Measuring tactical creativity with the help of divergent thought: Example of TRNC U-21 football teams

Abstract

This study aims on the assessment of the situations of tactical orientation of 36 young, elite soccer players born in the years 1999-2000-2001, selected between 2 cities, 6 teams which belong to Cyprus Turkish Football Association (Kibris Turk Futbol Federasyonu) in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This study evaluates the aspects in two ways. In order to evaluate the tactical directed situations, specific tactics and creative performance were measured with respect to Game Test. In case 1, Longitudinal design was carried to analyse intra-individual improvements of elite young football players according to football-specific creativity and tactical game intelligence by using a dynamic performance diagnostic tool. In case 2, cross-sectional design was carried in which objective, valid, differentiative enough to record, tactical indicators were created to measure football-specific creativity and game intelligence as a diagnostic instrument. In both of the studies, different evaluation criteria were spotted and with these criteria, players were scored. According to these scores, divergent tactical thinking results has been obtained. The results according to divergent tactical thinking showed that disparate changes were obtained in between the players of KTFF U-21. As a result, the practical implications for the processes of training has been deeply discussed in both cases.