Compare methods

	Notational Analysis in Sport	Sequential Behavior Analysis in Sport
Field	Sport Leisure Studies	Sport Leisure Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2004	1997
Originator	Mike Hughes & Ian Franks; Mike Hughes & Roger Bartlett	Roger Bakeman & John M. Gottman
Type	Observational pipeline for systematic recording of match events	Sequential pipeline for transition probabilities of coded behavior streams
Seminal source	Hughes, M., & Franks, I. M. (Eds.). (2004). Notational Analysis of Sport: Systems for Better Coaching and Performance in Sport (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN: 9780415290043	Bakeman, R., & Gottman, J. M. (1997). Observing Interaction: An Introduction to Sequential Analysis (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521574273
Aliases	Match Analysis, Performance Analysis (Notational), Hand Notation Systems, Tactical Notation	Lag Sequential Analysis, Sequential Pattern Analysis, Transition Probability Analysis, T-Pattern Analysis
Related	3	3
Summary	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.	Sequential behavior analysis treats a sporting performance not as a bag of independent events but as an ordered stream in which what happens next depends on what just happened. Drawing on Roger Bakeman and John Gottman's authoritative 1997 text Observing Interaction: An Introduction to Sequential Analysis, the method codes play into a time-ordered sequence of mutually exclusive events, builds a transition matrix counting how often each event is followed by each other event at a given lag, and converts these counts into conditional transition probabilities. Crucially, it tests those probabilities against what would be expected by chance, so that genuinely recurrent patterns of play — the move that reliably leads to a shot, the defensive action that triggers a turnover — can be distinguished from coincidence. Hughes and Bartlett's performance-indicator framework supplies the bridge from these tested sequences to actionable tactical knowledge.