Creativity in sports: The crucial role of motor skills

Abstract

What enables athletes to perform creative actions in their sports? In the last two decades, sports studies have predominantly assumed that divergent thinking (DT) is the key ingredient and have developed sport-specific DT tests to assess players’ creativity. However, a fundamental question remains: Do players who score high on sport-specific DT tests perform more creative actions on the field? The DT approach in sports has recently been challenged by the hypothesis that creative actions are primarily enabled (or limited) by players’ motor skill repertoires. Here, predictions based on the DT and motor skill approach are tested in the domain of soccer. Studies 1a and b tested male under-12 players, and Study 2 tested female under-19 players of a professional soccer club. All three studies indicated no correlation between the creativity of actions performed on the field (rated with the Consensual Assessment Technique) and players’ soccer-specific DT. In contrast, moderate to high correlations between on-field creativity and motor skills were found. These results challenge the DT approach in sports and the validity of sport-specific DT tests, highlighting the crucial role of sensorimotor skills in performing creative actions in sports or other domains in which creative performance is embodied through motor actions.