The existing research on creativity provides various recommendations for the development of creativity in sports games. In most suggestions, creativity is predominantly understood as a player-related ability; specifically, as divergent thinking – the cognitive ability to generate a variety of different solutions in a given situation (e.g., Memmert, 2019). The trainability of divergent thinking has been widely demonstrated (Memmert, 2015). However, the practically-relevant question of whether improvements in divergent thinking actually translate to more creative actions in the game remains. Therefore, we have proposed an alternate, functional perspective, which proposes that creative actions are primarily due to a player’s expanded skill repertoire (Zahno & Hossner, 2020). We have confirmed this hypothesis – through both correlational analysis and experimental interventions – in a series of studies examining youth elite football players (see video). Based on this research, we thus advise to address creative performance in sports practice via situational technique training rather than with isolated divergent thinking training.
