E-ISSN:2319-3050

Research Article

Sports

International Journal of Research Padagogy and Technology in Education and Movement Sciences

2023 Volume 12 Number 01 JAN-MAR
Publisherwww.theuniversityacademics.com

Improving Selective Football Performance Skills: In the Case of University of Gondar Third Year Sport Science Football Elective Students of 2022

Abebe Y.1*
DOI: 10.55968/ijems.v12i01.233

1* Yibeltal Getnet Abebe, College of Natural and Computational Science, Sports Science, University of Gondar, Gondar, , Ethiopia.

The aim of study is to improve football skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting of third year football elective students within eight weeks mixed football training program. 12 male and6 female totally 18 football elective third year sport science students of Gondar University were participated in the study. All participants were selected by comprehensive sampling method. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Paired Sample T test) were used for data analysis. The mean score (42.17 for dribbling skill, 74.47 for passing skill and 17.94 for shooting skill) from pretest revealed that the performance mean score of dribbling, passing and shooting skills of all participants were low. After eight weeks training implemented, the participant students improved their skills of dribbling, passing and shooting. As findings of this study from posttest after intervention depicted that the performance mean score (31.28 for dribbling skill, 55.72 for passing skill and 32.56 for shooting skill); there were significant difference between pretest and posttest mean score of dribbling , passing and shooting skills. Because of the p value of the three football skills were .00 which less than the p value of 0.05; this shows there were highly significant difference between means of the pretest and posttest of the above three football skills. The intervention was very effective and successful in the improvement of participants dribbling, passing and shooting skills.

Keywords: Football Skills, Skill Test, Slalom Dribble Test, Loughborough Soccer Passing Test

Corresponding Author How to Cite this Article To Browse
Yibeltal Getnet Abebe, College of Natural and Computational Science, Sports Science, University of Gondar, Gondar, , Ethiopia.
Email:
Yibeltal Getnet Abebe, Improving Selective Football Performance Skills: In the Case of University of Gondar Third Year Sport Science Football Elective Students of 2022. IJEMS. 2023;12(01):1-8.
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https://ijems.net/index.php/ijem/article/view/233

Manuscript Received Review Round 1 Review Round 2 Review Round 3 Accepted
2021-12-27 2023-01-10 2023-01-31 2023-02-17 2023-02-27
Conflict of Interest Funding Ethical Approval Plagiarism X-checker Note
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© 2023by Yibeltal Getnet Abebeand Published by The University Academics. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ unported [CC BY 4.0].

Introduction

The teaching learning process and its result toward the learners may affected by a number of factors. Most scholars suggested different ideas concerning effective teaching learning process and factors affecting it. Thus, teaching method, material availability, time allocation and lesson organization are the main factors. Especially when we come to practical teaching learning process like sport science program, the severity of problems become very high. Because  practical course such as football, volleyball, athletics, gymnastics, and others need a lot of time, skilled teacher, sufficient facilities and equipment.For example football is the most popular sport in the world and it is among the ball games have taught in our university sport science program which  deliver to second year and third year football elective students . Even though football requires a combination of techniques, tactics, physical fitness, mental strength, and team work, techniques such as passing, dribbling receiving and shooting are basic and students must have these technical skills after repeated practical sessions. In our country concerning football the major problems related to soccer skill deficiencies. This is lack of training focused on football fundamental skills (dribbling, passing and shooting). The principal technical skills are shooting, passing, ball control, dribbling Reilly & Holmes, (1983). Passing is the lifeblood of any team and a vital skill for all players to learn, including goalkeepers. Soccer would be nothing without goals so the only way to score is shooting and running with the ball under control is known as dribbling.  In order to enhance the students’ skill learning ability and motivation; the appropriate and participatory instructional method is essential as stated by Corbin C. and Lindsey R. (1994). Development of game performance is generally seen in learning tactical and technical skills, and their integration into the game context (Mitchell, Oslin, &Griffi n, 2006; Gréhaigne, Richard, &Griffi n, 2005). Regular training is necessary to improve students’ skills of football. Training of football requires developing the physical fitness of the players and the technical skills in the game and understanding the principles of play and training as stated by wondimu and Damene (2004). So practicing football techniques needs the application of different physical exercise and different drills of football techniques. As it leads to the acquisition of different football skills, sport science teachers who specialized in football

can use the drills of football techniques as a means of attainment of the objectives of teaching football techniques.

Purpose and Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study is to improve students’ football skills through eight weeks mixed football training program. Effective teaching learning processes need an active participation of students, especially practical course like football in the higher educational institution require students participation to achieve the desire objective of the course. In University Gondar sport science department there are numbers of practical course delivering throughout the year, among these football is one. We know that football is the most popular sport in the world and it can be played by any age, sex and everywhere as amusement but in the perspective of formal competition it needs rule and regulation as well as organization and administration. Playing football is not easy as we see because it needs physiological, psychological, technical and tactical preparation. In Ethiopia football is the most liked sport but still now the people is not satisfied because of our sport is not developed. Even football coaching professionals who graduated from universities couldn’t change our football because they are not practically fit. For example, in football passing, dribbling and shooting are the basic and backbone of football but if we see our university football elective students: their football skills are very low as we get form pretests of their skills of passing, dribbling and shooting. These problems happened because of insufficient time to exercise, inconvenience of exercise, lack of self-motivation, number of students, lack of confidence in their ability to be physically active and Lack of resources like facility and equipment. According to Separovic, (2009) training in sports is a process of repetition, which improves the ability to achieve optimal performance. But time is given for practical session is not sufficient in most sport science departments of Ethiopian university.These challenges lead the students to unable to perform the basic skills of football and their motivation, confidence, and imitation are very poor beside these the teaching-learning process during practical session is not effective. Even after they graduate with football coaching license, they can’t get job easily because most of the people are not believe on them due to lack of skills. So if these challenges continue


in this way our country football can’t develop even it may be deteriorating. In Ethiopia there is scarcity of literatures in this topic; most of the time researchers focus on giving recommendation instead of taking actions to tackle the challenges. Therefore, in this study the researchers initiated to address the challenges by prepare an organized practical session plan which includes convenient exercises to students’ football skills (passing, dribbling and shooting) development, participatory instructions with inspiration, motivation of students and appropriate facilities and equipment as intervention for eight weeks to put a baseline for other researchers to add knowledge conduct further studies.

Objective of the study

General objective

The major objective of the study is to improve football skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting of third year football elective students within eight weeks mixed football training program.

Specific objectives

  1. To promote effective teaching-learning strategies for practical sessions
  2. To evaluate the students’ skill performance after offering skill develop practical trainings

Significance of the study

This study has many benefits for all concerned stakeholders in different perspectives. Firstly, addressing different learning hindrances stated on statements of the problem in this study are improving the practical session teaching-learning processes as a whole. Because the students’ participation increase, they develop confidence, they become more motivated, their imitation ability increase during demonstration and their basic skills of football such as passing, dribbling, shooting and other related performance like speed, agility, flexibility, Reaction time and power are well developed. The other beneficial stakeholder from this study is teachers. Because of it serves as baseline for all practical teachers to use effective teaching methods or strategies in the promotion of football and other practical courses. And also the teaching-learning process of the courses becomes very easy for teachers and there is mental satisfaction among teacher due to their students’

performance improvement. Another beneficial from this study is Ethiopian youth sport academies. Ethiopian youth sport academies need educated coaches who help the developments of youths in the sport industry. Because of skillful coaches are competent and required everywhere. Therefore, our students in a coaching profession play an important role in the development of Ethiopian football. Beside this, the study helps our department (i.e. sport science) to become sport academy. Researchers around this study area also more beneficial. In Ethiopia there is scarcity of literatures on action research especially in football and other sports. Therefore, researchers can use this study as a literature to conduct further study.

Research Methodology

Study Area

The study conducted in University of Gondar which found in Amhara regional state. It located in the north part of Ethiopia. The study conducted in the sport science department.

Study Design

The purpose of this study is to improve football skills of third year football elective students of sport science inUniversity of Gondar. Quasi-experimental design was employed to achieve the above objective.

Population of the study

The target population of this study was all football elective third year sport science students in Gondar University. There are totally 14 students.

Sampling techniques

Comprehensive sampling technique was employed; through this technique all 18 students participated in the study. Because of all of the football elective third year sport science students’ skills of football such as passing, dribbling and shooting were very low. 

Source of data

Sources of data for this research were both primary and secondary sources. The experimental group students were primary sources and the literature reviews are considered as secondary sources.

Data collection instruments


Data for this study was collected by pretest and posttest of students’ football skill assessment. In the football skill assessment, the three skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting are assessed by standardize test. Students were tested before they began the four weeks training as pretest and tested after the four weeks training as a posttest. No test was executed at the time of training. During the assessment process three different standardize football skill test namely: LSPT to measure passing skill, 12- meter Slalom dribbling test to measure dribbling skill. The slalom dribble test Reilly & Holmes, (1983) assesses total body movement, requiring participants to dribble around a set obstacle course as quickly as possible, plastic cones were used as the obstacles. And Football (Soccer) Team Skills Assessment Test — shooting. In addition to this to measure passing skills accuracy, repetition and reaction time; to measure dribbling skill speed, reaction time, time and to measure shooting skill accuracy, reaction time, and time were used as parameters. The evaluation took place at the stadium of University of Gondar in through the following test.

Procedure and Scoring

On the starters command the subjects dribbled the ball from behind the start line to the right of the first cone and then alternately around the outside of the remaining 5 cones in a zigzag path. The subject stopped and left the ball at the sixth cone before travelling in a straight line across the finish line (The subjects were accustomed to the course prior to testing, first through a demonstration by the tester and secondly through the performance of 2 trial runs.

Scoring

The subjects were required to perform the slalom dribble twice, with a rest of 1 minute between trails, with the mean time of both trails representing the subjects’ score.

Figure1: Schematic representation of Slalom dribbling test

Enclosed as Annexure 01

Procedure

The LSPT required the athlete or students to pass the ball as quickly as possible to 16 colored targets that were located at the Centre of Players were

required to start with the ball in the Centre rectangle and time began when the examiner called the first color and concluded when a total of 16 passes had been completed. This included eight short (red and white) and eight long (blue and green) passes which were called in a randomized order. The participants were required to kick the ball from within the passing zone (between inner and outer rectangle) before receiving the rebound and moving onto the next target. There were four trials.

Score

The test was scored as the total time taken which included the time to complete the 16 passes plus the time penalties.

Figure 2: Schematic representation of Loughborough Soccer passing Test

Enclosed as Annexure 02

Procedure

The test began with the ball being placed on the marked circle located in the Centre of the shooting zone. The participant’s initial position was to stand facing away from goal towards the bench, within playing distance of the ball. After the call of investigator A, the player was required to sprint to the cone he had been directed to move to, touch the top of it, and then return to the ball in the Centre of the square. After playing a rebound pass off the bench, the player then controlled the ball if necessary, turned, and shot at the goal within the shooting area. The player was required to follow the shot by sprinting between two cones positioned 5.5m away from and directly in front of the goal. Each participant performed a single trail consisting of 10 shots, with a rest period of 30 seconds between each shot sequence. There were 10 trial orders that were randomly selected for each player.

Scoringthe LSST

 The scoring areas marked out within the goal reflect the optimal placement of a shot to beat an opposing keeper (Ali et al., 2007a). Ali et al. (2007a) identified that a player with a greater shooting ability will be able to shoot with either foot; therefore of the 10 shots being performed for each trial, five were performed using the right foot and five with the left. The performance score achieved was the total cumulative points scored from all the shots on target. Any shots that


were taken from outside the designated shooting zone or took more than 8.5 seconds to complete were discounted. The time taken to complete each shot sequence was measured using a Casio Digital stopwatch. The score achieved for each shot sequence was recorded manually using a LSST score sheet.

Figure 3: Schematic representation of Loughborough Soccer shooting Test

Enclossed as Annexure 03

Data analysis

Data was analyzed by using SPSS statistical package software (version 23.0 for window). Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Paired Sample T test) were used for data analysis.

Data quality control

 In order to ensure the quality of data, the researchers took precautionary measures to administer the test in a smooth and systematic manner. The researchers selected appropriate and well design tools to assure the data quality. In addition, this study will be evaluated by presenting ongoing progress report.

Ethical consideration

The study was dealt with ethical issues; it protected the privacy of research participants and made guarantees and confidentiality in risk of harm as result of their participation. Therefore, the study was conducted according to University of Gondar rules, policies and codes relating to research ethics.

Result and Interpretations

 Pretest results of dribbling, passing and shooting skills before intervention

Table 1: Pre-test result descriptive Statistics

Enclosed as Annexure 04

The measurement process on the above table 1, emphasized on the parameters such asspeed, reaction time and time for dribbling; accuracy, repetition, reaction time and time for passing and accuracy, reaction time, and speed for shooting taken during the pretest. The finding from pretest result of football skills revealed that all of the students participated in the study

showed low performance results in dribbling, passing and shooting skills. In dribbling pretest; the result of the study depicted that the minimum and maximum second to dribble five cones in 12-meters distance is 38.0 and 45.0 respectively. But according to Slalom dribbling test; the score from 36-45 seconds are equal to 20-25 points when we converted the second into points depending on the standard. This shows that all of the students participated in the study below average in dribbling pretest; because the average point is 27.5 or from 31-35 second is required to complete the five cones in 12-meters distance. In passing pretest the result of the study showed that the minimum and maximum seconds to complete 16 passes are 68 and 80. But according to Loughborough Soccer passing Test, 43 seconds are enough to complete 16 passes. The passing skill pretest result of this study revealed that how much far from the recommended standards of Loughborough soccer passing pretest. Therefore, 68 and 80 seconds indicated that approaches but does not meet district standards and does not meet district standards respectively depending on Loughborough soccer passing test standards. In shooting skill pretest the result of the study showed that the minimum and maximum points are 15 and 21 respectively. But according to Loughborough Soccer shooting Test, the average points in ten trials are 50. This shows that the result of this study is between 15 and 21 which indicated all students participated in this study showed low performance on shooting skills. And also the result of this study depicted that there is football skills gap among students. Because of the range between minimum and maximum score in dribbling, passing and shooting indicated 7seconds, 12seconds and 6 points respectively; especially in passing skill there is a huge gap among students.

Intervention Plan and Implementation

To improve football skills of third year football elective sport science students of Gondar University; eight weeks mixed football training program (i.e. three days per week) was prepared by the researchers. The training days were Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The duration of every session was 90 minutes. All sessions were implemented at sport science department football field in University of Gondar. During the implementation of training program 18 students were participated among them


12 were males and the remaining 6 students were females. In the implementation process so many drills were done by the participants for example, dribble in open area, dribble between cones, adding number of cones, adding length, adding speed, adding types and dribbling with presence of defenses to improve dribbling skills; pass when standing, pass when running, pass to a target, adding distance and perform deflecting pass to improve passing skill and shooting after dribbling, shooting after controlling, shooting from long and short distance to improve shooting skill. Small sided game, 30 and 50 meters speed practice also executed in every session. While implemented the intervention many balls, cones and other materials were used. The training was designed to improve the students speed, reaction time, repetitions, time, accuracy and as a whole football skills such as dribbling, passing and shooting. The parameters like speed, reaction time, repetitions, time and accuracy during dribbling, passing and shooting are performance indicators.

Evaluation of Intervention

Post-test results of dribbling, passing and shooting skills after intervention

Table 2: Pre-test result descriptive Statistics

Enclosed as Annexure 05

In dribbling post-test; the result of the study depicted that the minimum and maximum second to dribble five cones in 12-meters distance is 28.50 and 38.50respectively.In passing post-test the result of the study showed that the minimum and maximum seconds to complete 16 passes are 68 and 80.In shooting skill pretest the result of the study showed that the minimum and maximum points are 15 and 21 respectively.

Table 3: Paired Samples t- Test on dribbling, passing and shooting skills

Enclosed as Annexure 06

A paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare the mean values between pretest and posttest scores of dribbling, passing and shooting skills. The result of this study indicated that there was a significant difference between the means of performance result of dribbling skill pretest (M=42.17, SD=1.81) and dribbling posttest result (M=31.28, SD=1.93); t

(17) =18.74, p=.000. Performance result of passing skill pretest (M=74.47, SD=3.73) and the posttest result (M=55.72, SD= 1.82); t (17) =23.46, p=.000. That depicted that there was significant difference between the two means because the p value .000 is less than 0.05. And also the performance result of shooting skill pretest (M=17.94, SD1.98) and posttest result (M=32.56, SD=2.38); T (17) =-42.43, P=.000. The result revealed that there was a significant difference between means of pretest and posttest of shooting skills. All the results in the above table 2 revealed that there were improvement in dribbling, passing and shooting skills of football.

Discussion

The current study showed differences between pre-test and post-test in dribbling, passing and shooting. This depicts that mixed Football training has a positive role in football's dribbling, passing, and shooting performance.This is in line with previous studies that have shown that a 10-week soccer training program results in similar characteristics of volume and intensity to significant changes in Slalom Dribble, Loughborough Soccer passing Test and Loughborough Soccer Shooting Test performances. Although eight weeks of training was used in the current study, the results were close to previous studies result that used a ten week training period.The reason for this is that 270 minutes per week were used for training unlike the previous one. These results are in line with previous findings that eight weeks of football training resulted in significant changes, meaning that all players' skill levels remained at the same level throughout eight weeks of training McDermott & Shane,(2016.) This means that more repetitions are necessary to develop to a higher level of skill, thereby improving dribbling, passing and shooting skills. The proof of this is the findings of the Separovic,(2009) study. According to Separovic,(2009)training in sports is a process of repetition, which improves the ability to achieve optimal performance.The results of the current study showed extremessignificant differences in dribbling, passing andshooting between pretest and posttest. This shows that mixed football training is done with appropriate volume and intensity; it is possible to develop football skills.

Conclusion


Students who participated in this study, after eight weeks mixed football training program showed significant change in their football techniques because of at the moment they can pass the ball to their friends repeatedly with accuracy, dribbling the ball effectively in the presence and absence of defender with the appropriate speed and shooting the ball with accuracy and speed. Even the current football skill gaps among students become narrow. Therefore, the intervention was successful and effective in the achievement of the study objectives.

Annexure

Annexure 01

Figure1: Schematic representation of Slalom dribbling test

233 p01.png

 Annexure 02 

Figure 2: Schematic representation of Loughborough Soccer passing Test

233 p01fig 02.png

 Annexure 03

Figure 3: Schematic representation of Loughborough Soccer shooting Test

233 p01fig 03.png

 Annexure 04

Table 1: Pre-test result descriptive Statistics

233 p01 table01.png

 Annexure 05

Table 2: Pre-test result descriptive Statistics

233 p01 table02.png

 Annexure 06

Table 3: Paired Samples t- Test on dribbling, passing and shooting skills

233 p01 table03.png

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