Time spent outdoors is associated with higher levels of physical activity. To date, correlates of independent outdoor play have not been investigated. This study aimed to identify potential demographic, behavioural, environmental and social correlates of children's independent outdoor play. Data were from the Millennium Cohort Study when children were aged 7 years. Parents reported whether their children played out unsupervised (yes/no) as well as the above mentioned correlates of unsupervised outdoor play. Children's physical activity levels were measured using waist worn accelerometry. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine associations between correlates and odds of independent (unsupervised) outdoor play. Adjusted multiple linear regression was used to estimate associations between independent outdoor play and objective measures of physical activity. Activity was measured as average daily moderate-to-vigorous activity, steps, and sedentary behaviour. 3856 (n = 29%) participants were categorised as engaging in independent outdoor play. Older age, being white British, being in poverty, living in close proximity to both family friends and family, having fewer internalising problems, having more externalising conduct problems and fewer pro-social behaviours were associated with higher odds of independent outdoor play. Independent outdoor play was associated with > 2 additional minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity (B = 2.21 95% CI, 1.09 to 3.34), > 330 additional steps per day (B = 336.66 95% CI 209.80 to 463.51), and nearly 5 min less time spent sedentary per day (B = - 4.91 95% CI - 7.54, - 2.29) Younger children, those from a higher socio-economic-status, those isolated in location from family friends and family, and those with high levels of prosocial behaviour have lower levels of independent outdoor play. Independent outdoor play was associated with higher levels of physical activity and less time sedentary. Future interventions to promote independent outdoor play should target such populations.

The sport of gymnastics is undergoing a global examination of its culture and the relationship between the gymnast, coach and environment is a central focus. The aim of this review is to explore biomechanics and motor control research in skill development and technique selection in artistic gymnastics with a focus on the underlying concepts and scientific principles that allow performance enhancement, skill development and injury risk reduction. The current review examines peer reviewed papers from 2000 onwards, with a focus on contemporary approaches in the field of gymnastics research, and highlights several key directions for future gymnastics research. Based on our review and the integration of the models of Newell (1986) and Irwin et al. (2005), we recommend that future gymnastics research should embrace at the very least a multidisciplinary approach and aim for an interdisciplinary paradigm.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of inter-joint coordination at different levels of skilled performance to: (1) distinguish learners who were successful versus unsuccessful in terms of their task performance; (2) investigate the pathways of change during the learning of a new coordination pattern and (3) examine how the learner's coordination patterns relate to those of experts in the longswing gymnastics skill. Continuous relative phase of hip and shoulder joint motions was examined for longswings performed by two groups of novices, successful (n = 4) and unsuccessful (n = 4) over five practice sessions, and two expert gymnasts. Principal component analysis showed that during longswing positions where least continuous relative phase variability occurred for expert gymnasts, high variability distinguished the successful from the unsuccessful novice group. Continuous relative phase profiles of successful novices became more out-of-phase over practice and less similar to the closely in-phase coupling of the expert gymnasts. Collectively, the findings support the proposition that at the level in inter-joint coordination a technique emerges that facilitates successful performance but is not more like an expert's movement coordination. This finding questions the appropriateness of inferring development towards a "gold champion" movement coordination.

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) struggle with the acquisition of coordinated motor skills. This paper adopts a dynamical systems perspective to assess how individual coordination solutions might emerge following an intervention that trained accurate gaze control in a throw and catch task. Kinematic data were collected from six upper body sensors from twenty-one children with DCD, using a 3D motion analysis system, before and after a 4-week training intervention. Covariance matrices between kinematic measures were computed and distances between pairs of covariance matrices calculated using Riemannian geometry. Multidimensional scaling was then used to analyse differences between coordination patterns. The gaze trained group revealed significantly higher total coordination (sum of all the pairwise covariances) following training than a technique-trained control group. While the increase in total coordination also significantly predicted improvement in task performance, the distinct post-intervention coordination patterns for the gaze trained group were not consistent. Additionally, the gaze trained group revealed individual coordination patterns for successful catch attempts that were different from all the coordination patterns before training, whereas the control group did not. Taken together, the results of this interdisciplinary study illustrate how gaze training may encourage the emergence of coordination via self-organization in children with DCD.

Background: Maintaining a healthy gait into old age is key to preserving the quality of life and reducing the risk of falling. Nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDAs) are a promising method of identifying characteristics of people who are at risk of falling based on their movement patterns. However, there is a range of NDA measures reported in the literature. The aim of this review was to summarise the variety, characteristics and range of the nonlinear dynamic measurements used to distinguish the gait kinematics of healthy older adults and older adults at risk of falling. Methods: Medline Ovid and Web of Science databases were searched. Forty-six papers were included for full-text review. Data extracted included participant and study design characteristics, fall risk assessment tools, analytical protocols and key results. Results: Among all nonlinear dynamic measures, Lyapunov Exponent (LyE) was most common, followed by entropy and then Fouquet Multipliers (FMs) measures. LyE and Multiscale Entropy (MSE) measures distinguished between older and younger adults and fall-prone versus non-fall-prone older adults. FMs were a less sensitive measure for studying changes in older adults’ gait. Methodology and data analysis procedures for estimating nonlinear dynamic measures differed greatly between studies and are a potential source of variability in cross-study comparisons and in generating reference values. Conclusion: Future studies should develop a standard procedure to apply and estimate LyE and entropy to quantify gait characteristics. This will enable the development of reference values in estimating the risk of falling.