Contribution of deliberate practice, play, and futsal to the acquisition of decision-making skills in Brazilian professional female soccer players

ABSTRACT

Previous research showed that deliberate practice and play contribute to developing decision-making skills in male soccer players. However, there is no evidence for female players. Therefore, this is the first study to analyse the contribution of deliberate practice, play, and futsal to develop decision-making skills in female soccer players. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to analyse whether elite Brazilian professional female soccer players with different levels of decision-making skills can be differentiated based on their engagement in various types and amounts of soccer activities during their development; (2) to discuss what sport's pathway in female soccer characterised the group with high decision-making skills. The sample comprised 77 Brazilian professional female soccer players. Decision-making skill was assessed based on a video-based test (TacticUP^®). We used a retrospective questionnaire to collect information about previous participation in different soccer activities. We found differences among high skill (HS) and low skill (LS) decision-making groups regarding their participation in developmental activities in every period assessed (childhood, early, and late adolescence). In summary, we found that in every period set, the HS group accumulated more percentage time of their participation in soccer activities in practice compared to the LS group. Moreover, the HS group gathered more hours of practice in futsal and total practice (i.e., considering practice time in soccer and futsal) in early adolescence (13–15 years) compared to the LS group. We concluded that the specialised diversification pathway is the one that best characterises the sports involvement of better decision-makers during childhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Female soccer
• female sport
• deliberate practice/play and futsal
• tactical awareness
• perceptual-cognitive skills

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the professional female football players who participated in this study, as they have certainly contributed to making it easier for girls and young women who want to play football in the future. Moreover, we would like to thank Jaqueane Correa, Raíssa Jacob, and Rogério Bonorino for their help with data collection.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Minas Gerais Government in accordance with the State Act of Incentive to Sports, by the Academia & Futebol Program of the Ministry of Citizenship, through the National Secretariat for Football and the Defense of the Rights of Fans, by FAPEMIG, CNPQ, FUNARBE and by the Dean's Office for Graduate and Research Studies, and the Centre of Life and Health Science at the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil, supported the study. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.