Design and Development of an Android App Based on Firebase in the Study of Unsportsmanlike Behaviors in Grassroots Tennis Competitions

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development and evaluation of an android application based on the Google Firebase platform aimed to facilitate the creation of questionnaires and collection of data for the management of sports and unsportsmanlike behaviors in grassroots tennis competitions. Although sportsmanship among players is the most common situation, in low categories sometimes aggressive or violent situations may occur and not always with the presence of referees. In recent years, the use of conventional questionnaires has been the most widespread tool to obtain information on sports and unsportsmanlike behaviors in sports competitions. The developed system allows tennis tournament organizers to easily create forms linked to the players in order to evaluate different psychological aspects during the competition. Players are notified and they answer the proposed questions on their mobile devices at the end of the matches. By using the application it is easy to collect the responses of the competitors and process and evaluate them. The developed system is based on a client-server architecture where the Firebase platform acts as system server and the application is the client that communicates with it. The application was validated by a tournament administrator showing a high level of usability. Afterwards it has been tested in a real tournament with 20 players (in a total of 34 matches) answering a form consisting of 13 questions to evaluate sports and unsportsmanlike behaviors. The results in this pilot tournament showed the perception of sportsmanship of the players as very good, but also showed that parents or companions interfere in children’s matches and two potential cases of unsportsmanlike conduct were detected. This system may become a versatile and useful tool for improvement of players’ psychological wellbeing during grassroots tennis competitions.