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Physical Performance and Decision Making in Association Football Referees: A Naturalistic Study

Although researchers have independently investigated the physical and decision-making (DM) demands experienced by sports officials, the combined impact of locomotion and physiological factors upon DM has received little attention. Using an innovative combination of video and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology this study explored the movement, heart rate (HR) and DM of experienced football referees in their natural performance environment. A panel of independent referees analysed incidents (n = 144) taken from five referees in seven games in the New Zealand Football Championship (2005/06). The match-day referees made accurate decisions on 64% of the incidents, although their accuracy levels were not related to variables such as movement speed, HR, and cumulative distance covered. Interestingly, referees were on average only 51% accurate in the opening fifteen minutes of each half compared to 70% accuracy at all other times. This study demonstrated that it is possible to combine new emerging technologies to conduct a comprehensive study of naturalistic decision-making in sport.

Anticipatory responses to perturbation of co-ordination in one-handed catching

Anticipatory responses to perturbation have rarely been studied in the co-ordination of dynamic interceptive actions. In this study, the kinematics of ball catching were examined in skilled catchers when mechanical perturbation of the catching arm was expected and unexpected. During trials where the perturbation was anticipated, participants initiated movements earlier (207 +/- 32 ms) than in randomly perturbed trials (223 +/- 34 ms). Furthermore, several individuals also tended to move their hand faster when perturbations were expected compared to baseline trials. Individual analyses revealed that three out of eight participants exhibited changes in the relative timing of the grasp phase to adapt to the specific manipulation of task constraints. Anticipatory responses were revealed in changes not only at movement initiation but also in the resulting adaptations to the co-ordination of reach and grasp phases of ball catching. When the catchers could not anticipate perturbations, movement strategies suggested the use of a continuous tracking-based mode of control rather than a prediction-based mode of control.

Mechanical perturbation of the wrist during one-handed catching

In the present study, the co-ordination of grasp and transport components of one-handed catching was examined following mechanical perturbations applied to the wrist. Six skilled catchers (mean age = 27.5 years) performed 64 trials in which tennis balls were projected at approximately 8 ms-1. The trial blocks consisted of 10 non-perturbed trials (NPTs) (baseline), and a block of 54 trials of which 20 trials were perturbed. The perturbation was in the form of a resistive force (12 N) applied via a piece of cord attached to a mechanical brake. In baseline trials participants reached maximal wrist velocity closer to the time of hand-ball contact (237 ms +/- 68) than in the perturbed (309 ms +/- 61) condition. Furthermore the wrist velocity profile of five out of six participants exhibited a double peak immediately after a perturbation. However, aperture variables such as the relative moment of final hand closure (approximately 70% of overall movement time) were not typically affected. The stability of grasp and transport coupling for one-handed catching was shown to vary from trial to trial. Skilled performers exploited redundant degrees of freedom in the motor system when faced with a sudden, unexpected change in task constraints.

Modeling human motor systems in nonlinear dynamics: intentionality and discrete movement behaviors

Attempts to understand human movement systems from the perspective of nonlinear dynamics have increased in recent years, although research has almost exclusively focused on modeling rhythmical movements as limit cycle oscillators. Only a limited amount of work has been undertaken on discrete movements, generally only in the form of numerical simulations and mathematical models. In this paper we briefly overview the key findings from previous research on movement systems as nonlinear dynamical systems, and report data from a behavioral experiment on the coordination observed in a prehension movement under both discrete and rhythmical conditions. In a rhythmical condition subjects grasped dowels in time to a metronomic beat, whereas in a discrete condition a target dowel was grasped within a predetermined movement time. A ‘scanning procedure’ was implemented to monitor changes in the time of relative final hand closure during hand transport to the dowel. For each condition, a pre-test and post-test of 10 trials were also conducted either side of the scanning trial block. No effects between condition or trial block were noted and there was a large amount of within-subject variability in the coordination data. The findings support previous theoretical modeling suggesting that subject intentionality acts as a more powerful constraint on the intrinsic dynamics of the movement system in discrete compared to rhythmical conditions. The high levels of individual variability were interpreted as being due to the competition between specific and non-specific control parameters (e.g., the subjects intentionality and the metronomic beat). It is concluded that discrete prehension movements appear amenable to a nonlinear dynamical analysis. The data also point to the innovative use of within-subject analyses in future work modeling motor systems as nonlinear dynamical systems.

Grasping a better understanding of the intrinsic dynamics of rhythmical and discrete prehension.

Abstract In this study, the authors examined the influence of the intrinsic dynamics of discrete and rhythmical prehension. Six adults underwent a scaling procedure in which the movement time was systematically increased so that it corresponded with 6 frequencies: 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, and 1.75 Hz. In posttests, participants moved at their own preferred pace. No differences were found in the relative time to final hand closure (Trfc) between the rhythmical and discrete conditions. The variability of Trfc was shown to be less at the preferred step of scaling than during the posttest. With the scaling technique, one can guide participants into more stable movement patterns than they can achieve when the metronome is not present, because, when the metronome is present, their movements become anchored to the external pacing cue. Those findings provide support for the use of a scaling technique to identify the influence of the intrinsic dynamics during rhythmical and discrete movements.