Early identification of the opposition shot taker characterises elite goalkeepers' ability to read the game.

Researchers investigating expertise in soccer goalkeepers have overwhelmingly focused on anticipating penalty kicks and identifying kinematic cues that are used to anticipate action outcomes. In this study, we took a novel approach to exploring 'game reading' skills in soccer goalkeepers. Specifically, we investigated whether and by what point during an attacking sequence in open play, elite goalkeepers can identify the opposition shot taker, a skill that is likely to facilitate organisation of the defensive line and interception of forward creative attacking passes.

Examining the importance of local and global patterns for familiarity detection in soccer action sequences.

Pattern recognition is a defining characteristic of expertise across multiple domains. Given the dynamic interactions at local and global levels, team sports can provide a vehicle for investigating skilled pattern recognition. The aims of this study were to investigate whether global patterns could be recognised on the basis of localised relational information and if relations between certain display features were more important than others for successful pattern recognition.

Enhancing the Initial Acceleration Performance of Elite Rugby Backs. Part II: Insights From Multiple Longitudinal Individual-Specific Case-Study Interventions.

Purpose: This study implemented 18-week individual-specific sprint acceleration training interventions in elite male rugby backs based on their predetermined individual technical needs and evaluated the effectiveness of these interventions.

Methods: Individual-specific interventions were prescribed to 5 elite rugby backs over an 18-week period. Interventions were informed by the relationships between individual technique strategies and initial acceleration performance, and their strength-based capabilities.

Enhancing the Initial Acceleration Performance of Elite Rugby Backs. Part I: Determining Individual Technical Needs.

Purpose: This study sought to quantify the within-individual relationships between spatiotemporal variables and initial acceleration sprint performance in elite rugby backs and to establish a normative data set of relevant strength-based measures.

Methods: First, the spatiotemporal variables, ratios of step length to step rate and of contact time to flight time, and initial acceleration performance were obtained from 35 elite male rugby backs (mean [SD] age 25 [3] y) over the first 4 steps of 3 sprints. Angular and linear kinematic aspects of technique and strength-based qualities were collected from 25 of these participants.

Corticospinal and spinal adaptations following lower limb motor skill training: a meta-analysis with best evidence synthesis.

Motor skill training alters the human nervous system; however, lower limb motor tasks have been less researched compared to upper limb tasks. This meta-analysis with best evidence synthesis aimed to determine the cortical and subcortical responses that occur following lower limb motor skill training, and whether these responses are accompanied by improvements in motor performance. Following a literature search that adhered to the PRISMA guidelines, data were extracted and analysed from six studies (n = 172) for the meta-analysis, and 11 studies (n = 257) were assessed for the best evidence synthesis.

Feasibility of Parkour-style training in team sport practice: A Delphi study.

Research has suggested Parkour-style training could act as a donor sport for athlete development in team sports. This study aimed to interrogate expert consensus on the feasibility of integrating Parkour-style training into team sport practice, by employing a three-round, online Delphi method. Talent development and strength and conditioning coaches working in team sport settings were invited to participate.

The effect of attentional focus instructions on performance and technique in a complex open skill.

External focus of attention has been shown to promote more automatic motor control, yielding better performance and more efficient technique, than an internal focus. However, most research has used closed-skill tasks in novices. The extent to which the reported pattern of findings generalises to more complex, time-constrained tasks requires further investigation.

A Bayesian computational model to investigate expert anticipation of a seemingly unpredictable ball bounce.

During dynamic and time-constrained sporting tasks performers rely on both online perceptual information and prior contextual knowledge to make effective anticipatory judgments. It has been suggested that performers may integrate these sources of information in an approximately Bayesian fashion, by weighting available information sources according to their expected precision. In the present work, we extended Bayesian brain approaches to anticipation by using formal computational models to estimate how performers weighted different information sources when anticipating the bounce direction of a rugby ball.

Characterising initial sprint acceleration strategies using a whole-body kinematics approach.

Sprint acceleration is an important motor skill in team sports, thus consideration of techniques adopted during the initial steps of acceleration is of interest. Different technique strategies can be adopted due to multiple interacting components, but the reasons for, and performance implications of, these differences are unclear. 29 professional rugby union backs completed three maximal 30 m sprints, from which spatiotemporal variables and linear and angular kinematics during the first four steps were obtained.

Effects of manipulating specific individual constraints on performance outcomes, emotions, and movement phase durations in Rugby Union place kicking.

Place kicks present valuable opportunities to score points in Rugby Union, contributing almost half of all points scored at international level. From an ecological dynamics perspective, place kickers adapt to interacting task, environmental, and individual constraints in performance environments. The aim of this study was to analyse effects of specific manipulations of individual constraints (fatigue; expectation for success) on place kicking performance, movement phase durations, heart rate and self-reported emotions.

Context Affects Quiet Eye Duration and Motor Performance Independent of Cognitive Effort.

Extensive literature has shown the effect of "quiet eye" (QE) on motor performance. However, little attention has been paid to the context in which tasks are executed (independent of anxiety) and the mechanisms that underpin the phenomenon. Here, the authors aimed to investigate the effects of context (independent of anxiety) on QE and performance while examining if the mechanisms underpinning QE are rooted in cognitive effort.

Differences in Motor Control Strategies of Jumping Tasks, as Revealed by Group and Individual Analysis.

The aim of this study was to investigate the motor control strategies adopted when performing two jumping tasks with different task demands when analysed at an individual and group level. Twenty-two healthy individuals performed two jumping tasks: jumping without the use of an arm swing (CMJnas) and jumping starting in a plantar flexed position with the use of an arm swing (PF). Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using hip, knee and ankle joint moment data on individual (PCAi) and group data (PCAc).

Effects of functional movement skills on parkour speed-run performance.

Parkour speed-runs require performers (known as Traceurs) to negotiate obstacles with divergent properties such as angles, inclinations, sizes, surfaces, and textures in the quickest way possible. The quicker the run, the higher the performer is ranked. Performance in Parkour speed-runs may be regulated through Parkour Traceurs' functional movement skill capacities given the physical requirements of the event.

Restrictions in Ankle Dorsiflexion Range of Motion Alter Landing Kinematics But Not Movement Strategy When Fatigued.

Context: Ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (DF ROM) has been associated with a number of kinematic and kinetic variables associated with landing performance that increase injury risk. However, whether exercise-induced fatigue exacerbates compensatory strategies has not yet been established.

Objectives: (1) Explore differences in landing performance between individuals with restricted and normal ankle DF ROM and (2) identify the effect of fatigue on compensations in landing strategies for individuals with restricted and normal ankle DF ROM.

Task Demand Changes Motor Control Strategies in Vertical Jumping.

The purpose of this study was to examine the motor control strategies employed to control the degrees of freedom when performing a lower limb task with constraints applied at the hip, knee, and ankle. Thirty-five individuals performed vertical jumping tasks: hip flexed, no knee bend, and plantar flexed. Joint moment data from the hip, knee, and ankle were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA).

Improved Ankle Mobility After a 4-Week Training Program Affects Landing Mechanics: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Howe, LP, Bampouras, TM, North, JS, and Waldron, M. Improved ankle mobility after a 4-week training program affects landing mechanics: a randomized controlled trial. J Strength Cond Res 36(7): 1875-1883, 2022-This study examined the effects of a 4-week ankle mobility intervention on landing mechanics.

WITHIN-SESSION RELIABILITY FOR INTER-LIMB ASYMMETRIES IN ANKLE DORSIFLEXION RANGE OF MOTION MEASURED DURING THE WEIGHT-BEARING LUNGE TEST.

Background: The identification of asymmetrical inter-limb ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (DF ROM) has the potential to influence the course of treatment during the rehabilitation process, with limitations in ankle DF ROM potentially increasing injury risk. However, reliability for methods to identify ankle DF ROM asymmetries remain under described in the literature.

Purpose: To determine the reliability of the trigonometric calculation method for measuring ankle DF ROM during the weight-bearing lunge test (WBLT) for both a single limb and the symmetry values.

The modulation of event-related alpha rhythm during the time course of anticipation.

Anticipation is the ability to accurately predict future actions or events ahead of the act itself. When attempting to anticipate, researchers have identified that at least two broad sources of information are used: contextual information relating to the situation in question; and biological motion from postural cues. However, the neural correlates associated with the processing of these different sources of information across groups varying in expertise has yet to be examined empirically.

The effects of skill-level and playing-position on the anticipation of ball-bounce in rugby union.

The ability to anticipate is a defining feature of skilled sports performance. To date, research investigating the information that underpins skilled anticipation has focused on kinematic information from an opponent and contextual factors. However, there has been a paucity of research investigating the influence of ball-flight and spin.

Principal Component Analysis Reveals the Proximal to Distal Pattern in Vertical Jumping Is Governed by Two Functional Degrees of Freedom.

The successful completion of motor tasks requires effective control of multiple degrees of freedom (DOF), with adaptations occurring as a function of varying performance constraints. In this study we sought to compare the emergent coordination strategies employed in vertical jumping under different task constraints [countermovement jump (CMJ) with arm swing-CMJas and no arm swing-CMJnas]. In order to achieve this, principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on joint moment waveform data from the hip, knee and ankle.

The effect of consistent and varied follow-through practice schedules on learning a table tennis backhand.

In table tennis the follow-through action after a shot is an important part of skill execution. In this experiment, we aimed to extend literature around the contextual interference effect by investigating whether the way the follow-through is organised in practice affects learning of the backhand shot in table tennis. Thirty unskilled participants were allocated to blocked-variable practice, random-variable practice or a control-constant group and aimed backhand shots towards a target following ball projection from a machine.

Why do bad balls get wickets? The role of congruent and incongruent information in anticipation.

Skilled anticipation is underpinned by the use of kinematic and contextual information. However, few researchers have examined what happens when contextual information suggests an outcome that is different from the event that follows. We aimed to bridge this gap by manipulating the relationship between contextual information and final ball location in a cricket-batting task.

Differences in step characteristics and linear kinematics between rugby players and sprinters during initial sprint acceleration.

The initial steps of a sprint are important in team sports, such as rugby, where there is an inherent requirement to maximally accelerate over short distances. Current understanding of sprint acceleration technique is primarily based on data from track and field sprinters, although whether this information is transferable to athletes such as rugby players is unclear, due to differing ecological constraints. Sagittal plane video data were collected (240 Hz) and manually digitised to calculate the kinematics of professional rugby forwards (n = 15) and backs (n = 15), and sprinters (n = 18; 100 m personal best range = 9.

Hot hands, cold feet? Investigating effects of interacting constraints on place kicking performance at the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup.

Place kicks in Rugby Union present valuable opportunities to score points outside the spatiotemporal dynamics of open play but are executed under varying performance constraints. We analysed effects of specific task constraints and relevant contextual factors on place kick performance in the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup. Data were collected from television broadcasts for each place kick.