An intervention program based on team building during tactical training tasks to improve team functioning

Juan M Tassi; Miguel A López-Gajardo; Francisco M Leo; Jesús Díaz-García; Tomás García-Calvo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1065323

An intervention program based on team building during tactical training tasks to improve team functioning

Front Psychol. 2023 Mar 2:14:1065323. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1065323. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Juan M Tassi¹, Miguel A López-Gajardo¹, Francisco M Leo², Jesús Díaz-García¹, Tomás García-Calvo¹

Affiliations

¹ Análisis Comportamental de la Actividad Física y el Deporte (ACAFYDE), Departamento de Didáctica de la Expresión Musical, Plástica y Corporal, Facultad de Ciencias del Deporte, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. de la Universidad, s/n, Cáceres, Spain.
² Análisis Comportamental de la Actividad Física y el Deporte (ACAFYDE), Departamento de Didáctica de la Expresión Musical, Plástica y Corporal, Facultad de Formación del Profesorado, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. de la Universidad, s/n, Cáceres, Spain.

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the effects of an intervention program based on team building developed in technical-tactical training tasks in football. Specifically, it examined the benefits of the intervention in variables related to the conceptual model of team building: role clarity, team identification, intra-team communication, cohesion, intra-group conflict, commitment to the team, inside sacrifice, transactive memory systems, collective efficacy, and perceived performance. The participants were 51 young elite footballers divided into an experimental group (n = 27) and a control group (n = 24). The methodological design was quasi-experimental with a duration of 8 weeks. The data were collected three times: pretest, posttest, and follow-up. The results showed differences favoring the experimental group compared to the control group after the implementation of the intervention program in the following variables: team identification (p < 0.001), role clarity (p < 0.001), intra-team communication (p < 0.001; except distinctiveness), group cohesion (p < 0.05), social conflict (p = 0.001), commitment to the team (p < 0.001), inside sacrifice (p < 0.001), transactive memory systems (p < 0.01; except coordination), collective efficacy (p = 0.02) and team performance (p = 0.001). Consequently, the application of team-building strategies incorporated into specific technical-tactical training tasks in football seems to improve group dynamics in sports teams.

Keywords: collective efficacy; collective functioning; group cohesion; intra-group conflict; quasi-experimental design.