Journal of Sports and Motor Development and Learning
Year:2011 | Volume:- | Issue:7|Papers Count:9

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a selected motor program (as a motor experience) on manipulative skills in 4-6-year-old boys. 40 subjects were selected randomly using a personal information questionnaire. After the pretest, the Ulrich's test of Gross Motor Development (2000) including fundamental motor skills, locomotors skills, manipulative skills and controlling instruments was used and the subjects were randomly divided into two groups of selected motor program (age: 58.9 months, SD: 8.57); one of these groups experienced the activities of researcher's selected motor program 24 sessions, 30 minutes per session while the other group (control) enjoyed their casual activities. After 24 sessions, two groups participated in the posttest. To test the hypotheses, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and independent and dependent t student tests were used. The results showed that a selected motor program had more effects on the development of manipulative skills when compared with casual activities (P<0.05). It is suggested to design a special training program and to enrich children's environment so that better training opportunities can be provided to develop their manipulative skills which are the basis and foundation of their technical and sport skills.

The aim of this study was to survey the effect of arousal by the presence of audience and music and their comparison on learning and performance of basketball dribbling. Subjects were 36 healthy and non-athlete girls (mean and SD of age 21.8±2.23 years, height 163.4±6.19cm and weight 57.5±10.13kg) were divided into three groups of audience (n=12), music (n=12) and control (n=12) randomly. Training protocol in the acquisition stage included basketball dribbling of Harrison test for 6 weeks, 3 sessions per week, and 30 seconds per session with the presence of motivational factors in separate groups. Score of dribbling test was record per session, then posttest was carried out and finally after two weeks of detraining, retention test was performed in the same condition and transfer test like the real condition of competitions (with the presence of music and audience) was performed 24 hours later. Rest heart rate index was used to maintain the subjects in the same level of arousal. To analyze the data, one-way ANOVA test, ANOVA with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test was used. Results showed that all groups improved their skill learning in the acquisition stage. Also, there was a significant difference in basketball dribbling scores among the groups in the acquisition stage (p=0.0001) and this difference was higher in the control group (i.e. audience and music groups had weaker performance in the posttest of acquisition stage). But in retention and transfer tests, music and audience groups were at an advantage; audience group achieved the highest scores in retention test and music and audience groups gained higher significant scores than control group in transfer test (p=0.0001).

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of cognitive-attentional and cognitive-motor load on the performance of bimanual coordination skill. 31 female students (mean age 25+2 years) from Shahid Beheshti University attending were selected voluntarily and divided randomly into three groups: single group (N=11), cognitive group (N=10) and cognitive-motor group (N=10). Single group participants performed bimanual coordination single task. Cognitive group participants performed bimanual coordination task simultaneously with number countdown task, and cognitive – motor participants performed bimanual coordination task simultaneously with feet reaction time task. Two hand coordination of Vienna test system was used to assess the performance of bimanual coordination task. One – way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test were used to analyze data. Statistical significance level was p<0.05. Results showed that there were no significant differences in the performance of bimanual coordination task between single and cognitive groups, cognitive and cognitive – motor groups. Also results showed a significant difference in the performance of bimanual coordination task between single and motor groups. Generally, results showed that interference of two tasks with motor nature is more than interference of two tasks with motor and cognitive nature.

Researchers demonstrate that individuals in different levels of physical activity have different motivations for sport activity. This study was designed to examine how motivations can discriminate three physical activity levels (inactive, active, sustained maintainers) according to self-determination theory. 159 Zanjan University staff (mean age: 33 years old) completed exercise motivation inventory (EMI-2) and stage of change scale. Using confirmatory factor analysis, construct validity of EMI-2 was established. Six factors were confirmed in the EMI-2: Health and fitness, social–emotional benefits, weight management, stress management, enjoyment and appearance. Results showed that enjoyment, stress management and social–emotional benefits differentiated physical activity levels. Interaction of age and sex was not significant. It was concluded that intrinsic motivation (enjoyment) and extrinsic self-determined motivation (stress management, social–emotional benefits) played an effective role in changing behavior and increasing physical activity.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of self-control feedback on relative and absolute timing through observational and physical practices. Participants (n=90) were randomly assigned to physical and observational practice (self-control, yoked, and instructor KR) groups. They practiced a sequential timing task, which required participants to press four keys (2, 6, 8, and 4) respectively with regard to relative and absolute timing. Self-control group received KR about the model's performance whenever they requested it whereas the other groups (yoked, instructor) had no control on the feedback schedules. They performed 72 trials during the acquisition phase and 12 trials in retention and transfer phases. ANOVA with repeated measures and a multi-factorial ANOVA were conducted to analyze the collected data. The results demonstrated that during the acquisition phase, relative timing errors were lower in the self-control and instructor groups. During the retention and transfer phases, relative timing errors were lower for the self-control compared with the yoked and instructor groups. In addition, during the retention and transfer phase, absolute timing errors were lower for the yoked compared with the self-control group.

Talent identification is a process through which those with the highest chance to succeed in the future will be determined. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the application of a multivariate approach in talent identification of adolescent soccer players. The research population consisted of all soccer players in Tehran province aged between 12 and 16 years old. A battery of tests was applied to measure the psychological, technical, physiological and anthropometric factors in adolescent soccer players in two levels of elite (N=26) and sub-elite (N=35). Participants were divided into four age groups: U16, U15, U14, and U13. The OMSAT – 3 was used to evaluate the mental skills. Furthermore, technical skills were measured by six soccer skills tests of Football Association of England. Physiological measurements consisted of vertical jump, sit up, 10m sprint, 40m sprint and 280m shuttle run. Anthropometric characteristics were height, weight, body mass index, length of lower and upper leg, skin folds in four regions and body fat percentage. Statistical method to analyze the findings was MANOVA. The results showed that among four groups of factors, the physiological measures were statistically more capable of distinguishing the levels. The results of the present study showed a significant difference between elite and sub-elite soccer players in physiological, technical and psychological characteristics, but there was no significant difference in anthropometric attributes. There was a significant difference between elite and sub-elite soccer players in sit up, shuttle run, 10m sprint, 40m sprint, running with ball, turning, speed, dribbling, shooting, goal setting, relaxation, coping with stress, activation, focus, refocus and competition plan (P<0.05). These findings demonstrated that there is more need to emphasize the importance of mental skills in talent identification models. In conclusion, a multivariate approach with regard to the age differences can successfully discriminate elite players from their sub-elite counterparts in adolescence period. It can be suggested that in talent identification process in ages under 13 and 14, physiological measurements are less used and technical characteristics are more emphasized.

The role of higher education is to educate all individuals and it includes not only the intelligence but also the psychological and physiological aspects. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sedentariness on self-esteem and body fat mass in students of University of Tehran. The statistical population of the study consisted of all students of University of Tehran and 320 subjects were randomly selected as the sample. Independent t test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The results showed that 62% of subjects were sedentary and 38% had sufficient activity. Average body fat percent in all subjects was 26.14% (S.D±6.53). 79% of all students had high self-esteem and 21% had low self-esteem. There was a significant difference between male and female subjects in physical activity. Also, there was no significant difference in body fat mass between active and sedentary subjects. Results did not show any significant relationship between physical activity level and low and high self-esteem.

Socialization is one of the most important goals of any developmental program and educational scientists try to provide students with appropriate contexts to develop socialization throughout the developmental ages. This study aimed to investigate the effect of traditional and modern childish plays on the social development of female students in the first grade (6-7 years old) in 1388-1389 in two elementary schools of regions 13 and 14 of Tehran city. The present research was performed experimentally with groups of modern plays, traditional plays and the control group along with the pretest and posttest. The subjects (N=45) were randomly divided into three groups. The first group played traditional plays for 15 weeks (once a week) and the second group played the modern plays for the same period of time, the third group which was considered as the control group did not carry out any kinds of playing. In order to measure social development of the students, Winelands (1953) social development questionnaire was used to measure social development. In this study, the statistical method of covariance analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that both traditional and modern childish plays had an effect on social development of children and there was no significant difference between these two plays, but the traditional plays gained more scores in social development. It can be suggested beneficial to have childish plays in syllabus at schools to improve children’s social development.