Assessing the stability of tactical learning in youth footballers: the contribution of a metacognitive double-pass method

The stability of tactical learning in youth football remains insfficiently explored. This study examined players' explicit recognition of taught tactical content and the short-term stability of these judgements using a metacognitive double-pass (DP) method. A total of 225 youth footballers (U-13, U-15, U-18; n = 75 per group) completed both a single-pass (SP) and a delayed double-pass DP assessment across 40 standardized animated tactical scenarios. Results revealed a clear decline from SP to DP, suggesting overestimation in immediate (SP) judgements. Although stability improved with age, it did not approach high declarative integration, even in U-18s. These findings support the use of DP method as a conservative indicator of declarative accessibility and underline the importance of instruction that fosters guided verbalisation, reflective practice, and metacognitive monitoring. The double-pass approch thus appears to be a valuable tool for refining formative assessment in sport contexts.