Tactical knowledge of seven-13 years old children depending on their sport context

Abstract

Differences in tactical knowledge of children aged seven-13 years from three different sports contexts (school, recreation and specific) were analyzed. Participants completed the Soccer Tactical Knowledge
Test and results were analyzed according to the age, experience and sport context of the individuals. Age and experience correlated significantly with the tactical knowledge (r = ,31; r= ,41; r= ,53), although the magnitude of these correlations was low (r < ,70) according to the consideration of results classified as acceptable coefficients (Gregory, 2000). Specific context participants showed significantly higher knowledge than the school context individuals: declarative (Z = -8,29; p = ,00; r = ,42), procedural (Z = -5,39; p = ,00; r = ,27) and tactical knowledge (Z = -6,85, p = .00, r = .34). Recreational context participants scored significantly higher than the school context individuals: declarative (Z = -6,63; p = ,00; r = ,36), procedural (Z = -5,15; p = ,00; r = ,28) and tactical knowledge (Z = -6,63; p = ,00; r = ,36). No differences were observed between specific and recreational contexts. Findings show that age and experience were not the main cause of the differences observed. Probably, the specific possibilities of learning of each context affected to the participants’ knowledge. More studies are needed to examine the relationship between tactical knowledge and other variables such as teaching sports methodologies employed in different sport contexts.