Comparison of the elite and non-elite soccer players in terms of accuracyand speed of decision making performance

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the difference between the decision making performances of elite and non-elite soccer players. Following a review of that subject's literature and correspondence with six experienced Football Association coaches, 10 soccer decision making problems, that were considered to be typical of attacking situations, were identified, The photographs of these positions were taken as slides. When the slides were projected on to a screen using a slide projector, Digital Timer started automatically working. Slides were shown for five seconds. Subjects were instructed to make a decision as accurately but also as quickly as possible. The answer was made into a microphone, the sound of the subject's voice stopped the digital timer. Accuracy and speed of decisions were the dependent variables. For accuracy one point was given for a correct answer and none if the answer was wrong. Speed of decision was measured by digital timer. Subjects (N=40) were tested at rest and while cycling on a cycle ergometer at 70 % of their maximum power output. Twenty male professional soccer players and twenty male amateur soccer players were participated and their aged between 19 to 29 years old in this study. Mann-Whitney U and Student T tests were used the evaluate differences in data obtained. The validity and reliability of this study were made by Mc. Morris and Grayton in their study. A significant relationship was no found in terms of the speed of decisions of the elite and non-elite soccer players. (p>0.05) But an improvement at the speed of decision of both groups has been shown in the cycle ergometer test. In addition, there was no a relationship between the accuracy of decisions of the elite and non-elite soccer (p>0.05) During the resting, it has been shown that the accuracy of decisions of both groups were better than the other test's results. Key Words : Athletic, anticipation, Perception, Decision Making, Athletic Performance, Soccer