The objective of this systematic review was to examine the effectiveness of flywheel training, which allows for the replication of specific sports movements, overloading both the concentric and eccentric phases. Inclusion criteria were injury prevention outcomes; ability in terms of strength, power, sprinting, jumping and change of direction; competitive athletes; and RCTs. Exclusion criteria were a lack of a control group and lack of baseline and/or follow-up data. The databases used were Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Sage. The revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool was used to assess the quality of the selected RCTs. The Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 Levels of Evidence was used. A PICOS (participants, intervention, comparators, study outcomes, and study design) approach was used to evaluate eligibility. A total of 21 RCTs with 8 to 54 participants in each study analyzed flywheel technology and its application in nine sports. The results showed that flywheel training is a good strategy to improve sports performance, providing variation in training methodologies and athletes’ adherence. Further studies are needed to define guidelines on training modality, weekly frequency, volume, and inertia load. Only a few studies have applied the flywheel device directly to overload specific multidirectional movements at different joint angles. This method is not exempt from criticalities, such as the cost and the ability to carry out only individual training.

The study aim was to investigate the age, gender and technical level on motor coordination abilities of Taekwondo children. One hundred and fifteen children (83 male, 32 female), aged 7.76 ± 1.71 years, divided in three different groups, under 8 (5–7 years), under 10 (8–9 years) and under 12 (10–11 years), underwent three coordination skills tests: the ruler drop test (RDT), assessing visual reaction time, the hexagonal test (HT), assessing agility, and the target kick test (TKT), assessing kicking ability. MANOVA showed significant gender differences for TKT, in which females showed higher scores than males (p = 0.033). Significant differences were found in HT and TKT, where the under 12 group showed higher scores than younger athletes (p < 0.001). No differences amongst different age groups were found in RDT, showing that this could be a good predictor of Taekwondo performance, assessed at an early stage. High-level athletes showed better scores in all the tests than the low levels, as it was expected. Coordinative performance improves with age and is positively influenced by practicing a sports activity. The predisposition to a particular sport with a well-planned training may lead to a motor proficiency comparable to that reached by older athletes and better than same-age athletes.

Physical activity (PA) is a key element in the management of successful aging. The aim of this paper was to show the effects of PA on the quality of life perception, nutritional status, and daily life management of 178 older adults (aged 63.87 ± 8.17) randomly assigned to an Experimental Group (EG), which performed moderate-to-high intensity aerobic and strengthening training, and a Control Group (CG) which performed low-impact PA, assessed after 6, 12, and 24 months. The Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), and Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) were used for the study. In the SF-36 assessment, EG showed a good quality of life perception maintained after 24 months, while CG showed a worsening in the same period (p = 0.018). The EG reported a significant better nutritional status as compared to pre-intervention assessment (p = 0.003) and to CG (p < 0.001). Regarding the PASE, the EG showed a higher level of weekly activities than the CG after 24 months (p = 0.011), while the CG showed a worsening after 12 months (p = 0.008). The prolonged engagement in moderate-to high-intensity PA allowed the maintenance of a good quality of life perception, a good level of nutritional status, and daily life activities.

Background: The increasing need to face the problem of sedentarism, especially in the COVID-19 era, induced teachers and researchers to find new intervention methodologies in school context. Active breaks (ABs) include brief periods of physical activity as a part of the curriculum. This study aimed to investigate the AB acute responses on attentive skills and mathematical performance and attention in a primary school. Methods: A total of 141 children (aged 9.61 ± 0.82), divided into six classes, participated in this study. Each class was randomly assigned to three groups on the basis of the type of protocol performed during the three ABs scheduled in a school day: fitness (FIT), creativity (CREAT), and control group (CON). At baseline and at the end of interventions, all participants underwent the Stroop Color and Word test (SCWT) and the math test (MATH) to assess the level of attention and mathematical performance, respectively. The degree of enjoyment was evaluated through the modified Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale. Results: The factorial ANOVA showed significant differences between the FIT and CON in MATH test (p = 0.023) and SCWT (p = 0.034). CREAT and FIT groups showed higher degree of enjoyment than the CON (both ps < 0.001). Conclusions: This study showed a positive acute impact of AB interventions. FIT positively influenced attentive and math performances more than the CREAT, probably due to the correct work/rest ratio and executive rhythm that allowed children to reach a good level of exertion. This report showed that ABs can be a useful and productive activity to be performed between curricular lessons.

Intergenerational physical activity could be a pleasant method to prevent elderly sedentary behaviors. The aim of this study is to provide a basis to develop an intergenerational physical activity between preschool children and elderly people. An assessing enjoyment three questionnaire survey was administered to 140 participants (aged 67.8 ± 9.1): the global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ) assessing the sedentariness degree; the physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES-Q) assessing enjoyment for the physical activity usually practiced; the physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES-INT) assessing the enjoyment for a hypothetical intergenerational program. Successively, the sample was divided into subgroups based on age, gender, marital status, education, employment, sports background, sedentariness level and residential location. Four multichoice questions, aiming to have guidelines in organizing an intergenerational program, were used. A total of 44.3% of the sample found the physical activity practiced pleasant, whereas 81.5% enjoyed the intergenerational program (only 7.1% expressed a negative judgment). A separated one-way ANOVA showed significant differences in PACES-INT for gender, (p = 0.009), residential location, (p < 0.001) and employment (p = 0.004). About 80% of the sample would adhere to the intergenerational programs, despite the fatigue fear and logistic or family relationship problems.

The stress impact of COVID-19 restrictions has put the adapted sports community at an unprecedented level of emergency. The self-report Event Scale—Revised (IES-R) questionnaire was administered to assess the level of psychological distress and emotive reactions such as intrusion (INT), avoidance (AV) and hyperarousal (HYP) following training and competitions suspension within a sample of Italian disabled athletes. A total of 146 self-selected volunteers were included in this study: 73 disabled athletes (aged 42.11 ± 13.70) and 73 athletes (aged 40.23 ± 13.73) who served as the control group. Only 8.22% of the disabled participants vs. 30.14% of athletes were affected by subjective distress. MANOVA showed significant differences in IES-R subjective distress for age, where the emerging adults had a higher level of stress than adults (p = 0.031), and for the type of sport, where the individual sports group showed higher scores than the team sports group (p = 0.049). Regarding the IES-R subscales, significant differences were found in INT and AV for age, where the emerging adults showed higher scores than adults (p = 0.018 and p = 0.046, respectively). Significant differences were found in HYP for type of sport, where the individual sports group showed higher scores than the team sports group (p = 0.014). The results confirmed a lower distress level of disabled athletes to adverse events than that expressed by athletes. Both sports engagement and the experience of living with impairment, overcoming structural barriers, could act as a buffer effect against stress due to COVID-19 restrictions.