Defensive Soccer Players’ Decision Making: A Naturalistic Study

International audienceThe aim of this study was to describe the decision making of professional defensive football players according to the Recognition-Primed Decision model (Klein, 1997), and to investigate relationships between their recognition processes and use of salient situational features in a naturalistic setting. Method: Behavioural data were obtained from video-recordings of four high-level football players in a top-level game, supplemented by verbal data collected during video-cued recall interviews, with the players watching the videotapes. Seven critical defensive stages in one game were studied. The data were analysed using content analysis in relation to the RPD model in five steps. Results and Discussion: Considering the salient features the athletes used, 112 decisions were classified into three types of processes and 8 typical decisions for defensive stages. These findings are discussed from three perspectives: the salient features the athletes used to assess the situation; the recognition processes of expert sport players’ decision making; future directions for research and decision-making training