Design and Validation of a Test to Evaluate the Execution Time and Decision-Making in Technical–Tactical Football Actions (Passing and Driving)

Abstract

Reaction time and decision-making (DMA) in football have usually been evaluated using edited images or videos of game situations. The purpose of this research is to design and validate a test that simultaneously evaluates execution time (ET) and decision-making (DMA) in the subcategories of type of action (TA) and direction of movement (DM). Methodology: A quantitative, cross-sectional, and descriptive study of 30 young players. A total of 32 stimuli were programmed, corresponding to 64 responses, from which the total index (TI) was obtained from the division between DMA and ET. Results: The content validity index (CVI = 0,78) showed a high degree of consensus among experts. In the validation process, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess intraclass and interobserver reliability, and a moderate level of agreement was found between subjects for the TA (ICC = 0.593) and ET (ICC = 0.602) and a moderate high level of concordance for DM (ICC = 0.804) and TI (ICC = 0.855). Regarding interobserver reliability, an excellent level of agreement was found for all variables: TA (ICC = 0.998), DM (ICC = 0.998), ET (ICC = 1.000), and TI (ICC = 1.000). For the relationship between intraobserver and interobserver variables, statistical significance was established as p < 0.01. Finally, the intraobserver ETM (5.40%) and interobserver ETM (0.42%) was low compared with the reference value (5.9%). Conclusion: The designed test meets the validity criteria since the variables show sufficient intraclass reliability (test–retest) and reliability among observers.

Effects of Fatigue Induced by the Running-Based Anaerobic Sprint Test on the Performance in Execution Time and Decision-Making in Technical-Tactical Actions in Soccer (Passing and Driving) in a Laboratory Situation

“…The Stroop Task Football Test (STFT) evaluates decisionmaking (DMA) and execution time (ET) through technicaltactical actions (passing and driving) to study cognitive motor performance in soccer through the Total Index (TI) (Calle-Jaramillo et al, 2023).…”

“…This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretestpostest non-equivalent and longitudinal comparative control group (Manterola & Otzen, 2015;Baños et al, 2019). A group of soccer players were assessed twice using the Stroop Task Football Test (STFT) (Calle-Jaramillo et al, 2023) in two different conditions. First, an assessment was performed without fatigue (pre-test) and subsequently with RAST-induced fatigue (post-test) (Nara et al, 2023).…”

“…Therefore, it is necessary to consider that the visual reaction time can be divided into two moments: the first is the period between the appearance of the stimulus and the onset of saccades, which has a duration between 180 and 300 ms. (Gila et al, 2009), and the second moment corresponds to the duration of the nerve impulse from the sensory organ to the motor plate, and ranges between 180 and 200 ms. (Bonnet, 1994). Likewise, the decisional time is another component of the reaction time, and this refers to the time it takes to make decisions (DMA) due to the characteristics of the stimulus, i.e., the greater the complexity of the stimulus, the longer the duration of the decisional time and therefore of the ET (Calle-Jaramillo et al, 2023).…”

“…Consequently, the aim of this research was to study the effect of RAST-induced fatigue on ET and DMA performance in technical-tactical actions in soccer in laboratory situation, using the Stroop Task Football Test (STFT) (Calle-Jaramillo et al, 2023) at two moments: without fatigue (pretest) and with RAST-induced fatigue (postest) (Nara et al, 2023). We hypothesize that there will be differences in TI between fatigued and non-fatigued soccer players.…”

Differences between expert and novice players in execution time and decision-making in technical-tactical actions in football (passing and driving) performed under laboratory conditions

“…Different sports researchers have seen the need to study the relationship that exists between decision making and specific performance in different sports modalities, such as volleyball and football (Suárez et al 2016, Da Costa et al 2023, which has led some authors to look for a way to validate instruments for the evaluation of decision making (Otero-Saborido et al 2012, Calle-Jaramillo et al 2023, Several studies show that expert players are better than novice players because they had better physical and technicaltactical performance (Reilly et al, 2000;Vaeyens et al, 2006). In this way, neither physical factors nor physiological characteristics are sensitive enough to differentiate professional footballers from semi-professional footballers (Meylan et al, 2010), so it is necessary to have a more comprehensive view when analyzing football performance (Reilly et al, 2000;Vaeyens et al, 2008).…”