Abstract
Decision-making is a complex process during which footballers are required to extract
relevant information when faced with various stimuli, and then choose the appropriate plan of
action which should then be executed. Decisions are sometimes made with conscious
information processing and at other times are more intuitive. Decision-making can be studied
from numerous perspectives. This study incorporated three different scientific components of
sport performance. The fields of sport psychology, sports vision and fitness were combined to
determine the role they play in decision-making of football players in competitive matches.
The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a visual and psychological
intervention and monitor the effect of seasonal variations in fitness on the decision-making of
elite South African football players. A secondary aim was to investigate the effect of external
match components on the decision-making of elite South African football players.
The research was based on a mixed-method, pre-test, post-test experimental case study of a
single team competing in the South African Premier League. Players were put through a
standardised sport psychology, sport vision and fitness test battery before and after an eight
week vision and psychological intervention program. The number and quality of decisions
and quality of executions during one-third of the team’s league matches was also recorded
and correlations between the test and match variables were statistically determined. External
match factors such as kick-off time, venue, number of spectators at the stadium, whether the
match was televised or not were also recorded and the impact of these variable on match
result and decisions was determined. Statistical significance was set at 95% (p≤0.05).
This study found that a visual and psychological intervention can lead to improvements in
sports vision and sport psychology components, but only found that mental rehearsal, centralperipheral
vision, goal directedness, hand-eye co-ordination and contrast sensitivity were
linked to decision-making and execution variables. This study also found seasonal variation
in fitness components, with fitness in the post-test lower than for the pre-test. Aerobic
endurance and leg power were important in the decision-making and execution of decisions.
Match factors such as the average age of the team, tactical approach of the team and the...
D.Phil. (Sport Science)