Contribution of self-assessment of football competencies and the length of football experience for explaining the self-efficacy in junior and senior players

Aim of this paper was to examine the contribution of football experience and the self-assessment of tactical/technical skills and social competencies on the perceived self-efficacy in junior and senior football players. A total of 164 football players from Bosnia & Herzegovina have taken part in the research, 79 of which were professional senior players and 85 were professional U18 (junior) players. Three measuring instruments were used in the research: A questionnaire on general information, a self-assessment scale of self-efficacy for football players and a scale for estimating tactical/ technical and social competencies in football was used to gather data. Based on the results and the conducted analyses, it is indicative that the model that encompasses the length of football experience and a self-assessment of tactical/technical and social competencies in senior football players contributed around 8.5% to the total explanation of perceived self-efficacy. In senior players, the length of experience has a greater significance in perceived self-efficacy compared to the perceived success in performing football elements. The set model doesn’t have an equal contribution in junior players, where the model entirely contributed with 14.3% of the explanation of perceived self-efficacy, and the perceived success of performing football elements also has a statistically significant contribution. So, the model which encompasses football experience and the perceived success in performing football elements (tactical/technical and social competencies in football) is not equally predictive in junior and senior players.