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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Movement Science
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1356892
This article is part of the Research Topic Cognitive and Motor Skills in Sports View all 15 articles

Skillful and strategic navigation in soccer -A motor-cognitive dual-task approach for the evaluation of a dribbling task under different cognitive load conditions

Provisionally accepted
Thomas J. Klotzbier Thomas J. Klotzbier 1,2*Nadja Schott Nadja Schott 1,2
  • 1 University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
  • 2 Institute of Sport and Exercise Science, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Soccer is a competitive sport that relies on distinct motor skills and cognitive processes. However, cognitive aspects are often overlooked, with a focus mainly on motor skills. Limited research has explored screening tests within motor-cognitive navigation dual-task (DT) paradigms. This study aims to validate a sensitive approach for assessing soccer-specific dribbling by evaluating the Trail-Dribbling Test (TDT) as a method to differentiate high-performance (HP) from low-performance (LP) players. Two hundred and seventy-five participants (41 females) aged between 12 and 34 completed the Trail-Making Test (TMT), the Trail-Walking Test (TWT), and the soccerspecific TDT under three levels of cognitive load. Results indicated shorter TDT durations for HP compared to LP players, with increased cognitive load accentuating differences (TDT-M: p = .044, d = .260; TDT-A: p < .001, d = .449; TDT-B: p < .001, d = .653). The TDT effectively discriminated between HP and LP players in the 14-15 (AUC = .712 -.820) and 16-17 age groups (AUC = .634 -.839). In conclusion, the ecologically valid TDT demonstrates the potential for quantifying soccerspecific dribbling, offering insights into motor and cognitive aspects of dribbling performance, especially among soccer players aged 14-17.Most test procedures for assessing fundamental skills in soccer overlook the relevant cognitive components in a soccer game. This research aims to tackle this issue by utilizing a DT paradigm to investigate soccer-specific dribbling while also considering the pertinent cognitive processes.

    Keywords: soccer-dribbling, navigation, spatial abilities, Motor-cognitive interference, assessment

    Received: 16 Dec 2023; Accepted: 08 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Klotzbier and Schott. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Thomas J. Klotzbier, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.