Abstract

The aim of this study was to construct an observational tool in water polo and to assess the exhaustibility and mutual exclusion (E/ME) of each category included in each criterion of the categorical system, in addition to determining the optimal sample size for the behaviour to be generalizable. We did so by applying generalizability analyses to six female water polo matches at the 2012 London Olympics. The observational tool consists in a mixed system of format fields and a validated E/ME categorical system. In addition, the results revealed that the categorical system showed suitable fit data (with absolute and relative G coefficient values close to zero), and that the sample size was large enough to generalize the behaviour shown (with absolute G coefficients close to one).