ABSTRACT
Despite the typical differences in sport games, it is possible to identify some invariant characteristics. The cooperation-opposition nature determines a conflict of interests between two opposite strategic fields that can cause disruptions to the natural flow of the match. Some investigators have studied these perturbation factors or critical incidents. However, there is a lack of a theoretical framework that includes the criticality of game situations as a well-identified research line in sport performance analysis. Assuming the interest in the concept and the models developed to understand it, this chapter aims to describe the main guidelines of these models. Some results obtained from the empirical research focused on criticality game situations will be described and finally a definition of the basic guidelines will be presented that characterizes the criticality of game situations as a research line and critical incidents as its investigation objects.
