The Effect of Linear and Non-linear Training and Constraints on the Perception-Action Coupling of Football Players

Background: Pedagogy methods are used by applying constraints and perceptual skills to analyze the factors that play a key role in the performance of football players. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of linear and non-linear pedagogy and constraints on the perception-action coupling (P-AC) of football players. Methods: The research method was semi-experimental. Seventy male undergraduate students of Urmia University were randomly divided into seven equal groups of pedagogy using style E tactical (SET), play practice (PP), game sense (GS), SET with constraints, PP with constraints, GS with constraints, and traditional methods. The participants were evaluated in the four stages of pre-test, post-test, retention and transfer test in the variable of P-AC and actual target area (ATA). Results: The results showed that the non-linear pedagogy groups had significant progress in the parameters of P-AC and ATA from the pre-test to transfer. Also, there is a significant difference between the non-linear and traditional pedagogy groups in the variables of P-AC and ATA. The non-linear groups performed better than the traditional group in the transfer phase. Conclusions: Therefore, the use of non-linear pedagogy in football training can be useful for the development of perceptual skills.