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This study aimed to review the scope of overuse injury prevention programs in young players through the lens of application of motor learning principles. From 280 studies found in the initial search, 13 studies were selected based on a series of inclusion criteria. The selected studies were categorized based on the type of intervention resulting in multicomponent (two studies), Fédération Internationale de Football Association 11+ (five studies), neuromuscular training (two studies), Fédération Internationale de Football Association Medical Assessment and Research Center (two studies), educational (one study), and stability (one study). The studies that had an effective preventative role to reduce overuse injuries applied some principles of motor learning to their intervention, such as contextual interference, variability of practice, task constraints, the power law of practice, transfer of learning, and explicit methods. There is a gap in the literature related to explicit applications of motor learning principles in the design of preventative interventions for overuse injury.

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the follow-through on thrown ball velocity, potentially justifying inclusion of the follow-through in Roberton’s five critical components. Method: Seventy-eight University students participated in the overarm, dominant hand, throwing task, which involved throwing a standard tennis ball with maximum force three times. Each throw was filmed by two cameras placed behind and to the open side of the thrower to assess the throwing technique. The velocity of the throws was recorded with a radar gun. Results: Results indicated that, after accounting for the effects of gender, age, and throwing experience, there was a significant effect of follow-through level on throw velocity. Analysis of covariance also revealed a significant gender effect, with males throwing significantly faster than females. Results indicated the follow-through had the second largest impact on thrown ball velocity of all six components. Discussion: These findings provide preliminary support that the follow-through should be added to Roberton’s developmental levels. The inclusion of the follow-through component could assist teachers and coaches to facilitate learner and athlete development and could also improve the accuracy of throwing development assessment.

One hundred and twenty-one children (58 boys and 63 girls) aged 8–14 years (mean ± SD = 12 ± 1 years) who were regularly engaged in grassroots soccer participated in this study. Participants undertook assessments of fundamental movement skill (FMS) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-3, perceived ability using the Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children, physical fitness via 15-m sprint time, standing long jump distance, and technical skill using the university of Ghent dribbling test. The Procedural Tactical Knowledge Test was employed as a measure of tactical skill from which metrics for positioning and movement and recognizing spaces were derived. Maturation was determined from anthropometric measures. Analysis of covariance examined gender differences in tactical skills accounting for FMS, fitness, perceived ability, technical skill, maturation, and age. Results indicated no significant differences in tactical skills between boys and girls (p > .05). For recognizing spaces, 56% of the variance was explained with FMS (p = .001), physical fitness (p = .02), and technical skill (p = .02) contributing to the model. For positioning and movement, a significant model explained 55% of the variance in this element of tactical behavior with FMS (p = .002) and technical skill (p = .02) significantly contributing to the model.

Developing players who are adept at using both sides of the body (i.e., bilateral skill) is a challenge for coaches in many sports. With players being required to execute a range of skills with hand and foot on both sides of the body, Gaelic football provides an ideal natural laboratory for the study of laterality. Previous quantitative research has produced equivocal findings regarding the importance of bilateral skill performance in sport. In light of this equivocality, this paper utilized a qualitative approach to distill the beliefs and experiences of 14 players and five coaches who had performed at the highest level in Gaelic football. Three higher order categories were produced from the transcripts: the importance of being bilaterally skilled, the potential to develop bilateral skill, and methods to develop bilateral skills. Overall, this study highlights lessons for the design of future quantitative studies of bilateral skill in sport and should stimulate reflection on current practice regarding both short- and long-term bilateral skill development on the part of researchers, applied sport scientists, and coaches.

In previous studies, the acute effects of movement constraints on the countermovement jump performance are investigated; however, the longitudinal effects of implementing the constraint in a training regimen are not well studied. The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of motor learning development due to application of task constraint in a training regimen following 6 weeks of training. Forty-five healthy adult males were randomly assigned to a control or one of two experimental constraint training groups (i.e., no arm swing or restricted knee flexion). Pre- and posttraining jump height and kinematic variables of six maximum effort countermovement jumps were compared longitudinally within the groups, and also compared between the groups. The findings of this study indicated that jump height significantly increased in all the groups while in the unrestricted control group it was increased greater than the experimental conditions (21% compared with 12% and 5.5%). However, the applied task constraints significantly improved some of the contributors to jump performance, establishing specific adaptation of kinematic variables to the constraint training. Therefore, constraint training approach could be suggested in case of demanding specific adaptation of kinematic variables of countermovement jump in a training regimen.

The aim of this experiment was to determine if dyad practice helped individuals become aware, use, and retain information in a dynamically changing perceptual-motor task compared with practice alone. We used a computerized perceptual-motor task, where individuals were required to intercept balls that dropped from the top of the screen. A colored line at the top of the screen provided information about the direction of the dropping ball. Participants (N = 24) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: A dyad training group where two participants alternated between physical and observational practice after each block of 20 trials, and they also engaged in dialog about the task, and an individual training group where one participant practiced the task. Both groups improved their accuracy during acquisition. On the retention test, participants in the dyad group caught significantly more balls (73%) than individuals of the alone group (58%). Participants in the dyad group also showed a higher percentage of correctly identified stimuli in the recognition task. Dyad training induced performance advantages in a perceptual-motor task because individuals became aware and used information acquired during observation and/or from the dialog.