Effects of mental fatigue on passing decision‐making performance in professional soccer athletes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of mental fatigue on passing decision-making in professional soccer athletes. A controlled and counterbalanced cross-over design was adopted consisting of three visits with a 1-week interval between sessions. Twenty professional soccer male athletes participated in three randomized conditions divided into three visits: control, 15-min Stroop task, and 30-min Stroop task. Inhibitory control was accessed by the Stroop task (accuracy and response time) before and after induced mental fatigue protocol. The athletes played a training match (90-min) following the experimental conditions. The Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI) was used for the passing decisionmaking analysis. The GPAI analysis showed impaired passing decision-making performance following the 30-min Stroop task compared with the 15-min and control condition (F (2,17) = 6.99, p = .01). Moreover, an increase in response time during the Stroop task was found following 30-min Stroop task condition (F (2,17) = 6.57, p = .03) compared to 15-min of Stroop task and control conditions. Prolonged cognitive tasks may be considered a mediating factor in passing decisionmaking performance in male professional soccer athletes throughout a full-length training match. Thus, athletes should avoid highly demanding-cognitive tasks before a soccer match. Future studies are required to explore more ecological cognitive tasks to induce mental fatigue (i.e. smartphones and video-games) and their effects on other performance indicators (e.g. physical, technical, tactical) in a full-length training match setting.

Mental fatigue impairs physical activity, technical and decision-making performance during small-sided games

“…Moreover, they considered accelerations >2.78 m/s 2 , while we considered those >2 m/s 2 . The fact that MF could negatively impact players' ability to accelerate for a certain distance may be of practical importance and reinforce the advice that highly demanding-cognitive task should be avoided before a soccer-specific activity (e.g., SSG or match-play) [13]. On one hand, it might be argued that if mentally fatigued players lose more balls and fail more dribbles, they would be expected to perform more accelerations to compensate the decrease of their technical performance.…”

“…The present study is the first to document the detrimental effect of mental fatigue on soccer-specific decision-making skills during SSG. To the extent of the authors’ knowledge, to date, only the study of Gantois et al [ 13 ] examined the effects of mental fatigue on decision-making skills (i.e., on passing decision-making skill) under an ecological environment. The authors found that passing decision-making performance in male professional soccer players declined during a 90-min training match and after a prolonged (15–30 min) cognitive task.…”

“…According to our results, it appears that mental fatigue can negatively influence not only passing decision-making skill, but also dribbling. Potential alterations in players' perception (e.g., due to teammates and opponents' position, and anticipatory cues to react to) may explain such skill impairment [13]. For instance, if a mentally fatigued player decides to dribble his or her opponent, he or she might be more prone to make a bad decision, as his or her dribbling will likely not create space for teammates or scoring opportunities.…”

“…Being such skills vital for soccer, their potential fluctuation would directly affect players' performance. However, to the authors' knowledge, only a study [13] investigated how and at which extent mental fatigue affected soccer-specific decision-making skills. Gantois et al [13] demonstrated the negative effect of mental fatigue on the decision-making performance during a match-like setting (training match lasting 90-min) in professional players.…”

“…However, to the authors' knowledge, only a study [13] investigated how and at which extent mental fatigue affected soccer-specific decision-making skills. Gantois et al [13] demonstrated the negative effect of mental fatigue on the decision-making performance during a match-like setting (training match lasting 90-min) in professional players. The authors observed a performance decrease in the passing decision-making following a 30-min Stroop task condition.…”