How the psychological variable influences the outcome of a match

Soccer is an open and dynamic sport. Multiple variables interact in the game, during which you have to make effective and quick decisions with a high level of activation or stress. In addition, in a tournament as particular as Qatar 2022, there are factors external to the athlete and to the task that can determine the effectiveness of his behavior during matches.

The soccer World Cup is a competition that has great media coverage, it competes alongside soccer players from other countries, the margin of error is minimal, the preparation period for the teams has been short, and the stadiums in which it is played are not the same. usual. This can cause an overexcitation of the athlete that affects his performance, so it is important to help him psychologically manage this context.

Success, linked to the ability to make decisions

In this type of competition, the demands are maximum and precision in actions is key to keeping aspirations alive in a tournament that does not grant second chances. Thus, the one who makes decisions faster and makes fewer mistakes is more likely to win.

Therefore, the ability of the player to better manage their emotions and the environment, interpret the needs of the game, select the best options and execute them with precision will determine success or failure.

Making appropriate decisions requires an interactive process involving individual, task, and environmental variables. According to the available scientific evidence, decision-making in sport is an aspect that can be trained and improved to optimize sports performance.

However, in soccer the context of the game is constantly changing where each situation is different from others, so training the behavior of soccer players requires taking into account the subsequent exposure they will have in real game contexts.

Cognitive training improves performance

An important question is the psychological and cognitive variables involved in the game. Based on these factors, it is considered that cognitive training contributes to improving effective behavior in decision situations.

The development of a match requires footballers to have an appropriate level of expertise to perceive and process information from the environment that allows them to assess the situation and decide quickly and efficiently to resolve it. Exposure to such contexts facilitates the player’s adaptation to different events that may arise. For this, psychological and cognitive training integrated into the preparation of the player is essential.

Training the ability to select relevant stimuli and discard distractors, as well as improving the impulsiveness of behavior or increasing the speed of response to a specific stimulus improve the performance of soccer players when they make decisions.

Above all, better cognitive functioning, since the effectiveness of psychological training in situations of uncertainty has been observed, since the automatisms learned throughout their sporting life do not allow them to give an effective response if this training has not been received. The examples throughout this championship are multiple.

You train like you compete

On the other hand, from the environmental perspective it is proposed that training in decision-making be based on the manipulation of those limiting factors, whether of the individual, the task or the environment. In this case, it will be very important to expose the players to game situations that simulate the great expectation and atmosphere expected in the stands, the intensity expected from the rivals, managing the anxiety and activation that can trigger rash actions, etc. In this sense, strategies such as small games can meet the requirements for this type of training, since they allow manipulating the variables while maintaining the natural objective of the game.

At this point in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, it has already been possible to verify in extreme situations such as penalty shootouts, that the accumulated fatigue and the pressure to turn the shot into a goal have played tricks. This reiterates the importance of training game situations in an environment and conditions similar to those of the competition. It is of little use to repeatedly train an action in an environment that has little or nothing to do with the real demands present at the decisive moment.

Claiming the role of the sports psychologist

However, it is not always easy to train this issue, since what is experienced during a game cannot be faithfully reproduced in training. However, from sports psychology an answer to this question can be offered.

From this applied discipline, resources are offered so that coaches and athletes can better prepare these technical situations: visualization, hypnosis applied to sport, relaxation techniques, cognitive control training, behavioral routines, activation control. , among others, can help the athlete to better manage these circumstances.

This is a challenge that football has pending, to optimally and adequately assume the training of psychological variables, especially when it has been shown that they account for 30% of performance.

Antonio Hernández Mendo, Professor of Sports Psychology, Malaga University; Alejandro Sabarit Peñalosa, PhD in Psychology, Malaga University, and Rafael E. Reigal Garrido, Professor of Social Psychology. Expert in Sports Psychology, Malaga University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.