Exploratory Behavior and the Temporal Structure of Soccer Small-Sided Games to Evaluate Creativity in Children

ABSTRACT

In this work, the position of the goals was modified to analyze the effects on the exploratory behavior and the team tactical pattern, which can be meaningful variables to study creativity in team sports. Twenty-four male soccer school players under the age of 12 participated in this study. Participants were divided into four teams of one goalkeeper and 5 players. Each team played six small-sided games of 5 min in three different goals positioning situations. The positioning-derived data of each player were collected using 10 Hz GPS units, were exported, and then computed using Matlab® dedicated routines. The positioning-derived variables were: team length and width, sector and corridor, centroid speed and its distance to the own goal, the centroid angle, and the speed of spread rate. They were analyzed by means of a PCA and the dynamic overlap order parameter. Results showed that changing the position of goals did not affect significantly the exploratory behavior. PCA analysis and Tucker’s Congruence Coefficient revealed that the task constraints could be characterized by a high mutual atypicality, and hence, originality. The use of the dynamic overlap, the PCA, hPCA, andTucker’s Congruence Coefficient to assess the degree of creativity in team sports were discussed. In conclusion, modifying the position of the goals can foster original behaviors of young athletes and increase the tactical repertoire of players.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the coaches, staff, players and specially Jordi Arasa (Coordinator of the pre-competition stage) from FCBarcelona Football School, who volunteered to participate in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, AC, upon reasonable request.

Notes

1. The congruence coefficient is itself a cosine similarity or an overlap measure and measures the typicality or atypicality of PC configurations. Hence, it can be used as an atypicality measure of a configuration that is compared to other sets of configurations (see Hristovski et al., 2011, p. 191 equation 1(1) $<q_d(t)\ge \left(1-q_{stat}\right)t^{-\alpha }+q_{stat}$(1) ).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia (INEFC), Generalitat de Catalunya.