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JOURNAL
OF
SPORTS SCIENCE &
MEDICINE
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Research
article
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DIFFERENCES IN BALL SPORTS ATHLETES SPEED DISCRIMINATION SKILLS BEFORE AND AFTER EXERCISE INDUCED FATIGUE |
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Kaivo Thomson1,2  ,
Anthony Watt1,3 and Jarmo Liukkonen1 |
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1University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 2Tallinn University, Estonia and 3Victoria University, Australia |
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© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2009) 8, 259 - 264 Search Google Scholar for Citing Articles |
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| ABSTRACT | |||
| Substantial research exists in relation to the effect of fatigue
on the cognitive skills of athletes. Very few studies in the sport domain,
however, have investigated decision-making time and accuracy in relation
to the discrimination of the speed of a moving object following exercise
at maximal intensity. The purpose of this study was to examine differences
in the pre- and post-fatigue speed discrimination skills of elite ballgames
athletes to determine if they prioritize accuracy or speed of decision-making
when physically exhausted. The participants in the study were 163 males
(M = 21.17, SD = 4.18) Estonian national level soccer (n = 79), basketball
(n = 63) and volleyball (n = 21) players. Peak oxygen uptake (VO2max)
was assessed during completion of an incremental exercise test on a treadmill.
Speed discrimination stimuli were images of red square-shapes on a grey
background presented moving along the sagittal axis at four different virtual
velocities on a computer (PC) screen. Repeated measures MANOVA revealed
a significant main effect for the decision-making time factor. A second
MANOVA revealed a significant main effect for the decision-making accuracy
factor. The soccer group made a significantly lower number of errors than
the basketball group (p = 0.015) in pre- and post-fatigue decision-making
accuracy. The results showed that athletes' decision-making time decreased
and decision-making errors increased after a maximal aerobic capacity exercise
task. A comparison of the pre- and post-fatigue speed discrimination skills
of experienced basketball, volleyball and soccer players indicated that
the only significant difference was for decision-making accuracy between
the soccer and basketball groups. The current findings clearly demonstrated
that the athletes made decisions faster at the expense of accuracy when
fatigued.
Key words: Decision-making, perception, exhaustion, elite-athletes. |
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