Decision-making skills and deliberate practice in elite association football referees

Abstract

We examined sport expertise as a function of role. In study 1, referees were better than players in a video-based decision-making task. This provides evidence that there are role-specific skills within one domain or sport. In study 2, we examined the training activities that could be influential in the development of skills in sports officials. Elite association football (soccer) referees retrospectively reported time spent in and perceptions of training activities for three periods: their first year of formal refereeing, 1998 (before formal training programmes were available), and the current year (2003). This allowed us to examine an area of skill with a limited culture of practice, where performance simulations with direct feedback are usually not feasible. The results showed that referees specialize early and, as they develop, they engage in greater volumes and types of training. Competitive match refereeing is considered a relevant activity for skill acquisition that does not fit Ericsson and colleagues' (1993) original definition of deliberate practice. Our findings indicate that actual performance is a significant activity for skill acquisition and refinement.

Keywords:

• Expert performance
• skill acquisition
• deliberate practice
• officiating

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) awarded to C. M., as well as funding by F-MARC, the medical assessment and research centre branch of FIFA. The authors would like to thank the referees and players for their participation, as well as the helpful feedback received from two anonymous reviewers.