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Dr André Roca

Programme Director - Performance Football Coaching
Senior Lecturer – Skill Acquisition and Coaching

Dr André Roca

About Research

Email: andre.roca@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4220

Biography

André is the Founder and Programme Director of the MSc Performance Football Coaching and Senior Lecturer in Skill Acquisition and Coaching in the Faculty of Sport, Health and Applied Science. André joined St Mary’s in 2013 following postdoctoral research and lectureship in skill acquisition at the German Sport University Cologne. He has a first-class BSc Ed (Hons) Sport Sciences and Physical Education from the University of Coimbra, Portugal and a PhD in Expertise and Skill Acquisition from Liverpool John Moores University.  

He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and leads and delivers on modules in the areas of skill acquisition and coaching at both under- and post-graduate levels. André also co-leads the University’s Expert Performance and Skill Acquisition (EPSA) Research Group which specialises in the study of expertise and the factors that influence and contribute to its acquisition across domains. He supervises several PhD students in this field and is currently leading international collaborative research on the complex perceptual-cognitive processes behind creativity and decision making and how these are acquired through practice and other developmental activities. He also serves as an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Sports Sciences, Cogent Psychology, and Frontiers in Psychology.

André holds a UEFA ‘A’ coaching licence and has nearly two decades of experience coaching elite young football players across different European countries. He works as a Foundation Phase Coach at a category one Premier League club academy in London and regularly provides skill acquisition and coaching consultancy support for various sporting organisations and clubs worldwide. As a boy, he was an academy player with the Portuguese premier league club Vitória SC and part of the team that won the U15 Portuguese championship. 

Research

Areas of research supervision

  • Expert performance and its acquisition in sport and other domains
  • Anticipation, decision making and creativity in players and coaches
  • Deliberate practice and practice design
  • Youth development processes and pathways

Research profile

Selected publications

  • Roca, A., Gomes, C., & Murphy, C. P. (2022). Cognitive processes underpinning soccer coaches’ decision-making during competition. Journal of Expertise, 5, 132-146.
  • Roca, A., Aguilera-Suarez, S., Pocock, C., & Ford, P. R. (2022). Decision-making practices during coaching sessions in grassroots youth soccer: A mixed-methods investigation. In Proceedings of the World Conference on Science and Soccer 2022 (p. 113). Coimbra, Portugal: University of Coimbra.
  • Roca, A., & Ford, P. R. (2021). Developmental activities in the acquisition of creativity in soccer players. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 41, 100850.
  • Roca, A., Gomes, C., & Murphy, C. P. (2021). An investigation of the cognitive processes underlying soccer coaches’ decision-making during competition. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 43, S44.
  • Nunes, A. N., Gonçalves, B., Roca, A., & Travassos, B. (2021). Effects of numerical unbalance constraints on workload and tactical individual actions during ball possession small-sided soccer games across different age groups. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 21, 396-408.
  • Roca, A., & Ford, P. R. (2021). Developmental activities that contribute to creative decision making in skilled soccer players. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 43, S44-S45.
  • Cardoso, F. S. L., Afonso, J., Roca, A., & Teoldo, I. (2021). The association between perceptual-cognitive processes and response time in decision making in young soccer players. Journal of Sports Sciences, 39, 926-935.
  • Roca, A., Ford, P. R., & Memmert, D. (2021). Perceptual-cognitive processes underlying creative expert performance in soccer. Psychological Research, 85, 1146-1155.
  • Kunrath, C. A., Nakamura, F. Y., Roca, A., Tessitore, A., & Teoldo, I. (2020). How does mental fatigue affect soccer performance during small-sided games? A cognitive, tactical and physical approach. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38, 1818-1828.
  • Runswick, O. R., Roca, A., Williams, A. M., & North, J. S. (2020). A Model of Information Use During Anticipation in Striking Sports (MIDASS). Journal of Expertise, 3, 197-211.
  • Roca, A., & Ford, P. R. (2020). Decision-making practice during coaching sessions in elite youth football across European countries. Science and Medicine in Football, 4, 263-268.
  • Memmert, D., & Roca, A. (2019). Tactical creativity and decision making in sport. In A. M. Williams & R. C. Jackson (Eds.), Anticipation and decision making in sport (pp. 203-214). London, UK: Routledge.
  • North, J. S. Bezodis, N. E., Murphy, C. P., Runswick, O. R., Pocock, C., & Roca, A. (2019). The effect of consistent and varied follow-through practice schedules on learning a table tennis backhand. Journal of Sports Sciences, 37, 613-620.
  • Runswick, O. R., Roca, A., Williams, A. M., McRobert, A. P., & North, J. S. (2019). Why do bad balls get wickets? The role of congruent and incongruent information in anticipation. Journal of Sports Sciences, 37, 537-543.
  • Simonet, M., Meziane, H. B., Runswick, O. R., North, J. S., Williams, A. M., Barral, J., & Roca, A. (2019). The modulation of event-related alpha rhythm during the time course of anticipation. Scientific Reports, 9, 18226.
  • Simonet, M., Runswick, O. R., Williams, A. M., North, J. S., & Roca, A. (2018). The neural correlates underlying the use of contextual and kinematic information processes during anticipation. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 40, S65-S66.
  • Roca, A., Ford, P. R., & Memmert, D. (2018). Creative decision making and visual search behavior in skilled soccer players. PLOS ONE, 13, e0199381.
  • Runswick, O. R., Roca, A., Williams, A. M., Bezodis, N. E., McRobert, A. P., & North, J. S. (2018). The impact of contextual information and a secondary task on anticipation performance: An interpretation using Cognitive Load Theory. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 32, 141-149.
  • Runswick, O. R., Roca, A., Williams, A. M., Bezodis, N. E., & North, J. S. (2018). The effects of anxiety and situation-specific context on perceptual-motor skill: A multi-level investigation. Psychological Research, 82, 708-719.
  • Runswick, O. R., Roca, A., Williams, A. M., McRobert, A. P., & North, J. S. (2018). The temporal integration of information during anticipation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 37, 100-108.
  • Padilha, M. B., Oliveira, J. G., Olivares, J. S., Roca, A., & Teoldo, I. (2017). The influence of floaters on players’ tactical behaviour in small-sided and conditioned soccer games. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 17, 721-736.
  • Roca, A., Memmert, D., & Ford, P. R. (2017). Perceptual-cognitive processes underlying creativity in skilled soccer players. In Proceedings of the 5th World Conference on Science and Soccer (p. 64). Rennes, France: University Rennes 2.
  • Roca, A., & Williams, A. M. (2017). Does decision making transfer across similar and dissimilar sports? Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 31, 40-43.
  • Roca, A., & Williams, A. M. (2017). Transferability vs. specificity of decision-making skill in sport. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 39, S191-S192.
  • Runswick, O. R., Roca, A., Williams, A. M., Bezodis, N. E., McRobert, A. P., & North, J. S. (2017). Contextual information in anticipation performance: A novel test of cognitive load theory. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 39, S192.
  • Murphy, C., Jackson R. C., Cooke, K., Roca, A., Benguigui, N., & Williams, A. M. (2016). Contextual information and perceptual-cognitive expertise in a dynamic, temporally- constrained task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 22, 455-470.
  • Roca, A., & Williams, A. M. (2016). Expertise and the interaction between different perceptual-cognitive skills: Implications for testing and training. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 792.
  • Runswick, O., Roca, A., Williams, A. M., & North, J. S. (2016). The effects of anxiety and situation-specific context on perceptual-motor skill: A multi-level investigation. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 38, S103-S104.
  • Vater, C., Roca, A., & Williams, A. M. (2016). Effects of anxiety on anticipation and visual search in dynamic, time-constrained situations. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 5, 179-192.
  • Murphy, C. P., Jackson R. C., Roca, A., & Williams, A. M. (2015). Cognitive processes underlying anticipation in a context-oriented task. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 37, S53. 
  • Roca, A., Memmert, D., & Ford, P. R. (2015). Creativity, decision making and visual search in skilled soccer players. In J. Bangsbo, & P. Krustrup (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th World Congress on Science and Football (p. 161). Copenhagen, Denmark: SL Grafik.
  • Roca, A., Williams, A. M., & Ford, P. R.  (2014). Capturing and testing perceptual-cognitive expertise: A comparison of stationary and movement response methods. Behavior Research Methods, 46, 173-177. 
  • Roca, A., Ford, P. R., McRobert, A. P., & Williams, A. M.  (2013). Perceptual-cognitive skills and their interaction as a function of task constraints in soccer. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 35, 144-155. 
  • Roca, A., Ford, P. R., & Williams, A. M. (2013). The processes underlying ‘game intelligence’ skills in soccer players. In H. Nunome, B. Drust, & B. Dawson (Eds.), Science and Football VII (pp. 255-260). London, UK: Routledge. 
  • Roca, A. (2012). Oefening tijdens jeugd is cruciaal voor een beter spelinzicht! [Play during childhood is crucial for a better understanding of the game!]. Dug-Out, The Royal Belgian FA Journal, 85, 46-47.
  • Roca, A., Williams, A. M., & Ford, P. R. (2012). Developmental activities and the acquisition of superior anticipation and decision making in soccer players. Journal of Sports Sciences, 30, 1643-1652. 
  • Roca, A., Williams, A. M., & Ford, P. R. (2012). The development of ‘game intelligence’ skills in soccer: An examination of the practice experiences contributing to superior anticipation and decision making. In Proceedings of the 3rd World Conference on Science and Soccer (p. 65). Ghent, Belgium: Victoris & Gent BC.
  • Roca, A. (2011). Perceptual-cognitive expertise and its acquisition in soccer (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from British Library EThOS. (uk.bl.ethos.555808)
  • Roca, A., Ford, P. R., McRobert, A. P., & Williams, A. M.  (2011). Identifying the processes underpinning anticipation and decision-making in a dynamic time-constrained task. Cognitive Processing, 12, 301-310.

A full list of publications can be found on his ResearchGate and Google Scholar pages.

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