ArticleFrontiers in psychology2020
Scanning, Contextual Factors, and Association With Performance in English Premier League Footballers: An Investigation Across a Season.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Optimizing Agility Training in Team Sport Players-The Role of Perception- Action Coupling: A Systematic Review with Multi-Level Meta-Analysis.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2026Pooled it
- A scoping review of empirical research on executive functions and game intelligence in soccer.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- A pilot study investigating immediate effects of vergence training on binocular function and reaction time in youth badminton athletes.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Effects of 6-Week Motor-Cognitive Agility Training on Football Test Performance in Adult Amateur Players - A Three-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2024Trial
- Daytime Napping Benefits Passing Performance and Scanning Activity in Elite Soccer Players.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2023Trial
- From Psychological Skills Training to Observable Behavior: A Pilot Study Operationalizing the 5Cs as a Behavioral Coding Framework for Youth Central Defenders.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Scan frequency and timing in relation to performance in elite youth female football players during 11v11 match play.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Correspondence between motion sensor kinematics and notational analysis of scanning in field-based football gameplay.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- 'Match load' construct in professional football: complexities and considerations.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- Perceptual-cognitive skills in talent development environments: a survey of academy football coaches in the United Kingdom.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Effects of virtual reality-based cognitive and technical drills on scanning and passing performance in youth football players: a randomized controlled study.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Optimizing Scanning in Youth Female Football: The Role of Verbal Instructions.European journal of sport science · 2025Article
- "Heads Up Girls!" a training intervention to improve scanning behavior in youth female football.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Perceptual-cognitive skills and talent development environments in soccer: A scoping review.PloS one · 2025Article
- The Role of Virtual Reality in the Management of Football Injuries.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Review
- The effect of electro-magnetic-energy-regulation therapy on subjective sleep among elite players in Norwegian women's football.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- Cognition in elite soccer players: a general model.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- What is the visual behaviour and attentional effort of football players in different positions during a real 11v11 game? A pilot study.F1000Research · 2023Article
- Self-reported visual symptoms and high visual demand activities in professional football players: a cross-sectional survey.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2023Article
- Virtual training, real effects: a narrative review on sports performance enhancement through interventions in virtual reality.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Scanning in football (soccer) denotes an active head movement where a player's face is temporarily directed away from the ball to gather information in preparation for subsequently engaging with the ball. The aim of this study was to learn more about the ways that 27 elite professional football players in an English Premier League club use scanning in competitive matches, the conditions under which this behavior is exhibited, and the relationships between these behaviors and performance. Players were filmed across 21 matches, producing a total number of 9,574 individual ball possessions for analysis. Close-up video analyses of scanning show positional differences (with central midfielders and central defenders scanning most frequently, forwards least) and contextual differences (with relatively lower scanning frequency in situations with tight opponent pressure, in positions wide in the field and closer to the opponent's goal, and under certain game state conditions). Players scan more frequently prior to giving passes than when they dribble, shoot, or only receive it, as well as prior to more long/forward passes compared to short/backward ones, although these differences are small. A Bayesian hierarchical model, which accounts for individual player differences and pass difficulty, suggests that the more a player scans, the higher the probability of completing a pass. In conclusion, match demands are likely to constrain the extent to which highly elite players scan, and scanning seems to have a small, but positive role in elite football players' performance.
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