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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Coaching: Performance and Development
Volume 6 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1469347
Tactical Critical Thinking Program on the tactical efficiency index, declarative and procedural knowledge in male soccer players: A case study
Provisionally accepted
Samuel Jose Gaviria Alzate
1*
Wilder Geovanny Valencia-Sánchez
2*
Frank Esteban Espinal
1*
Jorge Luis Bustamante
1*
Elkin Arias-Arias
2*- 1 University of San Buenaventura-Medellín, Medellín, Colombia
- 2 University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
The purpose of this study was to explore the implications of the in-field implementation of a teaching strategy that promotes critical thinking (TPCT) on tactical ability, declarative and procedural knowledge. Thirteen male U-14 soccer players (mean age: 13.54 ± 1.00 years; mean soccer-federated experience: 3.92 ± 1.00 years; mean body mass: 39.44 ± 6.09 kg; mean height: 1.61 ± 0.10 m) performed a TPCT intervention strategy over 22 sessions, three times a week. The TPCT is grounded in socio-constructivist theory and aims to enhance players' analytical skills through inquiry, problem-solving, and observation. This design incorporates essential cognitive processes for decision-making, cultivating skills such as interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-regulation. By emphasizing the socio-constructivist approach, the program fosters these skills through the active participation of players in questioning and collaborative problem-solving activities. The program's content focuses on offensive tactical principles of soccer. Tactical ability is assessed with the Test for Performance Assessment in Team Sports (PATS), while declarative and procedural knowledge are evaluated with the Tactical Knowledge Test in Soccer (TCTOF), both administered before and after the intervention. After the 8-week teaching strategy, there was a significant improvement and substantial increase in the Tactical Efficiency Index (IE) (t (12) = 2.61, p < 0.05, r = 0.73). This reflected a 41% rise between pretest (M = 0.39, SD = 0.21) and post-test (M = 0.55, SD = 0.24). Changes in declarative knowledge were minimal (0.31% increase). Similarly, procedural knowledge showed a slight increase (3.53%) that did not reach statistical significance. The findings could suggest that integrating critical thinking into sports training can be a strategy to enhance the tactical abilities of young soccer players.
Keywords: Tactical Performance, Football, Small-sided games, Game-based approach, Socioconstructivism
Received: 23 Jul 2024; Accepted: 11 Dec 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Gaviria Alzate, Valencia-Sánchez, Espinal, Bustamante and Arias-Arias. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Samuel Jose Gaviria Alzate, University of San Buenaventura-Medellín, Medellín, Colombia
Wilder Geovanny Valencia-Sánchez, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
Frank Esteban Espinal, University of San Buenaventura-Medellín, Medellín, Colombia
Jorge Luis Bustamante, University of San Buenaventura-Medellín, Medellín, Colombia
Elkin Arias-Arias, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
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