Notational Analysis in Sport

Notational analysis is the systematic recording of the discrete events that make up a sporting performance, so that what happened on the field can be turned into objective, quantifiable evidence rather than the fallible recollection of coaches. Mike Hughes and Ian Franks, in their 2004 edited volume Notational Analysis of Sport, codified the discipline: define a coding system of actions, locations, and outcomes; tally events from video or live observation; and derive summary indicators that describe and discriminate performance. Hughes and Bartlett's 2002 paper on performance indicators added the crucial idea that raw counts must be turned into meaningful, normalized indices — and validated against the criterion of distinguishing successful from unsuccessful play — before they can guide coaching. Together these works ground a pipeline that runs from a structured observation scheme through reliable notation to interpretable performance profiles.