Defensive Soccer Players’ Decision Making

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the decision making of professional defensive football players according to the recognition-primed decision (RPD) model and to investigate relationships between their recognition processes and use of salient situational features in a naturalistic setting. Behavioral data were obtained from video recordings of four high-level football players in a top-level game, supplemented by verbal data collected during video-cued recall interviews, with the players watching the videotapes. Seven critical defensive stages in one game were studied. The data were analyzed using content analysis in relation to the RPD model in five steps. Considering the salient features the athletes used, 112 decisions were classified into three types of processes and eight typical decisions for defensive stages. These findings are discussed from three perspectives: the salient features the athletes used to assess the situation, the recognition processes of expert sport players' decision making, and future directions for research and decision-making training.

Crisis decision-making: the overlap between intuitive and analytical strategies

“…The common prescription by the rational choice theorists is that professionals should avoid making intuitive decisions wherever possible and instead think more deliberately. However, with the emergence of a body of knowledge known as naturalistic decision making (NDM) in the early 80's, researchers began to re-conceptualize the subject of expert decision making across a range of domains (Zsambok, 1997;Kahneman and Klein, 2009;Salas, Rosen, & DiazGranados, 2012;Kermarrec and Bossard, 2014;Klein, 2015;Gore and Conway, 2016). Consequently, these studies began to identify inherent flaws in some of the assumptions underpinning the rational choice theory.…”

Ergonomics issues in sport and outdoor recreation

“…As a result, researchers and practitioners are recognising the benefits of applying ergonomics theory and methods, developed in other areas, in the sports and outdoor recreation context (e.g. Kermarrec and Bossard 2014;Macquet and Stanton 2014;Salmon et al 2017b). Similarly, various ergonomics methods are progressively being applied to understand and optimise training, tactics, injury prevention and regulation (e.g.…”

Towards the Classification of Fireground Cues: A Qualitative Analysis of Expert Reports

“…This includes understanding the dynamics of fire, smoke movement patterns, chemistry of combustion and fire behaviour ─ all of which appear to be built and refined through experience. Previous NDM studies across domains such as sports, medicine and midwifery, education, aviation, military, ambulance and firefighting have shown a positive relationship between actors’ years of experience and their ability to recognize and interpret cues (Baylor, ; Dreyfus, ; Falzer, ; Fessey, ; Kermarrec & Bossard, ; McLennan, Holgate, Omodei, & Wearing, ; Tissington & Flin, ; Wong, ).…”