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Poor single-leg balance performance is associated with an increased risk of sustaining lower limb injuries in team sports. However, it is unclear whether this relationship is modified by the level of training experience (years of training experience). The objective of the present study was to evaluate whether soccer players’ single-leg balance performance is related to lower limb injuries in noncontact situations with different levels of training experience. Subelite young male soccer players performed the Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test with the dominant and the nondominant leg at the beginning of the preseason. Due to COVID-19 rules, the occurrence of lower limb injuries during the second half of the competitive season was documented. The odds of injury were calculated based on a previously reported Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test cut-off score for side-to-side anterior reach difference (≥4 cm). Twelve soccer players sustained a lower leg injury in noncontact situations. Only four of them had an anterior reach difference equal to or above the cut-off score. Soccer training experience has no significant influence on the association between Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test anterior reach asymmetry and noncontact lower limb injury in young male players.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of part and whole practice on learning basketball lay-up shot skill in young and adolescent male students. Participants were randomly divided into four groups of part and whole practice, namely, part practice-young, whole practice-young, part practice-adolescent, and whole practice-adolescent. After a pretest in basketball lay-up shot test, the training protocol was held for 5 weeks (three sessions per week). After the last training session, the posttest was taken, and 1 week after the posttest, a retention test was performed. The results in the acquisition stage showed a significant difference between the four groups (p = .03). The post hoc test results showed that there was no significant difference between the part and whole practice groups. Also, in the retention phase, there was no significant difference between the groups. However, the part practice-young group performed better than the whole practice-young group, while the whole practice-adolescent group performed better than the part practice-adolescent. According to the research findings, it can be concluded that age is probably not an effective factor in the effectiveness of part and whole practice in learning basketball lay-up shot. However, more research with more practice trials is needed in this regard.

The focus of attention literature has shown robust findings for the benefits of providing statements that focus on the movement effect or outcome (external focus of attention [EFOA]) as opposed to focusing on the movement kinematics (internal focus of attention). Observational studies, however, have revealed that physiotherapists use fewer EFOA statements than internal focus of attention statements in their practice. Most evidence in this regard has been from non-Canadian physiotherapists working in stroke rehabilitation; consequently, we sought to examine whether Canadian physiotherapists working with various rehabilitation populations also use EFOA statements to a lesser extent than internal focus of attention statements. The “Therapists’ Perceptions of Motor Learning Principles Questionnaire (TPMLPQ)” was thus designed and data from 121 Canadian physiotherapists showed low relative frequencies of EFOA use (31.3% ± 14%) averaged across six hypothetical scenarios. A higher EFOA was reported, however, for two of the six scenarios: a functional reaching scenario (55.5% ± 37.0%) and pelvic floor task (65.6% ±32.9%). This data suggest that the findings of EFOA benefits have not been widely translated into Canadian physiotherapy settings; furthermore, the findings of the scenario-dependency warrant future investigation into factors, such as task characteristics, that may influence physiotherapists’ FOA use.

Background: Understanding how or whether sedentary behavior affects motor competence in young children is important considering that children spend a lot of time sedentary. The aim of this study was to examine whether sedentary behavior predicts motor competence in young children. Methods: A longitudinal study with a total of 372 children aged 3.5 years at baseline and 5 years at follow-up was conducted. Objectively measured activity patterns (i.e., using accelerometers) were conducted in a subsample with 188 children. Sedentary behavior was assessed both objectively and subjectively (parent-reported screen time). Locomotor and object control skill scores were determined using the Test of Gross Motor Development—Second Edition. A multivariable analysis was executed adjusting for potential confounders (such as age, sex, time spent in moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity, monitor wear time, body mass index z scores, and maternal education). Results: Sedentary behavior at either time point was not significantly associated with either locomotor or object control skills after adjusting for potential confounders. Discussion: Our results did not support the assumption that sedentary behavior affects motor competence in young children. Regardless, given the lack of consistency in the evidence base, we recommend to parents, educators, and health professionals that sedentary activities should be kept within government recommendations due to potential negative effects on child development.

We investigated performance levels on conducting continuous two-footed jumping of preschool children (4 years old) to high school students (16 years old) to clarify the developmental progression and sex differences in motor coordination and agility. In total, 450 children (boys: 227; girls: 223) participated in this study. We set 10 obstacles to jump over for continuous two-footed jumping and analyzed the movement time (MT), aerial time (AT), and contact time (CT), and variabilities in AT and CT in 7 year-based categories, using a high-speed camera. We also used multiple regression analysis to identify the predictors of MT. MT and CT shortened until 8 years, whereas AT continued to shorten after 8 years, suggesting that the jumping strategy differs between those younger/older than 8 years. MT, AT, and CT were significantly shorter among boys than girls from preschool children to high school students. In addition, when using multiple regression analysis, the main predictor of MT changed gradually from SD of CT to AT with increasing age. Our findings suggest that the motor control mechanisms related to continuous two-footed jumping differ depending on the age and sex and provide findings to advance understanding of the age-related motor coordination and agility in children.

A priori power analyses can ensure studies are unlikely to miss interesting effects. Recent metascience has suggested that kinesiology research may be underpowered and selectively reported. Here, we examined whether power analyses are being used to ensure informative studies in motor behavior. We reviewed every article published in three motor behavior journals between January 2019 and June 2021. Power analyses were reported in 13% of studies (k = 636) that tested a hypothesis. No study targeted the smallest effect size of interest. Most studies with a power analysis relied on estimates from previous experiments, pilot studies, or benchmarks to determine the effect size of interest. Studies without a power analysis reported support for their main hypothesis 85% of the time, while studies with a power analysis found support 76% of the time. The median sample sizes were n = 17.5 without a power analysis and n = 16 with a power analysis, suggesting the typical study design was underpowered for all but the largest plausible effect size. At present, power analyses are not being used to optimize the informativeness of motor behavior research. Adoption of this widely recommended practice may greatly enhance the credibility of the motor behavior literature.

Posttraining meditation has been shown to promote wakeful memory stabilization of explicit motor sequence information in learners who are experienced meditators. We investigated the effect of single-session mindfulness meditation on wakeful and sleep-dependent forms of implicit motor memory consolidation in meditation naïve adults. Immediately after training with a target implicit motor sequence, participants (N = 20, eight females, 23.9 ± 3.3 years) completed either a 10-min mindfulness meditation (N = 10) or a control listening task before exposure to task interference induced by training with a novel implicit sequence. Target sequence performance was tested following 5-hr wakeful and 15-hr postsleep periods. Bayesian inference was applied to group comparisons of mean reaction time (RT) changes across training, interference, wakeful, and postsleep timepoints. Relative to control conditions, posttraining meditation reduced RT slowing between target sequence training and interference sequence introduction (BF₁₀ [Bayes factors] = 6.61) and supported RT performance gains over the wakeful period (BF₁₀ = 8.34). No group differences in postsleep RT performance were evident (BF₁₀ = 0.38). These findings illustrate that posttraining mindfulness meditation expedites wakeful, but not sleep-dependent, offline learning with implicit motor sequences. Previous meditation experience is not required to obtain wakeful consolidation gains from posttraining mindfulness meditation.

The theory of reinvestment in experimental psychology suggested that automated performance could be degraded if attention was internally diverted to the process of skill execution. This study examined the role of attentional focus instructions on real-time conscious motor processing (i.e., reinvestment) during tandem walking. Thirty-six young adults (mean age = 20.94, SD = 1.43 years) participated; their electroencephalography T3–Fz coherence (i.e., real-time reinvestment) was measured during three walking conditions with different attentional focus instructions: external focus, internal focus, and control conditions. The results suggested that attentional focus instructions did not significantly affect real-time conscious motor processing during tandem walking in young adults, possibly due to the low level of motor task complexity of walking by young adults. The Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale appears to be not sensitive enough to reflect the real-time reinvestment during gait-related movements in young adults.