ABSTRACT
Anticipation and decision-making skills are essential to performance in all field sports. It is reported that the ability to ‘read the game’ and to formulate appropriate decisions under time pressure are likely to discriminate elite and sub-elite field sports athletes better than physiological and anthropometric characteristics (Williams and Reilly, 2000). The perceived importance of ‘game intelligence’ skills such as anticipation and decision-making to elite-level performance has led to a significant growth in empirical research focusing on these topics over the last two decades. Sports scientists have attempted to develop methods that enable these skills to be captured under controlled conditions both in the laboratory and field setting. Process-tracing measures have been employed in order to try and identify the mechanisms underpinning effective performance. Finally, researchers have attempted to examine whether the acquisition of these skills can be facilitated through relevant training programmes (see Williams and Ericsson, 2005).
