TY - JOUR
T1 - Relationship between cognitive functions and sport-specific physical performance in youth volleyball players
AU - Trecroci, Athos
AU - Duca, Marco
AU - Cavaggioni, Luca
AU - Rossi, Alessio
AU - Scurati, Raffaele
AU - Longo, Stefano
AU - Merati, Giampiero
AU - Alberti, Giampietro
AU - Formenti, Damiano
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This work was partially supported by the European Community’s H2020 Program under the funding scheme INFRAIA-2019-1: Research Infrastructures grant agreement 871042, www.sobigdata.eu, SoBigData. There was no additional external funding received for this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Cognition
KW - Executive functions
KW - Motor skills
KW - Sport-specific skills
KW - Team sports
KW - Young athletes
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U2 - 10.3390/brainsci11020227
DO - 10.3390/brainsci11020227
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85101237235
VL - 11
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Brain Sciences
JF - Brain Sciences
SN - 2076-3425
IS - 2
M1 - 227
ER -