The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of mental fatigue on physical activity, technical and decision-making performance during small-sided games. Nine sub-elite soccer players were enrolled in the study. The players performed two small-sided games on two occasions within a crossover experimental design. Before each game, they underwent a mental fatiguing task (Stroop task) and a control task (documentary watching) in a randomized, counterbalanced order. Players’ physical activity, technical, and decision-making performance were obtained during small-sided games by GPS and video scouting. Results showed that distance in acceleration covered per min, negative passes, passing accuracy, and shot accuracy were likely impaired than control task after a mental fatiguing protocol. Decision-making performance of negative passes, passes accuracy, and dribbling accuracy resulted also likely decreased compared with control task. These findings demonstrated that mental fatigue impacted on technical, GPS-derived, and soccer-specific decision-making performance during SSG. In conclusion, avoiding cognitively demanding tasks before playing soccer-specific activities may be advisable to preserve players’ physical activity, technical, and decision-making skills.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between basic cognitive functions and sport-specific physical performance in young volleyball players. Forty-three female volleyball players (age 11.2 ± 0.8 years) were tested for cognitive performance by measuring simple reaction time (clinical reaction time), executive control (Flanker task), and perceptual speed (visual search task). Moreover, a set of tests was used to assess physical abilities as volleyball-specific skills (accuracy of setting, passing, and serving) and motor skills (change of direction, vertical jump, and balance). A cumulated value for both cognitive and sport-specific physical performance tests was computed by adding up each test’s domain outcomes. Pearson’s r correlation analysis showed a large positive correlation (r = 0.45, d-value = 1.01) of the cumulated score summarizing cognitive functions with the cumulated score summarizing sport-specific physical performance. Moreover, small-to-medium correlations (d-value from 0.63 to 0.73) were found between cognitive and motor skills. Given the cumulative scores, these results suggest that volleyball athletes with superior basic cognitive functions present better sport-specific physical performance. Our findings encourage to extend the knowledge of the associations between cognitive and motor skills within a sports performance context.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the differences between types of sport (i.e., closed vs. open skills sport) on inhibitory control and motor fitness in children. Forty-nine children were allocated into three groups based on their sports participation, which comprised an open skill sport group, a closed skill sport group, and a sedentary group. Participants were tested on cognitive performance (inhibitory control by the Flanker task) and motor fitness (reaction time, speed, agility, power, balance). Open skill sport group appeared to display higher inhibitory control (response time and accuracy of incongruent condition of the Flanker task) and motor fitness performance (reaction time, speed, agility, power) than sedentary group, whereas its superiority over closed skill sport group was found only in speed and agility. Moreover, closed skill sport group had only a better reaction time than sedentary group. Our data supports the framework according to which cognitive demands in complex motor actions may contribute to explain the beneficial effects of exercise on inhibitory control. This might suggest that the complexity of the environment (typical in open skill sports) in which sport training is performed plays a key role for both cognitive and motor development in children.

Although an increasing interest in vision training for sport performance, whether it may have a transfer to sport-specific skills and whether such transfer could be mediated by cognition remain open issues. To enlighten this point, we tested the effect of 6-weeks sport vision training programmes (requiring generic or volleyball-specific motor actions) in non-sport-specific context compared to a third group performing traditional volleyball training in sport-specific context. Fifty-one female volleyball players were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Before and after training period subjects were tested on accuracy of volleyball-specific skills and cognitive performance (clinical reaction time, executive control, perceptual speed). Accuracy of volleyball-specific skills improved after traditional volleyball training with respect to the vision training groups. Conversely, vision training groups improved cognitive performance (clinical reaction time, executive control and perceptual speed), as compared to traditional volleyball training group. Our results have shown that vision training in non-sport-specific context (both generic or with specific motor actions) improved cognitive performance, but seems to be less effective for improving sport-specific skills. These evidences suggest that environment in which exercises were performed plays a key role to improve perception and action in sport-specific skills, supporting the ecological approach to sport learning.

The popularity of female soccer is increasing as well as the number of females playing soccer. Similarly, over the last twenty or so years, research in soccer has increased significantly, but a large disparity exists in the volume of studies involving male and female players. As a consequence of this, female players remain less well understood compared to males. The purpose of the present narrative review was to describe morphological characteristics, physiological demands, physical abilities and injuries in female soccer players. Physiological demands are similar between men’s and women’s soccer, but competitive women’s matches were characterized by nearly 33% less distance covered, although at higher intensity levels (maximum speeds greater than 15 km/h) than typically found in the men’s game. Sub-elite female players also tended to run less at higher intensity levels at the end of both halves in comparison with elite female players. High intensity running is an important factor of success in soccer since many critical moments of the game occur under this condition. The ability to rapidly change direction also determined elite, sub-elite and amateur levels. The implementation of functional training, which focused on soccer-specific drills and plyometric exercises, to improve explosive power, may improve conditioning in female soccer players as well as decrease the risk of injuries which was 3-8 times higher in females compared to males. This review presents an in-depth overview of the most influential factors for determining success in female soccer.