to how many points are scored by point guards in a full regular NBA session.

This aim was chosen because basketball is always a sport I have been very interested and participated in throughout my life, being a point guard myself I felt that basing my research project on this specific topic will hopefully show me accurate results that will act as useful data which I can then use to benefit myself and the wider researching community that is interested in my project of sporting related research.

I started the beginning of the NBA research project on the 15th of march and will end it on the 16th of April, this time scale covers the entire duration of the whole project however the timescale was split up and organized into sections so that specific amounts of time could then allocated for each main objective and phase of the research project to be completed within, before the next planned segment of the project begins. I decided to use the first two weeks of the project to investigated into reliable sources of information that could be used as data needed for the NBA point guards, once this phase was completed the rest of the time in the program was dedicated to collecting, analyzing and displaying the relevant data into this Unit 5 research project power point before discussing, reviewing and learning from the results.


Literature Review and References

http://writing/types-of-writing/literature-review


http://writing/types-of-writing/literature-review

Project Hypothesis

My hypotheses are as follow

1)Basketball point guards who are taller will score more points throughout the season on average than shorter point guards will. 2) The scoring data will show that the top three highest scoring point guards throughout the NBA season will all be classed as tall point guards.


Method

P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques

I conducted this research project by starting with a planning phase, this was where I decided upon what I was going to be investigating into, (height and its relevance to points being scored by point guards) to get all necessary information about the research project such as SMART targets, project objectives and other factors such as scope, legal/ethical limitations and constraints that need to be addressed and dealt with correctly, making sure all these issues were all covered in the project template planning sheet so when the project begins the template can be used as a reference point when needed as all necessary information would be outlined clearly within the template. Next I looked into how to source the NBA guards scoring, height and team information, finally I deciding to use only desk research methods because I was focusing on NBA players who I wouldn’t be able to have any communication or access to, this is because I live in the UK and they play basketball in America, however because they are all famous athletes I am able to access such information as point guard height and total points scored by each point guards over the regular season by using the internet. Just before I gathered all my data I set my hypotheses, which was me estimating what will be the outcome from the results after all data has been gathered and analysed. Once I managed to source and gather the reliable and accurate websites which contained the relevant data needed, I then proceeded to use the data I gathered by adding it all Into an excel graph and tables which were created to display the data, using these data grouping and displaying methods it makes it a lot easier to then analyse and draw conclusions from what can be seen in the results. Once all of the point guard’s data was gathered and placed into its correct format similarity's and differences can then be looked into and point guards will be compared against each other to see how much difference height has made, if any, when looking at how many points each point guard managed to score over the season. At this point in the research project I started to conclude by writing up exactly what happened and how, filling out each step onto this PowerPoint document, by explain each section of the projects own method and having a clear outline showing how the project was conducted and the requirements needed, will allow the project to be run smoothly with an easy reference point if needed, people can use information given in the method to create there own projects or to re-follow the outlined steps so that they are able to investigate into the importance of height in basketball using the same method. Once I began to complete the result and review sections I re-visited my original hypotheses to see if my predictions where inaccurate or accurate, I decided to then incorporate this into the review section so that its clear for others to see how precise my predictions were, I also explained why i made the decisions I did about the hypotheses, once this was complete I filled out my completed abstract and future recommendations for the research project, just before linking in my literacy review which covers all the sources of abstract and internet websites that I used, each source was used to guide or inform me at some point throughout the research project.

Data CollectionBecause I am looking into the NBA and two active point guards from each franchise within the NBA I will be needing to use just desk based research when gathering the scoring and height data I need, this is because all these basketball players are full time professional athletes who live and play basketball in America, however I live in the UK this makes it impossible for me to get any personal one to one time with any of the athletes or their team coaches, unfortunately I don’t have the time or funds to be able to embark on such a project. Because I am limited to just desk research I decided to extract data from credible sources as secondary research, secondary research was the only method I used to gather all the data I needed for this research project to be completed. I felt as I have no direct access to the basketball players themselves the best alternative was to locate reliable websites that I could trust and source my data from. This was very time consuming as many sites showed clear signs of misinformation or incomplete sets of information that didn’t amount to much, however as I pressed on checking more webpage's I was able to locate the legitimate data I was in need of. All data I gather will be quantitative research as its all numerical based, focusing purely on point guard’s heights and amount of points they each score, I haven't included any qualitative research in this project what so ever. Nominal and ordinal will be both types of data I will have involved in the data collection phase of this project, however as the project advances into data analysis only nominal will be used. Comparative research into the two main variables involved in the project, (height and points scored) will be used during this section when identifying relative information. This will allow me to judged/estimate by looking at the similarity or dissimilarity between the two variables, this was useful when thinking about my hypotheses.


Data AnalysisThe data I gather will be placed into a spearman table and scatter graph, the data being shown in the spearman table will show a correlation between height and the importance it plays when scoring baskets in the NBA as a point guard, the spearman table will show exactly how relevant height is by viewing the point guards over 82 scheduled games that each franchise will participate throughout the regular session. By using excel I am able to view each point guards height against the amount of point they have managed achieve over the session, once all active point guards, (two from each franchise) have been accounted for an overall judgment will be made, excel can be used to process all the data from each guard to produce a calculated finalized answer to the question of how relevant height was when scoring points for all these point guards over the 2014-15 NBA session, the data will also show us to exactly what extent is height important. The scatter graph will be used as more of a visual aid, the plotting system set out onto the graph will be used to show the relationship between the two main factors being investigated into height and points scored. This graph will be based on the same data as the spearman table and will be a reflection showing the same results however the visual layout of the scatter graph will make it easier for people to view the data and being able to inform themselves almost instantly when looking at the scatter graph plots and the line of best fit. My data type as stated before in my project are Nominal and ordinal data however at this point in the research project when the data is being analysed and point guards are no longer being viewed in there relative position this section of the work is purely nominal data and is focusing on the categorizing and importance of the final set of data gathered up and calculated from all point guard points scored in relation to their height, an overall judgment can be made. Range, mean, median and mode will also all be used once looking at the final set of completed results, this is because they can be very effective ways of organizing important facts that can be found within the data, they can show averages, most frequent, and differences between point guards final results in the data, this in turn will make the conclusion and judgment sections easier to answer as these handy methods of analyzing the data will let me see similarities, differences and common trends found in the data. However range, mean, median and mode will only be used for this reason and should not be used to try and draw direct relationships between height and points scored.

basic way of organizing data no relationship


ResultsTo my surprise the data results in the spearman table and scatter graph show clearly that there is no correlation between height and points scored by point guards what so ever. The spearman rank order shows a final result of -2.63, this shows that there is no connection between being taller and scoring more points as a professional NBA point guard, in fact quite the opposite is seen on the scatter graph, the line of best fit incorporated into the graph shows that the shorter point guards tended to score more points over the regular session than taller point guards, in fact some of the lowest scoring point guards where all taller than 1.95 meters. When looking at the scatter graph I can see that the shortest point guards scored many more points than the tallest point guards managed to achieve over the session. Of cause when looking at the data there are players who stand out as exceptions from this data scoring many points as a tall point guard, however when looking at the scatter graph a clear decreasing shift can be seen in points being scored as the point guards increase in height.

When organizing the data gathered I was able to use excel to calculate the mean, mode, median and range for the point guards heights and points they all each managed to score over the regular session.


Discussion


As I have just previously shown in the results section there is absolutely no correlation shown between height and points scored by point guards in the data gathered from the 2014-15 NBA session. This was an incredibly strange result that I was in no way expecting, as a result of this both of my hypotheses were instantly proven wrong once I had finished analysing the data. The only explanation that I can think of for this strange set of results is that this group of NBA smaller point guards may be technically more advanced and suited to there point guard position for example, more advanced basketball skills or having other attributes at a higher level than taller point guards, (for example speed), could be used to balance/make up for some of the point guards smaller statures. All these other possible uncontrollable variables may be the main cause for this strange result.

ConclusionMy aim was to investigate into, ‘The importance of height in relation to how many points are scored in the NBA’. I have completed this aim to the best of my ability and have found that having a taller height doesn’t have an affect on the amount of points scored by NBA point guards what so ever. This was a very strange set of results that I wasn’t expecting to see as both my hypotheses were based purely on my own personal opinion, they claimed that taller point guards would be the athletes to score more points however quite the opposite was shown in the spearman table and scatter graph that I created, as the majority of smaller point guards where outscoring taller point guards over the session. I feel my results are very accurate as all my data sources where reliable recognized research pages, and the amount of data I gathered on the two most active point guards from each franchise is enough to give a large enough scope which in turn acted as an accurate representation of the entire NBA point guard league. This NBA project has really opened my eyes and allowed me to get a further understanding into sport based research, I have also come to the realization that these research questions aren't as clean cut as they may seem, my hypotheses couldn’t have been any more of an inaccurate representation of how the final results actually turned out to be, this has taught me not to make quick judgments based on assumptions that have no prior evidence to support them. P2: Carry out / P4: Produce

Assessment Criteria Pages 19-26

• P5: carry out a review of the research project conducted, describing strengths, areas for improvement and future recommendations.

• M3: carry out a review of the research project, explaining strengths, areas for improvement and future recommendations.

• D2: carry out a review of the research project, justifying future recommendations for further research.

Review (1/3)I feel that the analysing section of my research project worked extremely well for example I feel that the spearman table was an ideal format to collate and examine my data effectively, the functions of excel really helped me when working out the level of correlation between height and points scored by the point guards. The spearman tables functions allowed me to get an accurate calculation automatically once all the data was added to the table. Excels tools also made creating a scatter graph showing the same data very easy, I didn’t have to make the graph from scratch I simply selected a few buttons and excel placed an accurate copy of the data into a scatter graph instantly; excel was a real help to me throughout this project.

P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Review (2/3)I feel that a real strength of my project was that I had almost no equipment throughout this project and yet through the use of only desk based secondary research, I was able to keep the budget needed for any possible equipment or staff to none. Working on the project alone from a computer with internet access that I have had functioning long before the research project began means that I have had no expenses to pay for, or people to rely on at any point during this project. Although this added to the work load for myself to bare, I felt pleased as I alone had complete control over how the project was planed and carried out.


Review (3/3)A problem with my research project was the quality of sources available to me, although all the sources I used and referenced in this project were all factually accurate many of them fell short of the data expectation I had for them. Many websites I visited throughout the project would only have selected point guards from some teams and not others, and some of the point guards placed into the secondary data I was reading would have spaces where information should be but isn't. This hole process was quite frustrating as it took a long time to gather each franchises two point guards data.


Future Recommendations (1/5)A future recommendation would be to change the participants involved in the research project, although I think that gathering scoring data about NBA players, who are the highest elite level of basketball players in the world is very useful and relevant data that can inform me and the wider researching community who would also be interested in the project because of the high level of basketball that’s being researched into, it can be useful information for everyone interested and viewing NBA matches and will also help lower performance level people training at basketball who want to aspire to reach a professional level within the sport.However although this information would be useful to a wider range of people I feel that lowering the performance level requirements for basketball and looking within a more local/accessible area and basketball clubs that can be studied and monitored with a lot more ease as contact with the basketball players and coach/assistance to the club will be able to answer and help out with the data collection phase, I found that when I was looking for data showing statistics of points scored by multiple active point guards over a full NBA season that sourcing a legitimate and complete set of data showing these points scored was extremely difficult and time consuming, however I was eventually able to find the correct sources needed for my project.

P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Future Recommendations (2/5)A future recommendation would be to allow the use of other research methods other than just using secondary research as I did in this research project. I feel that being able to have the contact of talking directly to the participants or coach’s of participants that are involved in future research projects is the ideal way to gather accurate data straight from it’s original source. I feel that because I only used desk research methods I felt I was cut off from a range of other sources which could have given me the correct data needed to support my project. This hindered me throughout the data collection phase when looking for a reliable source of information for my project and was very time consuming. Having a more direct approach of gathering data from a local basketball teams for example, (Worthing thunder) would make the project a lot easier as the team still plays a high standard of basketball and would also have all information I need about player scoring available to me.


Future Recommendations (3/5)A future recommendation would be to get more research's involved with the project, I worked on this project on my own and sourcing the data for all the different players and teams took a very large section of my time as I wanted to make sure all data was from a reliable source that had been checked thoroughly. My future recommendation to solve this issue would be to gain more research members who would be willing to travel long distances or spend their time using desk research methods to help gather all the data that is needed for the research project to be able to analyse from looking at the evidence gathered to help justify or disprove the project hypothesis and main research purpose, (seeing if height makes a difference in a point guard’s scoring ability).


Future Recommendations (4/5)Taking longer to create a larger scope, involving more basketball leagues in so that comparisons can be made and the research will cover a larger span of people and will be making judgments from larger amounts of data, this means the data will be viewed by the wider researching community as very relevant and can be very useful for people such as Talent ID scouts who would be able to use this data to re-evaluate the requirements they look for when scouting for basketball point guards, the decisions made will be influenced if the research project has a wide enough scope to be deemed as an accurate representation of basketball point guard community. The benefit of having a larger scope by incorporating more than one basketball league will hopefully show evidence in the data that can be used to support the chosen hypothesis, if a common trend showing the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of height in point guards when scoring is shown in multiple leagues then the research project results can be viewed as an accurate representation of the point guard community, this is because the larger scope will be covering many large groups of basketball players who perform at different performance levels within the sport; this will make the data more relevant to a wider range of basketball players who perform at different standards.


Future Recommendations (5/5)Expand the length of time that the research project last for, for example instead on viewing all chosen point guards and the points they have managed to scored over one full regular session, a more useful amount of data that is a lot more representative of the point guard population and relevant if the research project was viewing the same basketball league over three regular session. By viewing the importance of height over a three year period strong indications will be seen, they will lead to a more supported and structured research project which has used a lot more time to collate three years worth of scoring data which will act as a substantial amount of evidence, this will in turn either support or oppose the chosen project hypothesis. Other researchers from the wider sporting community will also take the research project a lot more seriously if it has been run over a long period of time and has managed to gather large amounts of accurate data which will show the importance oh height when scoring in basketball as a point guard, this source of information can then be used by people such as talent ID scouts, they may use the results to re-evaluate their set chosen requirements when looking for young people to scout and train into high standard basketball players.


Research Project Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables 1 2014-15 SESSION

Figures and Tables 2

Documents

Unit 5 Research Project Worthing College Sports Science Cameron McIvor 2015