Ability to act in football: Act quickly and effectively on the pitch

Scientific foundation

The ability to act in football, also known as "speed of action" or "reaction ability", is the ability to make the right decision in the shortest possible time and to implement it motorically. It is a complex ability that is made up of various factors:

• Information processing: Players must be able to quickly and accurately absorb and process information from their environment, such as the positions of teammates, opponents and the ball.
• Decision-making skills: Based on the information they perceive, players must decide quickly and effectively how to act.
• Motor implementation: Players must then be able to implement the decision as quickly as possible, i.e. carry out the corresponding movements.

The ability to act is very important in football, as it comes into play in many game-relevant situations, such as tackling, building up play and scoring goals. Players with good ability to act can react to situations more quickly, make better decisions and carry out their actions more effectively.

Advantages

Improving football skills offers numerous benefits for players of all ages and abilities:

• Faster reaction times: Players with good action skills can react more quickly to situations and adapt their actions accordingly.
• Better tackling: Players can win tackling better thanks to their faster reaction and decision-making skills.
• Greater effectiveness in game build-up: Players with good action skills can play the ball faster and more precisely and thus make game build-up more effective.
• Lower risk of losing the ball: Faster decision-making and implementation mean players lose the ball less often.
• Increased goal threat: Players with good action skills can better exploit their chances to score.

Practical examples

There are various exercises and training methods to train your football skills. Here are some examples:

• Reaction training: In these training forms, players are trained to respond to various stimuli, such as acoustic or visual stimuli, and must react as quickly as possible.
• Decision training: Players are faced with various decisions in game-like situations and must make them quickly and effectively. Here, act as a coach with questions so that you find out that
• Pressure training: In this form of training, players are put under pressure, e.g. through time pressure or pressure from opponents, and still have to make quick and correct decisions.
• Games with a time limit: In these games, players only have a limited amount of time to play the ball, which trains their ability to act.

However, the following applies here: from the easy to the difficult and from the known to the unknown. Introduce your players step by step. With the RESWITCH bibs, for example, you can start with two categories (e.g. color and symbol) and then expand.

Conclusion

Action ability is an important skill in football that can be improved through targeted training. Players with good action ability are more successful on the pitch and have more fun playing.