Screening Youth Soccer Players by Means of Cognitive Function and Agility Testing

Talent identification in sports is a heavily debated topic. Previous studies have separately explored either executive functions or gross motor skills to predict the success of top-level soccer players or, more generally, to characterize elite performance in soccer. However, at mid-childhood, the po...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Perceptual and motor skills Vol. 128; no. 6; pp. 2710 - 2724
Main Authors:	Lovecchio, Nicola, Manes, Gianluca, Filipas, Luca, Giuriato, Matteo, Torre, Antonio La, Iaia, F. Marcello, Codella, Roberto
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-12-2021 SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:	Adolescent Aptitude Athletic Performance Child Cognition Executive Function Humans Male Soccer screening athletes smartphone app elite youth sports inhibitory control in sports gross-motor skills
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Talent identification in sports is a heavily debated topic. Previous studies have separately explored either executive functions or gross motor skills to predict the success of top-level soccer players or, more generally, to characterize elite performance in soccer. However, at mid-childhood, the possibility to scope sport-specific requirements remains elusive. We aimed in this study to investigate a valid and simple method of testing for a unique combination of cognitive and speed abilities for identifying promising soccer players at mid-childhood. We measured cognitive functions by means of a Stroop smartphone application and agility with a T-Drill Ball-success test, in two groups of (a) elite- (n = 31) and (b) low-division (n = 37) Italian 7-year-old male soccer players. We administered the tests in a randomized order to both groups. We found better inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and soccer-specific agility in high-division versus low-division players (p < .001). Inhibitory response and agility were positively associated with the augmented quality of the performance from low-division players to high-division players (r = .55; p = .0001). These results suggest that, even at an early age, cognitive control together with soccer-specific skills is associated with better performance.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Case Study-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-4 content type line 23 ObjectType-Report-1 ObjectType-Article-3
ISSN:	0031-5125 1558-688X
DOI:	10.1177/00315125211040283