What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study (2024)

Ballet, C., Barreto, J., Hope, E. (2023). What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study. F1000Research, 12, Article 679. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.134231.4

Ballet, Charles ; Barreto, Joana ; Hope, Edward et al. / What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study. In: F1000Research. 2023 ; Vol. 12.

@article{ec5b4eb1c3834f25a205aeffe525324c,

title = "What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study",

abstract = "Background: Visual perception has been defined as the first step to a football player{\textquoteright}s decision-making process and it plays an important role in performance in sport. The skill of focussing to prioritize relevant cues has been also considered crucial in sport. This pilot study aims to explore the visual behaviour and attentional effort of three football players (mean age 19 ± 0 years old) in specific-role positions; Right-winger (RW), Centre-Midfielder (CM) and Left-Back (LB), in the five seconds before receiving the ball from their teammate. Methods: Twenty-two male football players performed an 11v11 game, where 24 game sequences (trials) from which 166 fixations were recorded and analysed via the Tobii Pro eye-movement registration glasses and software. The gaze behaviour dependent variables were the mean of fixation duration (FD), time to first fixation (TTF), both measured in milliseconds (ms), and the number of fixations (NF) on eight areas of interest (AOIs). AOIs include teammate with and without the ball, opponent without the ball, space around teammate with and without the ball, space around opponent without the ball, ball and undefined. The mean pupil diameter (PD) correlates to the attentional effort and was measured in millimetres (mm). Results: Descriptive statistics showed nonregular search rate data between the participants in FD, TTF, NF on the AOIs. Mean FD on the ball: (CM, 270 ms), (RW, 570 ms), (CM, 380 ms). They also presented differences in the mean PD during play; (CM: 2.90 mm ± 0.26), (RW: 2.74 mm ± 0.30), (LB 2.77mm ± 0.27). Conclusions: Albeit the sample size was small, the findings demonstrated a promising way to measure the on-field perceptual-cognitive abilities of football players according to their specific positions, since different playing roles revealed to present distinctive visual and attentional patterns. This could potentially assist in tailoring players {\textquoteleft}visual and focus training.",

keywords = "Football, decision making, eye-tracking, perceptual-cognitive skills, player-role",

author = "Charles Ballet and Joana Barreto and Edward Hope and Filipe Casanova",

note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 Ballet C et al.",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.12688/f1000research.134231.4",

language = "English",

volume = "12",

journal = "F1000Research",

issn = "2046-1402",

publisher = "F1000 Research Ltd",

}

Ballet, C, Barreto, J, Hope, E 2023, 'What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study', F1000Research, vol. 12, 679. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.134231.4

What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study. / Ballet, Charles; Barreto, Joana; Hope, Edward et al.
In: F1000Research, Vol. 12, 679, 2023.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study

AU - Ballet, Charles

AU - Barreto, Joana

AU - Hope, Edward

AU - Casanova, Filipe

N1 - Publisher Copyright:Copyright: © 2023 Ballet C et al.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Background: Visual perception has been defined as the first step to a football player’s decision-making process and it plays an important role in performance in sport. The skill of focussing to prioritize relevant cues has been also considered crucial in sport. This pilot study aims to explore the visual behaviour and attentional effort of three football players (mean age 19 ± 0 years old) in specific-role positions; Right-winger (RW), Centre-Midfielder (CM) and Left-Back (LB), in the five seconds before receiving the ball from their teammate. Methods: Twenty-two male football players performed an 11v11 game, where 24 game sequences (trials) from which 166 fixations were recorded and analysed via the Tobii Pro eye-movement registration glasses and software. The gaze behaviour dependent variables were the mean of fixation duration (FD), time to first fixation (TTF), both measured in milliseconds (ms), and the number of fixations (NF) on eight areas of interest (AOIs). AOIs include teammate with and without the ball, opponent without the ball, space around teammate with and without the ball, space around opponent without the ball, ball and undefined. The mean pupil diameter (PD) correlates to the attentional effort and was measured in millimetres (mm). Results: Descriptive statistics showed nonregular search rate data between the participants in FD, TTF, NF on the AOIs. Mean FD on the ball: (CM, 270 ms), (RW, 570 ms), (CM, 380 ms). They also presented differences in the mean PD during play; (CM: 2.90 mm ± 0.26), (RW: 2.74 mm ± 0.30), (LB 2.77mm ± 0.27). Conclusions: Albeit the sample size was small, the findings demonstrated a promising way to measure the on-field perceptual-cognitive abilities of football players according to their specific positions, since different playing roles revealed to present distinctive visual and attentional patterns. This could potentially assist in tailoring players ‘visual and focus training.

AB - Background: Visual perception has been defined as the first step to a football player’s decision-making process and it plays an important role in performance in sport. The skill of focussing to prioritize relevant cues has been also considered crucial in sport. This pilot study aims to explore the visual behaviour and attentional effort of three football players (mean age 19 ± 0 years old) in specific-role positions; Right-winger (RW), Centre-Midfielder (CM) and Left-Back (LB), in the five seconds before receiving the ball from their teammate. Methods: Twenty-two male football players performed an 11v11 game, where 24 game sequences (trials) from which 166 fixations were recorded and analysed via the Tobii Pro eye-movement registration glasses and software. The gaze behaviour dependent variables were the mean of fixation duration (FD), time to first fixation (TTF), both measured in milliseconds (ms), and the number of fixations (NF) on eight areas of interest (AOIs). AOIs include teammate with and without the ball, opponent without the ball, space around teammate with and without the ball, space around opponent without the ball, ball and undefined. The mean pupil diameter (PD) correlates to the attentional effort and was measured in millimetres (mm). Results: Descriptive statistics showed nonregular search rate data between the participants in FD, TTF, NF on the AOIs. Mean FD on the ball: (CM, 270 ms), (RW, 570 ms), (CM, 380 ms). They also presented differences in the mean PD during play; (CM: 2.90 mm ± 0.26), (RW: 2.74 mm ± 0.30), (LB 2.77mm ± 0.27). Conclusions: Albeit the sample size was small, the findings demonstrated a promising way to measure the on-field perceptual-cognitive abilities of football players according to their specific positions, since different playing roles revealed to present distinctive visual and attentional patterns. This could potentially assist in tailoring players ‘visual and focus training.

KW - Football

KW - decision making

KW - eye-tracking

KW - perceptual-cognitive skills

KW - player-role

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DO - 10.12688/f1000research.134231.4

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JO - F1000Research

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Ballet C, Barreto J, Hope E, Casanova F. What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study. F1000Research. 2023;12:679. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.134231.4