Enhancing the effectiveness of tactical decision-making in 13–14-year-old football players during individual actions and group interactions

The ability to make rational and effective tactical decisions in the context of competitive game activity largely determines the appropriateness and effectiveness of football players' actions. In the scientific and methodological literature, pedagogical approaches predominate, which insufficiently reflect the specifics of competitive game activity of football players and do not take into account the characteristics of the manifestation of tactical thinking qualities underlying individual and group tactics of football players aged 13–14 years. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of an experimental methodology, based on the use of exercises with a creative nature of activity, on the effectiveness of tactical decisions made by 13–14-year-old football players in individual actions and group interactions. Research methods: theoretical analysis and synthesis of scientific and methodological literature, pedagogical observation, pedagogical experiment, and methods of mathematical and statistical data processing. Research results indicate that the inclusion of exercises with a creative nature in the training process, based on the principles of problem-based learning and incorporating additional tasks and constraints, contributes to the improvement of the quality of football players' tactical decisions in competitive game conditions. The results obtained confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method as a pedagogical tool that enhances the quality of individual and group tactical decisions among 13–14-year-old football players.