Expert performance in football requires players to perceive, decide and execute actions in response to context, with reference to a playing model. The process to perceive, decide and execute actions can be referred to as perceptual-cognitive skill. Perceptual-cognitive skill is underpinned by the efficient use of the neural structures supporting working memory, associated with the correctly balanced application of declarative and procedural knowledge, also referred to as Flow.

Existing football coaching pedagogies can be used to develop domain-specific perceptual-cognitive skill, however, pedagogies that specifically develop the underlying neural structures supporting working memory function are limited. This research attempts to understand how the processes and structures underlying perceptual-cognitive skill can be developed, how working memory training (WMT) could be applied to football coaching practice and whether the use of WMT could develop skill performance in football.

The studies examined in this research allowed a conceptualisation of WMT applied within a football coaching framework using training principles of WMT prescription. This conceptualisation was investigated in practice in Study 1, using a participatory action research method. The data in Study 1 indicated an applicable transfer of lab-based WMT to practice, pedagogical guidelines for using WMT with athlete-centered methods of football coaching, and technological advances in administering WMT, including the use of remote response systems, bone conduction and sub-vocalisation technology.

Studies 2 and 3 investigated the impact of WMT on sub-elite and youth male football players performance in the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test (LSPT), compared to an Active and Passive Control. Study 2 found that WMT influenced overall performance in sub-elite male football players but yielded little benefit versus the Active Control. Study 2 also found little change in working memory performance, suggesting the LSPT may not replicate the real-world performance demands on working memory and/or that the prescription of WMT may not have been accurate. Study 3 combined the LSPT with the Stroop test to increase working memory demands, whilst also using an action-based metric to prescribe WMT. The results on youth football players showed that WMT may influence both skill accuracy and speed. Study 3 also found that working memory performance improved throughout the intervention, indicating that using the Stroop test and action-based metric improved the relevance of the LSPT to real-world performance and the accuracy of WMT prescription.

Future work should investigate these findings in more extensive studies, whilst collaborating further with coaches and athletes to develop pedagogies and technology that improve the application of WMT in football coaching. This research indicates that with refined methods of application, it may be possible for WMT to develop the structures supporting perceptual-cognitive skill, and therefore expert performance on domain-specific tasks in football.