From Tactical Understanding to Tactical Awareness: Exploring Cognitive–Behavioral Links in Youth Players

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the relationship between Understanding Tactics and Strategy and Tactical Awareness in futsal players and identify the relationship between the components of tactical understanding and tactical behavior that arises during the game. The main premise of the study is that tactical understanding not only reflects the player's conceptual knowledge, but also relates to the ability to make decisions, execute skills, provide support, organize the game, manage match situations, and adjust strategies. The study uses a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional correlational descriptive design. Participants consisted of 20 futsal players of SMAN 1 Palabuhanratu who were selected through a total sampling. Understanding tactics and strategies was measured using 15 valid items grouped into Organization and Coordination, Game Management, and Strategy Adaptation, while Tactical Awareness was measured through the GPAI approach which includes Decision Making, Execution of Skills, and Support. Since the two main variables did not meet the assumption of normality, the relationship between variables was analyzed using Spearman correlation. The results showed that Understanding Tactics and Strategy had a strong and significant positive relationship with Tactical Awareness (ρ = 0.781; p < 0.001). Tactical understanding was also significantly related to Decision Making and Execution of Skills, but not significantly to Support. All components of tactical understanding were positively associated with Tactical Awareness, with the strongest relationship found in Game Management, followed by Organization and Coordination and Strategy Adaptation. Thus, the research hypothesis was accepted: the better the player's understanding of tactics and strategies, the higher the tendency of Tactical Awareness displayed in the game. These findings confirm the importance of integrating conceptual tactical learning with representative and contextual game training.

Keywords: Tactical Awareness; Tactical Understanding; Decision Making; Game Performance.