Position (team sports) explained

In team sports, a position is the role and placement of an individual player within the arrangement of players on the field of play during a game.

Many sports measure performance of individual players based on standards for their specific positions. Players' suitability for certain positions is often linked to specific attributes and skill requirements.^[1]

For information about team or player positions in some particular sports, see:

Basketball

• Basketball positions

Batting sports

• Baseball fielding positions
• Cricket fielding positions

Football

• Association football positions
• American football positions
• Gaelic football positions
• Rugby league positions
• Rugby union positions

Hockey

• Bandy positions are virtually the same as the association football positions
• Field hockey positions
• Ice hockey positions:
  • Goaltender
  • Defenceman
  • Forward

"Service" sports

• Lawn tennis players in doubles competition alternate between two positions. That is, the service side alternates as server and partner while the receiving side alternates as receiver and partner. There is no substitution of players and the two partners necessarily divide the two pairs of positions almost equally.
• Volleyball players rotate through six positions, taken on the court at the serve. But the positions are not fixed during a volley, only moderately regulated. Volleyball player specialization is highly refined and strategy focuses on how to use specialized players in unequal ways.

See also

• Gaelic football, hurling and camogie positions

Notes and References

1. Klatt . Stefanie . Nerb . Josef . 2021 . Position-Specific Attentional Skills in Team Sports: A Comparison between Defensive and Offensive Football Players . Applied Sciences . 11 . 12 . 5896 . 10.3390/app11135896 . free.