The Evolution of Sporting Strategies

author = "Simon Raik and Bohdan Durnota",

title = "The Evolution of Sporting Strategies",

journal = "Complexity International",

year = "1995",

volume = "2",

month = apr,

keywords = "genetic algorithms, genetic programming",

ISSN = "1320-0682",

URL = "

http://www.complexity.org.au/ci/vol02/raik/raik.html",

abstract = "This paper describes CoacH, an evolutionary simulator developed to investigate strategies for teams in a competitive environment, and discusses some of the issues surrounding the evolution of co-operation among team members. As its title suggests, CoacH is a simulator of sporting environments, as these possess the required motivations for such behaviour and have the potential to benefit the real sporting world. In addition to describing CoacH, this paper describes two applications illustrating the potential and value of the system. It examines co-operation within a simplified model of the game of volleyball in which co-operation emerged in the form of players passing the ball between them in order to control it for an effective offensive hit. Each player learnt a specialised skill which, in close harmony with the other team member's skills, provided the team with a strategy not unlike those used by real volleyball players. Some preliminary experiments were also carried out to investigate communication among team members.",