| Team coordination has been an area of interest for researchers in military, business, social, and cognitive psychology, while only relatively recently emerging as area of growing interest for researchers in sport psychology. Research on teams in sport traditionally has been focused on the social characteristics of the team, such as cohesion and leadership. Additionally, when the role of cognition in skilled performance in sport has been examined, the interest primarily has been in the cognitive processes at the individual level. As a response, Eccles and Tannenberg (2004) proposed a socio-cognitive conceptualization of team coordination in sport that has been used to frame much of the extant research in sport. However, to date most research on team cognition and coordination in sport has been conducted using the individual as the unit of analysis. The present study is a response to the need for research that captures the experience of the team as a whole and in context, to further understanding of cognitive processes underlying skilled team performance.;A study was conducted with a men's collegiate soccer team over the course of a competitive season. Cognitive field research was used to investigate how the team developed, modified, and executed coordinated action in a natural setting. This method was selected on the basis that it affords the opportunity to capture contextual and social factors that influence the cognitive processes underlying skilled team performance. The key themes to emerge from the research were the importance of team members' long-term shared knowledge, moment-to-moment shared knowledge, and challenges to team coordination. The findings presented support the conceptualization of team coordination as a socio-cognitive construct. Furthermore, the results indicate that social properties of, and social processes within, a team impact the cognitive processes mediating coordination in teams. As such, the study demonstrates that the traditional focus on the cognitive processes of the individual, removed from context, might provide an incomplete explanation of the cognitive processes underlying skilled team performance. The findings have implications for current understanding of team coordination and for practitioners seeking to enhance the functioning of sports teams. |
