On Learning to Anticipate in Youth Sport

Elite sport offers a suitable setting to understand the ability to anticipate future events—a phenomenon that is central to animal life. Critically, however, whilst anticipation in sport has been studied for several decades, there have been few attempts to understand its development throughout childhood and adolescence. Additionally, whilst it is widely acknowledged that the need to anticipate emerges from temporal pressure, there has been no effort to understand the nonlinear effect that temporal demands have on the development of anticipatory skill. This is important as its consequences have different implications for sports authorities compared to an individual player. To bridge the gap in our understanding, this article draws attention to the mathematical concepts of concavity and convexity to explain the nonlinear relationship between temporal demands and the development of anticipatory skill. This viewpoint has implications for the design of junior sport, including the modification of rules, which has gained worldwide interest in recent years. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40279-022-01694-z

Scaling the Equipment and Play Area in Children’s Sport to improve Motor Skill Acquisition: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: This review investigated the influence of scaling sports equipment and play area (e.g., field size) on children’s motor skill acquisition. METHODS: Peer-reviewed studies published prior to February 2015 were searched using SPORTDiscus and MEDLINE. Studies were included if the research (a) was empirical, (b) involved participants younger than 18 years, (c) assessed the efficacy of scaling in relation to one or more factors affecting skill learning (psychological factors, skill performance and skill acquisition factors, biomechanical factors, cognitive processing factors), and (d) had a sport or movement skills context. Risk of bias was assessed in relation to selection bias, detection bias, attrition bias, reporting bias and other bias. RESULTS: Twenty-five studies involving 989 children were reviewed. Studies revealed that children preferred using scaled equipment over adult equipment (n = 3), were more engaged in the task (n = 1) and had greater self-efficacy to execute skills (n = 2). Eighteen studies demonstrated that children performed skills better when the equipment and play area were scaled. Children also acquired skills faster in such conditions (n = 2); albeit the practice interventions were relatively short. Five studies showed that scaling led to children adopting more desirable movement patterns, and one study associated scaling with implicit motor learning. CONCLUSION: Most of the studies reviewed provide evidence in support of equipment and play area scaling. However, the conclusions are limited by the small number of studies that examined learning (n = 5), poor ecological validity and skills tests of few trials

Efficacy of a 7-week dance (RCT) PE curriculum with different teaching pedagogies and levels of cognitive challenge to improve working memory capacity and motor competence in 8–10 years old children

Objectives: This study examined how learning a dance choreography with different teaching pedagogies and different cognitive challenge influenced the development of working memory capacity and motor competence in primary school children. Design: Randomised-controlled trial. Methods: Eighty primary school children (8.8 ± 0.7 years old; 61% females) were recruited and randomly assigned to two experimental groups – a high-cognitive and a low-cognitive group – and a control group. The two experimental groups practiced dance for 7 weeks, twice a week, learning a choreography, while the control group participated in the school standard PE curriculum. In the high-cognitive group, the dance teachers limited visual demonstrations and encouraged children to memorise and recall movement sequences to increase the cognitive challenge. Results: While the pre-to post-test improvements did not statistically differ between experimental groups, the analysis showed that the high-cognitive group statistically improved their working memory capacity (p < 0.01; d = 0.51), while the low-cognitive (p = 0.04; d = 0.48) and control groups did not (p = 0.32; d = 0.17). All three groups improved their motor competence from pre-to post-test, and there was a significant group*time effect (p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.13) with the high-cognitive group showing larger improvement than the control. Conclusions: The results of this study provide initial support that dance practice coupled with a high cognitive challenge could improve working memory capacity and motor competence in children; however, the difference between groups was not statistically significant, and future research is necessary to examine the generalization of this finding

Skill Acquisition Methods Fostering Physical Literacy in Early-Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE): Rationale and Study Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in 5–6-Year-Old Children From Deprived Areas of North West England

Background: There is a need for interdisciplinary research to better understand how pedagogical approaches in primary physical education (PE) can support the linked development of physical, cognitive and affective aspects of physical literacy and physical activity behaviors in young children living in deprived areas. The Skill Acquisition Methods fostering Physical Literacy in Early-Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE) study aims to examine the efficacy of two different pedagogies for PE, underpinned by theories of motor learning, to foster physical literacy. Methods: SAMPLE-PE will be evaluated through a cluster-randomized controlled trial targeting 5–6 year old children from schools located in areas of high deprivation in Merseyside, North-West England. Schools will be randomly allocated to one of three conditions: Linear Pedagogy, Non-linear Pedagogy, or Control. Non-linear and Linear Pedagogy intervention primary schools will receive a PE curriculum delivered by trained coaches over 15 weeks, while control schools will follow their usual practice. Data will be collected at baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention (T1), and 6 months after the intervention has finished (T2). Children’s movement competence is the primary outcome in this trial. Secondary outcomes include physical activity, perceived competence, motivation, executive functions, and self-regulation. An extensive process evaluation will also examine implementation factors such as intervention context, reach, dose, fidelity and acceptability. Discussion: The SAMPLE-PE project will enable better understanding surrounding how to operationalise physical literacy through enrichment of PE practices in early PE. The study will provide robust scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of underpinning PE pedagogy with theories of motor learning to promote the development of physical literacy

Motor skill acquisition in childhood: exploring the links between working memory, implicit learning and equipment modification

The aim of this dissertation was twofold. First, this thesis explored the role that working memory plays in children’s motor learning. Working memory is responsible for the temporary storage and manipulation of information in the mind, and is the primary mechanism underpinning the conscious acquisition of motor knowledge. However, working memory is still developing throughout childhood and, therefore, it is possible that most (if not, all) motor information learnt during childhood occurs sub-consciously. Indeed, the results showed that a person’s working memory capacity influenced skill performance and learning. Children with larger working memory capacity had a greater tendency to test hypotheses (i.e., make alterations to technique) when performing a motor skill, were more likely to consciously control their movements as indicated by the Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale, and were advantaged when verbal instructions were provided. Further, studies with adults showed that working memory capacity predicted both performance in a pressured situation and the amount of EEG coherence between the motor regions of the brain and the verbal-analytical and visuo-spatial regions. The second main aim of this dissertation investigated the influence that modified equipment had on children’s skill acquisition. As hypothesised, skill performance and learning was enhanced when using modified equipment (e.g., smaller racquets and lower compression balls) compared to using full-size equipment. Importantly, the use of modified equipment placed fewer demands on working memory during performance of a skill, which implies that it encourages an implicit mode of learning. Overall, this thesis contributes to the small but growing literature examining implicit motor learning in children and increases our understanding of the influence that working memory has on the acquisition of motor skills

Confirmation of psychometric properties of the Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale for Children (MSRS-C)

Purpose: To validate the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale for Children (MSRS-C) in English-speaking children that assesses a child’s propensity to consciously monitor and control body movement (termed ‘movement reinvestment’). Method: Three-hundred and forty children aged 7-13 years completed the MSRS-C alongside a measure of sustained attention. Results: Results from the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the MSRS-C possessed sound internal validity, fair convergent validity, acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Negligible gender differences and no association with age were found. Conclusions: Future research can further ascertain the predictive validity of the MSRS-C. Understanding movement reinvestment in the child population has practical implications for practitioners responsible for teaching children motor skills and in children’s sustained engagement in sport and exercise