Decide like Lionel Messi! The impact of regulatory focus on divergent thinking in sports

Characteristics of brain activation in high-level football players at different stages of decision-making tasks off the ball: an fMRI study

Objective

This study aimed to examine the neural mechanisms underlying the decision-making process of off-ball movements among high-level football players and ordinary college students, as well as the effect of long-term skill training on these neural mechanisms using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Methods

The study recruited 20 professional college football players as the expert group (EG) and 20 novice football players with no background in sports-related disciplines as the novice group (NG). The participants performed the motor video observation and button-decision-making tasks, and fMRI data were acquired, pre-processed, and analyzed.

Results

During the decision-making process regarding running without the ball, whole-brain fMRI scans were conducted on both the EG and NG. The analysis of these scans revealed noteworthy disparities in brain activity between the two groups. These disparities were observed during tasks involving motor video observation and button-based decision-making. According to the behavioral data, the EG made more correct decisions than the NG (p < 0.05); however, there was no significant difference in their reaction speed (p > 0.05). During video observation, both the EG and NG exhibited simultaneous activation in the frontoparietal cognitive area, primary somatosensory cortex, visual cortex, and insula. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of activated brain regions [false discovery rate (FDR) corrected to p < 0.05]. Regarding button-press decisions, the areas of the brain that were commonly activated in both the NG and EG were primarily located in the frontoparietal cognitive area, temporal cortex, and cuneus cortex. Notably, the left superior temporal gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, and left middle occipital gyrus exhibited greater activation in the NG compared to those in the EG (FDR corrected to p < 0.05).

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that during motor video observation, the EG's sports experience and professional knowledge can help them achieve better visual information processing strategies in specific areas of sports. During button decision-making, the EG was more economical, whereas the NG required more brain function activity to process visual information, confirming the "neural efficiency" hypothesis.

Relationships between empathy and creativity in collective games: a comparison between handball and sitting ball

In collective motor situations, creativity and empathy are central and strongly connected to cognitive and affective processes. Indeed, in the environment of high social uncertainty of games and sports, empathy would allow the player to anticipate motor behaviors in order to promote creative decision-making, i.e., to destabilize his opponents. On this basis, this study pursues two objectives. The first is to propose indicators to question the links between sociomotor empathy and motor creativity in an ecological situation. The second is to investigate the potential influence of the internal logic of two very different collective games (handball and Sitting ball) on the type of links that are woven between empathy and creativity. Two groups of students were recruited (n = 22 and 23) and participated in each of the games mentioned. The games were video recorded. The praxical communications made by each player were recorded and sorted by two trained observers. The results revealed major differences between the two studied collective games. In handball, there was a correlation between instrumental empathy (valuing cognitive aspects) and indicators of motor creativity (p  < 0.05). The more creative the players are (quantity, diversity and quality of performance), the more they manage to accurately anticipate the behavior of other players. In Sitting Ball, there was no correlation between creativity indicators and instrumental empathy. On the other hand, it is noticed that instrumental empathy was correlated with socio-affective empathy (p  < 0.001). To make their motor decisions, the players do not rely exclusively on the decoding of behaviors but significantly mobilize the feelings that they ascribe to the other co-participants. The results of this work invite reflection on the diversity of playful reading grids to be offered to students in order to develop their motor adaptability.

Team Regulatory Strategies and Performance in Elite Handball

Purposes: The purposes of this research were: 1) in a preliminary study, to identify regulatory strategies used by players and coaches according to situation reward structure (Gains vs. Losses); and 2) in the main study, to analyze the effect of the interaction between situation reward structure (Gains vs. Losses) and regulatory strategy (Prevention vs. Promotion) on team performance (scoring a goal) in real-world settings. Methods and Results: In the preliminary study, 25 adult male handball players and 19 coaches playing and coaching at national level in the French championships completed a version of the Regulatory Focus Strategies Scales after reading four handball game scenarios (two gain-oriented and two loss-avoidance oriented). Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures revealed that when the reward structure was gain-oriented, participants had higher scores in promotion regulatory strategy than in prevention regulatory strategy, and conversely. For the main study, a sample of 199 game phases was selected from 84 games played in the Lidl Star League (2017-2018 season). Mixed method analysis revealed a significant team regulatory fit effect, that is an interaction effect between reward structure and regulatory focus strategy on team performance. When there was a fit, both in loss-avoidance oriented and gain-oriented reward structure, performance was higher (OR = 1.64 and OR = 0.86, respectively) than when there was a mismatch (OR = 0.59 and OR = 0.27). Conclusion: These results confirm the applicability of the Regulatory Fit Theory in a real-world setting with professional players, and extend grounded social cognition research regulatory fit literature to team level.

Creative actions in team sports are rooted in motor skills rather than in a divergent thinking ability

Creative actions are considered decisive in team sports. In most empirical studies on the topic so far, creativity has been understood as a player’s divergent thinking (DT) ability. Sport-specific DT has been assessed by the number, variety and originality of ideas a player is able to generate in response to game situations. Numerous studies indicate that DT can be improved with training. However, the fundamental assumption that enhanced DT transfers to creative on-field actions has yet to be examined. Alternatively, we argue that players’ potential to perform creative actions is foremost rooted in their motor-skill repertoire rather than in DT. In a field-based experiment, predictions deduced from both explanations were put to test. Elite youth football players participated in training interventions to enhance either football-specific DT (DT group) or their motor-skill repertoire (functional skills; FS group). Before and after the interventions, we assessed players’ football-specific DT as well as the functionality and creativity of actions performed on-field using expert ratings. As expected, in DT, the DT group improved more than the FS group. On the field, however, improvements in DT did not manifest in more creative actions. Rather, the FS group showed more pronounced improvements not only in the functionality but also in the creativity of on-field actions. This pattern of results challenges the so far predominant theoretical framework for creativity in sports. For sports practice, our findings suggest that on-field creativity is better fostered by enhancing players’ motor skills—and thus expanding their own action repertoire—than by improving DT.

Construct Validation of a New Instrument to Measure Declarative Tactical Knowledge in Basketball

Measuring basketball players' declarative tactical knowledge is relevant to the teaching and learning process. In this study we aimed to verify the construct validity and construct reliability of the Instrument for Measuring Declarative Tactical Knowledge in Basketball (IMDTK-Bb). We recruited 1,188 male basketball athletes aged 10-19 years old. We used confirmatory factor analysis with weighted least squares mean and variance estimator for construct validation and MacDonald´s omega for internal consistency. We established a final model with 17 scenes referring to the declarative tactical knowledge and type of action players used to solve game situations the scenes represented. The final model presented a good Comparative Fit Index (CFI = 1.000), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI = 1.001) and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA = .000). The reliability index was .779. We conclude that the IMDTK-Bb has good construct validity and can be used in further research.

Resilience in the Endurance Runner: The Role of Self-Regulatory Modes and Basic Psychological Needs

Endurance sports certainly require an important and delicate task of mental and physical reintegration from the impact of the fatigue induced by the exertion of the sport performance. The topic of the resilience of athletes has been the theme of numerous studies, however, there are few specific works on the psychological resilience of runners. Our study aimed to investigate Resilience in Endurance Runner related to the role of Self-Regulation Modes and Basic Psychological Needs. Especially, the aim of our work was presenting a model where the gratification of the Needs of Autonomy and Competence and the level of Locomotion were the predictors of the two main components of Richardson's resilience: Homeostatic and Resilient Reintegration. The present study involved 750 endurance runners, members of the Fidal (Italian Athletics Federation). A SEM analysis was performed combining into one explanatory model the following variables: Autonomy and Competence Satisfaction, Self-Regulatory Locomotion Mode, Homeostatic and Resilient Reintegration. The model showed overall acceptable fit measurements: χ² = 872.152; CFI = 0.966; TLI = 0.952; RMSEA = 0.058. Results indicated that BPNs and SRMs are predictors of the level of resilience in endurance running athletes. In particular, Resilient Reintegration was mainly affected by Locomotion Mode (β = 0.379 for p < 0.005), which in turn received a major influence from Autonomy Satisfaction (β = 0.574 for p < 0.001). Homeostatic Recovery was found to be affected by Competence Satisfaction (β = 0.489 for p < 0.001). The study pointed out the importance of supporting in endurance runners the gratification of the needs of Autonomy and Competence as key factors capable of enhancing perseverance, timely recovery and psychophysical balance.

Influence of Traditional Sporting Games on the Development of Creative Skills in Team Sports. The Case of Football

The aim of this present study is to investigate the influence of three learning contexts on the development of motor creativity of young footballers (8-9 years old). In team sport, creativity is a fundamental issue because it allows players to adapt in an environment of high social uncertainty. To carry out this work, we suggest a method for assessing motor creativity into ecological situations based on the analysis of praxical communications. Creativity originates from an interaction between divergence and convergence. In our case, the number of communications (fluidity) and the diversity of updated communications (flexibility) are our divergence indicators. Convergence, understood as the ability to make good decisions, is assessed by two expert judges (R > 0.90). Sixty boys' football players (M = 8.67; SD = 0.3) coming from three football clubs participated in this research. The study lasted 2 years. Each year, a team of 10 players from each club participated in the research twice a week for 32 weeks (8 months), these groups attended different training sessions: (a) the control group (n = 20) followed a classical learning; (b) the decoding group (n = 20) attended training focused on learning the praxemes of football; (c) the traditional sporting games group (n = 20) followed a training session that was jointly focused on praxemes and the practice of traditional sporting games. The motor creativity of players and groups was assessed both at the beginning and at the end of the year during football matches. Compared to the control group, in the post-test, the group with the highest fluidity is the decoding group (p < 0.001) and the one with the highest fluidity is the traditional sporting games group. The latter group is also the one with the best convergence (p < 0.001). The results showed that traditional games can help develop players' creative abilities. This research invites us to investigate the complementarity between the different offered training.

On the Issue of Developing Creative Players in Team Sports: A Systematic Review and Critique From a Functional Perspective

Driven by the practical goal of developing creative players, several approaches to training creativity have been proposed and underpinned by empirical studies in sport science. However, the scope of these studies encompasses various aspects, which have all been subsumed under the singular label of "creativity." Therefore, this systematic review aims to disentangle the pursued lines of thought in order to facilitate the derivation of well-grounded recommendations for sports practice. To this end, 38 studies are presented and characterized in terms of their underlying conceptualizations and measures of creativity. In most studies, creativity is conceptualized as a player's domain-specific divergent thinking (DT) ability, reflected by individual differences in the number, variety and originality of ideas he or she is able to generate in response to game situations. Empirical studies indicate that DT can be improved by practice. However, the critical assumption that an enhanced DT ability transfers to creative on-field actions has yet to be tested. On the basis of the reviewed literature, an alternative point of view is proposed. In line with a relational understanding of creativity and a functional approach to behavioral control, it is hypothesized that an enhanced repertoire of sensorimotor skills increases the probability for performing functional solutions that, within a specific social and cultural frame of reference, go beyond the expected and consequently appear creative to the observer. In the context of sports practice, the proposed conceptual re-orientation would then suggest, rather than seeking ways to improve players' DT ability, to target sensorimotor skills that allow players to perform a variety of task-solutions and thus to act less predictably to the opponent-or in other words, more creative.

The Academic Background of Youth Soccer Coaches Modulates Their Behavior During Training

This investigation aims to explore the relationship between the academic backgrounds of youth soccer coaches (U10 and U12 age groups) in Spain and the type of verbal behavior used during training sessions. The sample consisted of 70 coaches divided into two groups, depending on whether or not they had engaged with a university-level academic studies related to Physical Education and or Sport Sciences. A modified version of the "Coach Analysis and Intervention System" (CAIS), developed by Cushion et al. (2012), was used to collect data. A total of 32,886 verbal behaviors were noted and analyzed. Our results suggest that the coaches with university academic backgrounds frequently use more verbal behaviors and that these could be associated with positive effects on the players' learning and development processes. We suggest it is important to develop specific training programs aimed at optimizing the coaches' communicative and socio-affective skills in order to maximize their impact in youth athletes' learning process.

The role of regulatory focus and expectation on creative decision making

According to regulatory focus theory, individuals generally regulate movements towards goals differently-using either a promotion- or a prevention-focused strategy. Recent research has found a close connection between regulatory focus and performance expectation. The current study explored their role on creative decision making. In an experimental setting, regulatory focus and expectation were manipulated and brief video clips of real football games were interrupted at a critical moment when the player with the ball faced a couple of possible actions. Experienced football players were asked to generate options to continue the game situations. The players' creativity was measured by performance indices for fluency, flexibility, and originality. Results revealed a benefit for players with an induced situational promotion focus as well as negative expectations to their performances on the generation of creative solutions. The findings might have implications for different complex real-life situations in which creativity is attributed to a performance-determining role.

Brain and soccer: Functional patterns of brain activity during the generation of creative moves in real soccer decision-making situations

This fMRI study investigated brain activity while soccer players were imagining creative moves in real soccer decision-making situations. After presenting brief video clips of a soccer scene, participants had to imagine themselves as the acting player and think either of a creative or obvious move that might lead to a goal. Findings revealed stronger activation during trials in which the generation of obvious moves was required, relative to trials requiring creative moves. The reversed contrast (creative > obvious) showed no significant effects. Activations were mainly left-lateralized, primarily involving the cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, and the rolandic operculum, which are known to support the processing of multimodal input from different sensory, motor and perceptual sources. Interestingly, more creative solutions in the soccer task were associated with smaller contrast values for the activation difference between obvious and creative trials, or even with more activation in the latter. Furthermore, higher trait creative potential (as assessed by a figural creativity test) was associated with stronger activation differences between both conditions. These findings suggest that with increasing soccer-specific creative task performance, the processing of the manifold information provided by the soccer scenario becomes increasingly important, while in individuals with higher trait creative potential these processes were recruited to a minor degree. This study showed that soccer-specific creativity tasks modulate activation levels in a network of regions supporting various cognitive functions such as semantic information processing, visual and motor imagery, and the processing and integration of sensorimotor and somatosensory information.

Creative decision making and visual search behavior in skilled soccer players

The ability to produce creative solutions is a key part of expert performance. The aim of this study was to identify the visual search behaviors that underpin superior creative performance of skilled soccer players during simulated 11-a-side match play. Players (N = 44) were required to interact with a representative life-size video-based simulation of attacking situations whilst in possession of the ball. Clips were occluded at a key moment and they were required to play the ball in response to each situation presented. Moreover, they were required to name other additional actions they could execute for each situation. Creative performance on the task was measured using the three criteria of originality, flexibility, and fluency of decisions. Visual search behaviors were examined using a portable eye-movement registration system. Players were classified as most- (n = 11) or least-creative (n = 11) based on their performance on the representative task. The most-creative players produced more appropriate, original, flexible, and fluid decisions compared to least-creative players. The creativity-based differences in judgment were underpinned by differences in visual search strategy. Most-creative players employed a broader attentional focus including more fixations of shorter duration and towards more informative locations of the display compared with least-creative players. Moreover, most-creative players detected teammates in threatening positions earlier in the attacking play. Creative performance is underpinned by different underlying visual processes when compared to less-creative performance, which appears to be crucial in facilitating more creative solutions.

EEG alpha activity during imagining creative moves in soccer decision-making situations

This study investigated task-related changes of EEG alpha power while participants were imagining creative moves in soccer decision-making situations. After presenting brief video clips of a soccer scene, participants had to imagine themselves as the acting player and to think either of a creative/original or an obvious/conventional move (control condition) that might lead to a goal. Performance of the soccer task generally elicited comparatively strong alpha power decreases at parietal and occipital sites, indicating high visuospatial processing demands. This power decrease was less pronounced in the creative vs. control condition, reflecting a more internally oriented state of information processing characterized by more imaginative mental simulation rather than stimulus-driven bottom-up processing. In addition, more creative task performance in the soccer task was associated with stronger alpha desynchronization at left cortical sites, most prominently over motor related areas. This finding suggests that individuals who generated more creative moves were more intensively engaged in processes related to movement imagery. Unlike the domain-specific creativity measure, individual's trait creative potential, as assessed by a psychometric creativity test, was globally positively associated with alpha power at all cortical sites. In investigating creative processes implicated in complex creative behavior involving more ecologically valid demands, this study showed that thinking creatively in soccer decision-making situations recruits specific brain networks supporting processes related to visuospatial attention and movement imagery, while the relative increase in alpha power in more creative conditions and in individuals with higher creative potential might reflect a pattern relevant across different creativity domains.

Mastery in Goal Scoring, T-Pattern Detection, and Polar Coordinate Analysis of Motor Skills Used by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

Research in soccer has traditionally given more weight to players' technical and tactical skills, but few studies have analyzed the motor skills that underpin specific motor actions. The objective of this study was to investigate the style of play of the world's top soccer players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and how they use their motor skills in attacking actions that result in a goal. We used and improved the easy-to-use observation instrument (OSMOS-soccer player) with 9 criteria, each one expanded to build 50 categories. Associations between these categories were investigated by T-pattern detection and polar coordinate analysis. T-pattern analysis detects temporal structures of complex behavioral sequences composed of simpler or directly distinguishable events within specified observation periods (time point series). Polar coordinate analysis involves the application of a complex procedure to provide a vector map of interrelated behaviors obtained from prospective and retrospective sequential analysis. The T-patterns showed that for both players the combined criteria were mainly between the different aspects of motor skills, namely the use of lower limbs, contact with the ball using the outside of the foot, locomotion, body orientation with respect to the opponent goal line, and the criteria of technical actions and the right midfield. Polar coordinate analysis detected significant associations between the same criteria included in the T-patterns as well as the criteria of turning the body, numerical equality with no pressure, and relative numerical superiority.

Goal Scoring in Soccer: A Polar Coordinate Analysis of Motor Skills Used by Lionel Messi

Soccer research has traditionally focused on technical and tactical aspects of team play, but few studies have analyzed motor skills in individual actions, such as goal scoring. The objective of this study was to investigate how Lionel Messi, one of the world's top soccer players, uses his motor skills and laterality in individual attacking actions resulting in a goal. We analyzed 103 goals scored by Messi between over a decade in three competitions: La Liga (n = 74), Copa del Rey (n = 8), and the UEFA Champions League (n = 21). We used an ad-hoc observation instrument (OSMOS-soccer player) comprising 10 criteria and 50 categories; polar coordinate analysis, a powerful data reduction technique, revealed significant associations for body part and orientation, foot contact zone, turn direction, and locomotion. No significant associations were observed for pitch area or interaction with opponents. Our analysis confirms significant associations between different aspects of motor skill use by Messi immediately before scoring, namely use of lower limbs, foot contact zones, turn direction, use of wings, and orientation of body to move toward the goal. Studies of motor skills in soccer could shed light on the qualities that make certain players unique.

Top 10 Research Questions Related to Teaching Games for Understanding

In this article, we elaborate on 10 current research questions related to the "teaching games for understanding" (TGfU) approach with the objective of both developing the model itself and fostering game understanding, tactical decision making, and game-playing ability in invasion and net/wall games: (1) How can existing scientific approaches from different disciplines be used to enhance game play for beginners and proficient players? (2) How can state-of-the-art technology be integrated to game-play evaluations of beginners and proficient players by employing corresponding assessments? (4) How can complexity thinking be utilized to shape day-to-day physical education (PE) and coaching practices? (5) How can game making/designing be helpfully utilized for emergent learning? (6) How could purposeful game design create constraints that enable tactical understanding and skill development through adaptive learning and distributed cognition? (7) How can teacher/coach development programs benefit from game-centered approaches? (8) How can TGfU-related approaches be implemented in teacher or coach education with the goal of facilitating preservice and in-service teachers/coaches' learning to teach and thereby foster their professional development from novices to experienced practitioners? (9) Can the TGfU approach be considered a helpful model across different cultures? (10) Can physical/psychomotor, cognitive, affective/social, and cultural development be fostered via TGfU approaches? The answers to these questions are critical not only for the advancement of teaching and coaching in PE and sport-based clubs, but also for an in-depth discussion on new scientific avenues and technological tools.

Functional Equivalence of the Color Red and Enacted Avoidance Behavior?

Abstract. Research has shown that subtle stimuli and action can elicit approach and avoidance motivational states. In separate literatures, both the color red and enacting avoidance behavior have been hypothesized to evoke avoidance motivation. The purpose of the present research was to both replicate and empirically integrate prior work on red and enacted avoidance behavior. This was done by testing them together within the same paradigms in two experiments, one on anagram performance and the other on local-relative-to-global processing. Both experiments replicated prior research in each literature, with red and enacted avoidance behavior producing comparable effects across both experiments. Implications of the findings for the two literatures are discussed.

Creativity and working memory capacity in sports: working memory capacity is not a limiting factor in creative decision making amongst skilled performers

The goal of the study was to investigate the relationship between domain-general working memory capacity and domain-specific creativity amongst experienced soccer players. We administered the automated operation span task in combination with a domain-specific soccer creativity task to a group of 61 experienced soccer players to address the question whether an athlete's domain-specific creativity is restricted by their domain-general cognitive abilities (i.e., working memory capacity). Given that previous studies have either found a positive correlation, a negative correlation, or no correlation between working memory capacity and creativity, we analyzed the data in an exploratory manner by following recent recommendations to report effect-size estimations and their precision in form of 95% confidence intervals. The pattern of results provided evidence that domain-general working memory capacity is not associated with creativity in a soccer-specific creativity task. This pattern of results suggests that future research and theorizing on the role of working memory in everyday creative performance needs to distinguish between different types of creative performance while also taking the role of domain-specific experience into account.