The Contribution of Structured Activity and Deliberate Play to the Development of Expert Perceptual and Decision-Making Skill

Abstract

The developmental histories of 32 players in the Australian Football League (AFL), independently classified as either expert or less skilled in their perceptual and decision-making skills, were collected through a structured interview process and their year-on-year involvement in structured and deliberate play activities retrospectively determined. Despite being drawn from the same elite level of competition, the expert decision-makers differed from the less skilled in having accrued, during their developing years, more hours of experience in structured activities of all types, in structured activities in invasion-type sports, in invasion-type deliberate play, and in invasion activities from sports other than Australian football. Accumulated hours invested in invasion-type activities differentiated between the groups, suggesting that it is the amount of invasion-type activity that is experienced and not necessarily intent (skill development or fun) or specificity that facilitates the development of perceptual and decision-making expertise in this team sport.

Developmental activities and the acquisition of superior anticipation and decision making in soccer players

“…Players participated in a mean number of two other sports during childhood, which they mainly started participating in at secondary school age (mean start age 11 years). This finding contradicts the previous research of Berry et al (2008) who showed that engaging in other related sports is associated to better decision making in the primary sport. We speculate that the skilled high-performing group was following the ''early engagement'' pathway proposed by Ford et al (2009).…”

“…Moreover, it is likely that hours accumulated in total soccer activity by 18 years of age will differentiate skill groups (cf., Ford et al, 2010a). We assumed that the development of anticipation and decision making in soccer is mainly a result of participation in the primary sport, rather than engagement in other sports per se (e.g., Berry et al, 2008), due to the low number of other sports engaged in by soccer players during their development (e.g., Ford et al, 2009;Ward et al, 2007).…”

“…Superior perceptual-cognitive expertise in this sport cooccurred with greater amounts of invasion sports activity that was independent of the intent during the activity (i.e., skill development or fun) and of the specificity of the activity to the primary sport. Weissensteiner et al (2008) and Berry et al (2008) used the subjective judgments of coaches to create expert and novice groups, which may be susceptible to systematic biases, such as the coachathlete relationship or the athlete's personality (for a review, see Ericsson, 2003). The selection of players into groups based on subjective criteria may lead to individuals being classified incorrectly and there would appear to be clear advantages in using objective measures of performance (Ericsson, 2003).…”

Tactical proficiency among table tennis players with and without intellectual disabilities

“…As such related bodies of literature concerning talent identification and expert performance in elite sport (Abernethy, 1991;Allard, 1993;Baker, Cote, & Abernethy, 2003;Berry, Abernethy, & Côté, 2008;Raab et al, 2005;Starkes & Ericsson, 2003; among others) and within the research area of motor development in young children, giving considerable attention to how the development of TAP occurs (Haywood & Getchell, 2009;Thomas et al, 2001).…”

O percurso para a Excelência no Desporto: O papel da quantidade e do tipo de prática no desenvolvimento do atleta e do talento

“…Neste âmbito, a investigação tem claramente demonstrado a importância da quantidade e do tipo de prática enquanto poderosas influências no desenvolvimento do atleta e, consequentemente, da excelência no desporto (7,15,17,23,31) .…”