We examined whether the combination of two factors that have consistently been found to enhance motor learning - an external focus (EF) of attention and autonomy support (AS) - would produce additive benefits. Participants practiced throwing with their non-dominant arm. In a 2×2 design, they were or were not asked to focus externally (i.e., on the target), and were or were not given a choice (a...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Study of kicking development provides important information to understand how early spontaneous movements change in infants as they acquire voluntary control. Researchers have investigated the kicking movements of preterm infants; however, the movement patterns that they have described were inconsistent. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the development...

Two factors that have been shown to facilitate motor learning are autonomy support (AS) and enhanced expectancies (EE) for performance. We examined the individual and combined influences of these factors. In a 2 × 2 design, participants learning a novel motor skill (throwing with the non-dominant arm) were or were not provided a choice (AS) about the ball color on each of 6 10-trial blocks duri...

Performance assessment has become an invaluable component of monitoring participant's development in distinct sports, yet limited and contradictory data are available in trained subjects. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between ball throwing velocity during a 3-step running throw in elite team handball players and selected measures of rate of force development like for...

The purpose of this study was to clarify the kinetic aspects of the pelvic rotation in accuracy enhanced, submaximal effort soccer instep kicking. Fifteen male soccer players conducted instep kicking in a maximal (MAX) effort and a submaximal (SUB) effort with an emphasis on accuracy. Kicking motions were recorded by a motion capture system with a force platform at 500 Hz. The counter-clockwise...

The purpose of this review is to determine how throwing overweight and underweight baseballs affects baseball throwing velocity and accuracy. Two studies examined how a warm-up with overweight baseballs affected throwing velocity and accuracy of 5 oz regulation baseballs. One of these studies showed significant increases in throwing velocity and accuracy, while the other study found no signific...