Laterality frequency, team familiarity, and game experience affect kicking-foot identification in Australian football players

Abstract

This study examined whether laterality frequency, team familiarity, and game experience affected preferred kicking foot identification in professional Australian Football players. Using a repeated-measures experimental design, 13 and 10 players, respectively, identified the kicking foot of 30 teammates and 30 opponents using static images in a randomised sequence. Accuracy (%), reaction time (RT ms), and discrimination capability indices were examined. Overall, participants were less accurate and had slower reaction times when identifying the kicking foot of opposing team players relative to the speed and accuracy of identifying teammates. Significantly lower discrimination accuracy was also evident in participants' capability to identify left-footed players from two different opposing teams. In moderating trends, opposing player game experience was correlated with accuracy and reduced reaction times, while participant game experience correlated with faster reaction times only. Laterality, (opposing) team familiarity, and game experience affect kicking foot identification in Australian Football with training and performance implications.

Profiling Bilateral Skills in High-Performance Male and Female Gaelic Footballers

“…The finding that high performance Gaelic football players predominantly relied on their dominant side for most skill executions is consistent with previous research on male athletes in other sports ( Carey et al, 2001 , 2009 ; Moore et al, 2017 ; Stöckel & Vater, 2014 ; Stöckel & Weigelt, 2012 ). Differences between skills were generally small, consistent with Carey et al’s (2001) analysis of various soccer skills executed during open play (i.e., not set piece skills).…”

“…Given a well-established bias towards using the dominant hand or foot ( Carey et al, 2001 , 2009 ; Moore et al, 2017 ; Stöckel & Vater, 2014 ; Stöckel & Weigelt. 2012 ), we would expect players to act against that bias when circumstances dictate (i.e., when an opponent is preventing the preferred use of the dominant side, when proximity to the pitch boundaries encourage use of a particular side, or when chances of success are increased by using the non-dominant side; Stöckel & Vater, 2014 ).…”

“…The ability to perform skills bilaterality is widely believed to be a key characteristic of high-level sports performers because it increases the likelihood of players finding a solution for each scenario they face ( Dillon et al, 2022 ; Moore, O’Dwyer, et al, 2017 ; Parrington & Ball, 2015 ; Stöckel & Vater, 2014 ). There is some support for this position in that Murray et al (2023) found that bilateral Gaelic football players were more likely to be selected for a county under 17 team than their more unilateral counterparts.…”

“…Bilateral skill symmetry is the degree to which an individual can successfully perform with both sides of the body ( Stöckel & Weigelt, 2012 ); it is widely believed to be a key characteristic of high-level sports performers ( Moore, O’Dwyer, et al, 2017 ; Parrington et al, 2015 ). Indeed, Stöckel and Weigelt (2012) suggested that a certain degree of bilateral competence is essential if athletes are to be successful in modern team sports.…”

Team familiarity—Boon for routines, bane for innovation? A review and future research agenda

“…Avgerinos and Gokpinar (2016) found that team familiarity leads to enhanced productivity when teams are performing complex tasks (Espinosa et al, 2007;Huckman et al, 2009). Moreover, professional competitive sporting teams also perform within specific routines and standardized processes, and studies such as Moore et al (2017) show how high familiarity leads to greater success in competitive teamwork, such as kicking accuracy and reaction time of professional football players. Sieweke and Zhao (2015), who use basketball teams in their research, report that there is an inverted Ushaped relationship between team familiarity and team coordination efforts, but the leader's team-specific experience moderates this relationship.…”