Cognitive processes in small-sided games

Abstract

Team sports are played in highly unpredictable environments, in which players’ cognitive processes are critical to successful Decision Making.Thus, it is important that training settings provide players a variety of game situations that will allow them to develop the cognitive processes related to their Decision-Making capacity.Accordingly,it is crucial to understand how to develop the cognitive processes to optimize teaching-learning processes and increase sports performance.Therefore, the aim of this point of view is to discuss the adoption of Small-Sided Games (SSGs) to develop cognitive processes related to Decision Making (perception, knowledge, and decision) considering the coaches’ role in this process. Indeed, the multiple possibilities of modification of the SSGs lead to more opportunities to develop players’ cognitive processes, since they rely more often on memory, knowledge, and decision towards solving the ever-changing situations experienced in the game. Hence, we propose that coaches have an important role in evaluating the players’ needs and proposing the use of SSGs and their different manipulations.These diverse games are expected to promote practice variability and favor an unpredictable environment with several tactical experiences that represent a greater cognitive demand. In other words, since the processes related to Decision Making need to be activated more often and in different ways during diverse situations experienced in SSGs, players are provided with more opportunities to develop their cognitive processes.