Understanding a Player’s Decision-Making Process in Team Sports: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence

Abstract

Three perspectives were taken to explain decision-making within team sports (information processing, recognition primed decision-making, and ecological dynamics perspectives), resulting in conceptual tension and practical confusion. The aim of this paper was to interrogate empirical evidence to (1) understand the process of decision-making within team sports and (2) capture the characteristics of decision-making expertise in a team sport context. Nine electronic databases (SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, PsycTests, PubMed, SAGE journals online, Web of Knowledge, Academic Search Complete, and Web of Science) were searched until the final return in March 2021. Fifty-three articles satisfied the inclusion criteria, were analysed thematically, and synthesised using a narrative approach. Findings indicate that the relative absence or presence of mental representation within the decision-making process depends on factors, including complexity, typicality, time available, and contextual priors available in the game situation. We recommend that future research integrate concepts and methodologies prevalent within each perspective to better understand decision-making within team sports before providing implications for practitioners.

Naturalistic Decision-Making in Sport: How Current Advances Into Recognition Primed Decision Model Offer Insights for Future Research in Sport Settings?

“…Taken together, these outcomes suggest that decision-making in a sport setting may take place on a continuum between intuitive and analytical processes (Kahneman and Klein, 2009 ). In this sense, integrated theoretical models of decision-making have recently been proposed for athletes (Ashford et al, 2021a , b ; Hallé Petiot et al, 2021 ), referees (Kittel et al, 2021a ; Samuel et al, 2021 ) and coaches (Collins et al, 2016 ; Richards et al, 2017 ). There is a lack of consistent empirical evidence in a sport setting for establishing the continuum from intuitive to analytical decision-making.…”

Differences in Decision-Making Behavior Between Elite and Amateur Team-Handball Players in a Near-Game Test Situation

“…Particularly, the need to focus more on the psychological and perceptual-cognitive components of athletes has been highlighted in recent studies ( Bangsbo, 2015 ; Woods et al, 2016 ; Bennett et al, 2018 ; Bergkamp et al, 2019 ; Sherwood et al, 2019 ; Piggott et al, 2020 ). Indeed, mounting evidence suggests that perceptual-cognitive skills such as decision making constitute a performance-discriminating component in team-sports ( Mann et al, 2007 ; Travassos et al, 2013 ; Silva et al, 2020 ; Ashford et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Against this background, it appears problematic to not consider the specific environment in which the players actually perform, and particularly to neglect the impact of sensorimotor interactions in decision making ( Burk et al, 2014 ; Raab, 2014 ). Recent examinations in netball ( Bruce et al, 2012 ), and soccer ( van Maarseveen et al, 2018a ) clearly suggest that the decision-making performance in perceptual-cognitive tests (using verbal reports, button press, or micro-movements) differs from actual real-world decision-making performances, thus hampering the ecological validity of findings ( Araújo et al, 2007 ; Ashford et al, 2021 ). Taken together, these studies highlight that assessing verbal or micro-movement responses ( Travassos et al, 2013 ) might be not sufficient to predict on-field performance, let alone to detect talents.…”

Examining the ability to track multiple moving targets as a function of postural stability: a comparison between team sports players and sedentary individuals

“…In the highly dynamic and constantly changing scenario of team sports such as basketball, soccer or handball, athletes need to rapidly process a considerable amount of information in order to make appropriate decisions ( Ashford, Abraham & Poolton, 2021 ; Roca & Williams, 2016 ). In this regard, the ability to track moving objects seems to be a crucial aspect of perceptual-cognitive function towards skilled performance in different sport disciplines ( Howard, Uttley & Andrews, 2018 ; Mackenzie et al, 2021 ).…”