Exploring key competencies sought to potentialize tactical behavior in soccer players.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Soccer is part of the team sports games category and is characterized by the cooperation and opposition interactions between players in the same space of play and time. Thus, players must adequately decide what action to perform despite the unpredictable, random, and varying nature of the environment of play.

AIM: This paper explores tactical competencies that can be appreciated in the way players play and their functioning.

METHOD: The argumentation is structured over a review of sixty articles in five languages, selected from the results in an online university library with topic-related keywords. The selected papers were analyzed to identify the most frequently reported concepts related to (i) tactics and action in the play; (ii) decision-making and associated cognitive mechanisms and skills; and (iii) the teaching-learning-training process.

RESULTS: The results of this review sum the three following competencies: tactical intelligence, creativity, and co-adaptability. We argue that these competencies can be built through the play's practice and that coaches should seek to use them to the advantage of player’s development. Small-sided and conditioned games reflect a compatible opportunity to nurture the competencies as long as they are configured to solicit the competencies in an environment that promotes them.

CONCLUSION: Tactical intelligence, creativity, and co-adaptability can be appreciated in the tactical behavior shown by performing players. For the same reason, those also should constitute more of the player’s development curriculum, therefore leading to players who have a competitive advantage.