The Economics of Sport
  • Sports Economics
  • About
  • Workshop
  • Selected Publications
  • Book Reviews
  • A Primer on Gaelic Games
  • Upcoming Events
  • Media
  • Education
  • Resources & Links
  • Data

Keep It Simple, Stupid

2/12/2013

0 Comments

 
By John Considine
During my gaelic football playing days I had the perverse pleasure of listening to strange conversation between our full-back and a member of the management team.  Our full-back had problems with his ankles during the season.  As a result, he had taken to wearing ankle-high rugby boots to support his ankle.  The player was explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the rugby boots to the member of the management team.   The full-back said the main disadvantage of the rugby boots was he got no direction with his clearances.  The member of the management team did not see that as a disadvantage.  He said to the player “You are a defender. What direction do you need on your clearances?”  It seems that less is expected of players in such defensive roles.  I was reminded of this story when I read a paper by Alex Bryson, Bernd Frick and Rob Simmons that was published  in the December 2013 issue of the Journal of Sports Economics.  The authors think a little like the member of the management team as I will explain later.
Picture
In a previous posting (here) I presented the results from the paper. The paper examines the difference in salaries for players depending on whether they are predominantly right-footed, left-footed, or able to play equally well with both feet.  The authors found there was a premium for players that were equally good with both feet.
 
The paper offers some wonderful ideas for discussion.  The authors present their ideas when motivating their study and discussing their results.  Some of the reasons they suggest might lead two-footed players to be paid a premium are likely to get some opposition, as well support, from football fans.

There is a discussion about the relationship between mental and physical characteristics.  One could fill an off-season with the possibilities!!!  The authors rely on a paper by Kevin Denny and Vincent O’Sullivan that discusses the relationship between handedness and IQ.  They proceed to link handedness to footedness and link IQ to sporting intelligence. This is super conversation material for sports fans.  It might help explain why we hear commentators talk about players having “an educated left foot” but rarely hear about a player having "an educated right foot”.  (One of the paper’s author is no stranger to the examining the link between measures of intelligence and sporting ability.  A widely cited paper by Rob Simmons and David Berri examined the predictive power of the Wonderlic IQ test used on NFL quarterbacks.)

Another talking point from the 2013 Journal of Sports Economics paper is the claim that footedness is not important for goalkeepers.  Bryson, Frick and Simmons classify players as defenders, forwards, goalkeepers, and midfielders.  However, goalkeepers are dropped from their analysis.  Why?  According to the authors, “goalkeepers are excluded as footedness is not especially relevant for their performance”.  Because of the availability bias, fans are likely to point to the high profile goalkeeping mistakes from a week ago – although both mistakes are not really about footedness.  Southampton’s Artur Boruc gets his feet mixed up (view it here).  Spurs Hugo Lloris has a poor clearance a couple of seconds into their game against Manchester City (view it here).
 
Let us return to the way the authors model defenders.  Although the authors clearly say that being adept with both feet is an advantage, they do say there are some positions in which “being a predominately one-footed player could be an advantage”.  The positions the authors list as possibly benefiting from a one-sided player are left-back and right-back.  Why would a left-back or right-back be better off being predominately one-footed?  Surely it is an unambiguous advantage to be two-footed.  A two-footed player can do all the things a one-footed player can do.  And, they can do a bit more.

So why can't the authors avoid the trap of claiming that a one-footed player might have an advantage in these defensive positions?  I believe it arises from the common perception of the mental capacity of defenders.  Rather than trusting the defender to make to appropriate decision about what foot to use (and associated decisions) the common perception is that the defender can't make these decisions correctly.  Maybe a two-footed defender is over confident and misjudges the risk-return trade-off.  This would explain why a well-worn phrase in sport is "Keep it simple, Stupid".

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    About

    This website was founded in July 2013.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    American Football
    Athletics
    Baseball
    Basketball
    Behavioural Economics
    Boxing
    Broadcasting
    Competitive Balance
    Cricket
    Cycling
    Darts
    David Butler
    Declan Jordan
    Drugs
    Ed Valentine
    Epl
    Esports
    Expenditure
    F1
    Fifa World Cup
    Finances
    Funding
    Gaa
    Gaelic Games
    Gambling
    Game Theory
    Gary Burns
    Geography
    Golf
    Greyhound Racing
    Guest Posts
    Horse Racing
    Impact Studies
    John Considine
    John Eakins
    League Of Ireland
    Location
    Media
    Mls
    Mma
    Olympics
    Participation
    Paul O'Sullivan
    Premier League
    Regulation
    Research
    Robbie Butler
    Rugby
    Simpsonomics
    Snooker
    Soccer
    Spatial Analysis
    Sporting Bodies
    Stephen Brosnan
    Swimming
    Taxation
    Teaching
    Technology
    Tennis
    Transfers
    Uefa
    Ufc
    World Cup
    Wwe

Related

The website is not formally affiliated to any institution and all of the entries represent the personal views and opinions of an individual contributor. The website operates on a not-for-profit basis. For this reason we decline all advertisement opportunities. 

Contact

To contact us email sportseconomics2013@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @SportEcon.