Game Reading Skills in Soccer

• Other Authors: Basevitch, Itay (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Educational psychology
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-7289

In the study, anticipation and situational assessment skills were examined using a video-based simulated task environment (STE). The objectives of the study were to examine skill and gender based differences in the ability to predict what an opponent will actually do next in a given scenario (anticipation), the ability to pick-up specific information cues from their opponent, and assess the importance of that information (option generation and prioritization). High and low skill male and female soccer players were shown action clips of developing plays, frozen (i.e., cued) or occluded (i.e., non-cued) at three temporal points (i.e., 400ms, 200ms and 0ms prior to an opponent player's action). Participants were then asked to predict what will happen next, generate plausible options, and rank them. Results indicated that high-skill players performed better on the anticipation and situational assessment tasks throughout the task conditions (i.e., cued/non-cued, temporal). Moreover, task conditions affected high and low skill participants differently. Gender differences were also observed. Males were able to anticipate what will happen next more accurately, generate more plausible options, and prioritize them more efficiently, than females. Task conditions affected both genders similarly. The study is one of the first in the area, and findings provide insight into the option generation and anticipation processes in a dynamic team sport setting. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Summer Semester, 2013. === June 24, 2013. === Anticipation, Situational Assessment, Soccer === Includes bibliographical references. === Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Dissertation; Thomas Joiner, University Representative; Robert Eklund, Committee Member; Tom Ratliffe, Committee Member.