TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of exercise difficulty and time-of-day on the perception of the task and soccer performance in child soccer players
AU - Masmoudi, Liwa
AU - Gharbi, Adnene
AU - H’mida, Cyrine
AU - Trabelsi, Khaled
AU - Boukhris, Omar
AU - Chtourou, Hamdi
AU - Bouzid, Mohamed Amine
AU - Clark, Cain C.T.
AU - Souissi, Nizar
AU - Rosemann, Thomas
AU - Knechtle, Beat
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/9/10
Y1 - 2021/9/10
N2 - In soccer, accurate kicking skills are important determinants of successful performance. A successful kick must meet several criteria, including speed, accuracy, and timing. In fact, players who are able to kick the ball more accurately under various difficulties, such as time pressure, space constraints, the opponent’s pressure, and the distance between the kicking point and the goal, have a clear advantage during soccer games. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of exercise difficulty and time-of-day on perceived task difficulty and kicking performance. Accordingly, 32 boys (age: 11 ± 0.7 years; height: 1.45 ± 0.07 m; body-mass: 38.9 ± 7.8 kg) performed shooting accuracy tests under two difficulty levels (distance (long-distance (LD) vs. short-distance (SD)) and time pressure (Without-time-pressure (WTP) vs. With-time-pressure (TP)) at 08:00 h and 17:00 h. Absolute-error, variable-error, and constant-error were evaluated during the kicking tasks, in addition to ball velocity and shooting quality. Moreover, rating-of-perceived-exertion score (RPE), feeling-scale (FS), and perceived difficulty were completed immediately at the end of each test. The results showed that shooting quality was not affected by the time-of-day, but it was better in WTP vs. TP (p < 0.05), and in SD vs. LD (p < 0.05), respectively. Higher values for FS and lower values for RPE were observed in the morning compared to the afternoon (p < 0.05) and in WTP vs. TP (p < 0.05). In conclusion, specific soccer skills of boys were not time-of-day dependent, but they may be associated with time pressure and task difficulty.
AB - In soccer, accurate kicking skills are important determinants of successful performance. A successful kick must meet several criteria, including speed, accuracy, and timing. In fact, players who are able to kick the ball more accurately under various difficulties, such as time pressure, space constraints, the opponent’s pressure, and the distance between the kicking point and the goal, have a clear advantage during soccer games. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of exercise difficulty and time-of-day on perceived task difficulty and kicking performance. Accordingly, 32 boys (age: 11 ± 0.7 years; height: 1.45 ± 0.07 m; body-mass: 38.9 ± 7.8 kg) performed shooting accuracy tests under two difficulty levels (distance (long-distance (LD) vs. short-distance (SD)) and time pressure (Without-time-pressure (WTP) vs. With-time-pressure (TP)) at 08:00 h and 17:00 h. Absolute-error, variable-error, and constant-error were evaluated during the kicking tasks, in addition to ball velocity and shooting quality. Moreover, rating-of-perceived-exertion score (RPE), feeling-scale (FS), and perceived difficulty were completed immediately at the end of each test. The results showed that shooting quality was not affected by the time-of-day, but it was better in WTP vs. TP (p < 0.05), and in SD vs. LD (p < 0.05), respectively. Higher values for FS and lower values for RPE were observed in the morning compared to the afternoon (p < 0.05) and in WTP vs. TP (p < 0.05). In conclusion, specific soccer skills of boys were not time-of-day dependent, but they may be associated with time pressure and task difficulty.
KW - Child
KW - Diurnal variation
KW - Mood
KW - Perceived difficulty
KW - Psychomotor performance
KW - Soccer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116744803&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/CHILDREN8090793
DO - 10.3390/CHILDREN8090793
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116744803
SN - 2227-9067
VL - 8
JO - Children
JF - Children
IS - 9
M1 - 793
ER -