High-quality players survey the field of play for clues about what their opponents will try to do in a manner which varies strikingly from the visual search patterns used by less-experienced performers.

To find out exactly how soccer players become skilled at anticipating events on the field, the English scientists studied 15 experienced and 15 inexperienced male soccer players. The experienced athletes had 13 years of playing experience and had played an average of 640 competitive matches, while the inexperienced subjects had played for five years in an average of 73 matches. The experienced players included eight college first-team players and seven professionals; college third-team and recreational players comprised the inexperienced contingent.

All 30 players watched test films containing 26 soccer action sequences, selected from a sample of college and professional soccer matches. The games had been filmed from a position behind and above the goal, which allowed the entire field of play to be viewed on film. As the players watched the matches, their eye movements were captured with a special recorder. As a pattern of play developed, a black square highlighted a player on the viewing screen; when the ball was passed to this player, the subjects had to verbalise as quickly as possible the player to whom the next pass would go.

Analysis of the athletes' reactions demonstrated that the experienced players were far better at anticipating final-pass destinations and made significantly quicker responses, compared to their less-experienced counterparts. How were they able to do it? The eye-movement recorder showed that the experienced players conducted a more extensive visual search of the field of play as they watched the match. For one thing, they shifted their gaze from one part of the field to another about 25-per cent more often than their inexperienced peers.

Experienced players were also better at discerning relevant portions of the field of play. While inexperienced players fixated on the ball and the player actually passing the ball, experienced players focused on peripheral aspects of play, such as the movements of other players not in close contact with the ball - players who were moving into open areas of the field in which they might eventually receive a strategic pass.

The Liverpool-Manchester scientists recommended that football coaches show game films to their players while stopping the film frequently in order to highlight important 'off-ball' movements. As players learn to stop ball watching' and develop a knack for determining where everyone on the field is going, they will learn to anticipate play development. Then their only task will be to learn to make the right decision about how to stop or assist the ensuing attack on the goal.

('Visual Search Strategies in Experienced and Inexperienced Soccer Players,' Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, vol. 65(2), pp. 127-135, 1994)