Data from: Biological basis of excellence in physical activities: motor skill not athletic ability predicts individual variation in a complex human activity

Just as evolutionary biologists endeavor to link phenotypes to fitness, sport scientists try to identify traits that determine athlete success. Both disciplines would benefit from collaboration, and to illustrate this, we used an analytical approach common to evolutionary biology to isolate the phenotypes that promote success in soccer, a complex activity of humans played in nearly every modern society. Using path analysis, we quantified the relationships among morphology, balance, skill, athleticism, and performance of soccer players. We focused on performance in two complex motor activities: a simple game of soccer tennis (1 on 1), and a standard soccer match (11 on 11). In both contests, players with greater skill and balance were more likely to perform better. However, maximal athletic ability was not associated with success in a game. A social network analysis revealed that skill also predicted ball movement, as determined using social network analyses. The relationships between phenotypes and success during individual and team sports have potential implications for how selection acts on these phenotypes, in humans and other species, and thus should ultimately interest evolutionary biologists. Hence, we propose a field of evolutionary sports science that lies at the nexus of evolutionary biology and sports science. This would allow biologists to take advantage of the staggering quantity of data on performance in sporting events to answer evolutionary questions that are more difficult to answer for other species. In return, sports scientists could benefit from the theoretical framework developed to study natural selection in non-human species.正如进化生物学家致力于将表型（phenotype）与适合度关联起来，运动科学家也力图找出决定运动员竞技成功的特征。这两门学科均可从跨领域合作中获益；为阐明这一点，我们采用了进化生物学中常用的路径分析（path analysis）方法，以筛选出可提升足球竞技表现的表型——足球是一项在几乎所有现代社会都开展的复杂人类活动。我们借助该方法量化了足球运动员的形态学、平衡能力、竞技技巧、运动能力与竞技表现之间的关联。本研究聚焦于两项复杂运动任务的竞技表现：1对1的简易足球网球赛，以及11对11的标准足球赛事。在这两项赛事中，具备更高竞技技巧与平衡能力的运动员往往表现更优，然而极致的运动能力与赛事成功并无关联。社交网络分析（social network analysis）结果表明，竞技技巧亦可预测球权流动，该结论通过社交网络分析方法得以验证。个人与团队体育运动中表型与成功表现之间的关联，对于人类及其他物种的自然选择如何作用于这些表型具有潜在启示意义，因此最终也将引发进化生物学家的研究兴趣。因此，我们提出构建一门隶属于进化生物学与运动科学交叉领域的进化运动科学（evolutionary sports science）学科。这将使生物学家能够借助体育赛事中海量的竞技表现数据，解答其他物种难以研究的进化生物学问题；作为回报，运动科学家也可从用于研究非人类物种自然选择的理论框架中获益。