The Impact of Changes in the Ability to Convey Information and to Make Decisions among Women Soccer Players

Abstract

In soccer, in addition to skills improvement, raising the tactical understanding of the coach leads to an improved team performance. The purpose of this study was to make a longitudinal inspection of how tactical understanding is impacted by changes in the ability to make decisions and the ability to convey information, which are thought to be related to the tactical understanding of the coach. The scope of the study covered 62 players belonging to women’s soccer clubs. At the beginning and end of a 5-month intervention period, a survey was conducted to evaluate the ability to make decisions and the ability to convey information. The results were classified into an increase group that made an improvement, and a decrease group that worsened. Also, the players’ tactical understanding was evaluated using video tasks, and the degree of change during the intervention was calculated. As a result of the analysis, for the ability to make decisions and the ability to convey information, the increase group had a significantly higher rate of change than the decrease group with regard to tactical understanding. To raise the level of tactical understanding, it is important to increase the ability to make decisions or to convey information.