Position (team sports)

Position in team sports is the joint arrangement of a team on its field of play during a game and to the standardized place of any individual player in that arrangement. Much instruction, strategy, and reporting is organized by a set of individual player positions that is standard for the sport.

In case of the striker position, the left striker can move freely around and be on the left or right of the other striker

Some player positions may be official, others unofficial. For example, baseball rules govern the pitcher by that name, but not the shortstop, where pitcher and shortstop are two of baseball's nine fielding positions.

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

Basketball

• Basketball positions

Batting sports

Cricket fielding positions

• 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 in 3-4-3 formation

• 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