Performance analysis and prediction in triathlon.

Performance in triathlon is dependent upon factors that include somatotype, physiological capacity, technical proficiency and race strategy. Given the multidisciplinary nature of triathlon and the interaction between each of the three race components, the identification of target split times that can be used to inform the design of training plans and race pacing strategies is a complex task. The present study uses machine learning techniques to analyse a large database of performances in Olympic distance triathlons (2008-2012). The analysis reveals patterns of performance in five components of triathlon (three race "legs" and two transitions) and the complex relationships between performance in each component and overall performance in a race. The results provide three perspectives on the relationship between performance in each component of triathlon and the final placing in a race. These perspectives allow the identification of target split times that are required to achieve a certain final place in a race and the opportunity to make evidence-based decisions about race tactics in order to optimise performance.

Kinematics of a striking task: accuracy and speed-accuracy considerations.

Handballing in Australian football (AF) is the most efficient passing method, yet little research exists examining technical factors associated with accuracy. This study had three aims: (a) To explore the kinematic differences between accurate and inaccurate handballers, (b) to compare within-individual successful (hit target) and unsuccessful (missed target) handballs and (c) to assess handballing when both accuracy and speed of ball-travel were combined using a novel approach utilising canonical correlation analysis. Three-dimensional data were collected on 18 elite AF players who performed handballs towards a target. More accurate handballers exhibited a significantly straighter hand-path, slower elbow angular velocity and smaller elbow range of motion (ROM) compared to the inaccurate group. Successful handballs displayed significantly larger trunk ROM, maximum trunk rotation velocity and step-angle and smaller elbow ROM in comparison to the unsuccessful handballs. The canonical model explained 73% of variance shared between the variable sets, with a significant relationship found between hand-path, elbow ROM and maximum elbow angular velocity (predictors) and hand-speed and accuracy (dependant variables). Interestingly, not all parameters were the same across each of the analyses, with technical differences between inaccurate and accurate handballers different from those between successful and unsuccessful handballs in the within-individual analysis.

Kinematics of preferred and non-preferred handballing in Australian football.

In Australian football (AF), handballing proficiently with both the preferred and non-preferred arm is important at elite levels; yet, little information is available for handballing on the non-preferred arm. This study compared preferred and non-preferred arm handballing techniques. Optotrak Certus (100 Hz) collected three-dimensional data for 19 elite AF players performing handballs with the preferred and non-preferred arms. Position data, range of motion (ROM), and linear and angular velocities were collected and compared between preferred and non-preferred arms using dependent t-tests. The preferred arm exhibited significantly greater forearm and humerus ROM and angular velocity and significantly greater shoulder angular velocity at ball contact compared to the non-preferred arm. In addition, the preferred arm produced a significantly greater range of lateral bend and maximum lower-trunk speed, maximum strike-side hip speed and hand speed at ball contact than the non-preferred arm. The non-preferred arm exhibited a significantly greater shoulder angle and lower- and upper-trunk orientation angle, but significantly lower support-elbow angle, trunk ROM, and trunk rotation velocity compared to the preferred arm. Reduced ROM and angular velocities found in non-preferred arm handballs indicates a reduction in the degrees of freedom and a less developed skill. Findings have implication for development of handballing on the non-preferred arm.

Cognitive fatigue effects on physical performance during running.

This study investigated the effect of cognitive fatigue on physical performance in a paced running task. Experienced runners (n = 20) performed two 3,000-m runs on an indoor track, once after cognitive fatigue, and once under nonfatigued conditions. Completion times were significantly slower in the cognitive fatigue condition (M = 12:11,88 min, SD = 0:54,26), compared with the control condition (M = 11:58,56 min, SD = 0:48,39), F(1, 19) = 8.58, p = .009, eta2p = .31. There were no differences in heart rate, t(17) = 0.13, p > .05, blood lactate levels, t(19) = 1.19, p > .05, or ratings of perceived exertion F(1, 19) = .001, p > .05. While previous research has examined the impact of cognitive tasks on physical tasks, this is the first study to examine a self-paced physical task, showing that cognitive activity indeed contributes significantly to overall performance. Specifically, cognitive fatigue increased the perception of exertion, leading to lesser performance on the running task.

Biomechanical characteristics of handballing maximally in Australian football.

The handball pass is influential in Australian football, and achieving higher ball speeds in flight is an advantage in increasing distance and reducing the chance of interceptions. The purpose of this study was to provide descriptive kinematic data and identify key technical aspects of maximal handball performance. Three-dimensional full body kinematic data from 19 professional Australian football players performing handball pass for maximal speed were collected, and the hand speed at ball contact was used to determine performance. Sixty-four kinematic parameters initially obtained were reduced to 15, and then grouped into like components through a two-stage supervised principal components analysis procedure. These components were then entered into a multiple regression analysis, which indicated that greater hand speed was associated with greater shoulder angular velocity and separation angle between the shoulders and pelvis at ball contact, as well as an earlier time of maximum upper-trunk rotation velocity. These data suggested that in order to increase the speed of the handball pass in Australian football, strategies like increased shoulder angular velocity, increased separation angle at ball contact, and earlier achievement of upper-trunk rotation speed might be beneficial.

Fatigued or bored? Investigating the effect of different types of mental fatigue on 3 km running performance.

Mental fatigue has been highly cited as having a negative impact on endurance performance. Few, however, have investigated whether different types of mental fatigue, namely active and passive fatigue, might affect endurance performance differently. This study used a repeated-measures design where 11 participants completed a 3 km run after three 32-min conditions: an actively fatiguing task (Task-load Dual-back; TloadDback); a passively fatiguing task (Mackworth Clock); and a control task (Documentary). Subjective ratings and performance on a second task (Flanker task) were taken before and after the 32-min tasks, while ratings of perceived effort, motivation and workload were taken during the 3 km run. Results showed that both fatigue conditions were mentally fatiguing, with the TloadDback rated as more demanding and the Mackworth Clock more boring and less motivating. Performance on subsequent tasks showed different effects: the TloadDback condition had the slowest responses on the post-test Flanker task, while the Mackworth Clock condition had the slowest completion time on the 3 km run, though this difference in completion times was non-significant. These results suggest that different cognitive tasks lead to different types of mental fatigue, which can lead to different outcomes on subsequent cognitive tasks but non-significant differences on subsequent physical tasks. This study highlights that to understand the influence of mental fatigue on physical performance, it is important to understand the cognitive tasks used and how different cognitive and physical tasks interact. Future work should examine whether performance outcomes in other areas commonly affected by mental fatigue, like technical and tactical sporting skills, are affected differently by active and passive fatigue.

Active or passive? Investigating different types of cognitive fatigue.

Research in cognitive fatigue has identified the negative impact that cognitive exertion can have on subsequent task performance. An underexamined question is whether there are different types of fatigue, particularly: active fatigue, similar to cognitive fatigue, and passive fatigue, similar to boredom. This online study examined whether active and passive fatigue can be elicited and differentiated using computerized cognitive tasks. We compared subjective and behavioural outcomes to look for distinctions between fatigue types in response to different cognitive tasks. A sample of 122 participants (53% male; age 30.04 ± 3.50 years) rated their subjective state before and after one of three 8-min cognitive task conditions (TloadDback, Mackworth Clock, Documentary/Control). Next, participants also completed a second cognitive task (Flanker task). The task expected to be actively fatiguing (TloadDback) was rated the most difficult, effortful, and mentally and temporally demanding. The task expected to be passively fatiguing (Mackworth Clock) had the greatest increases in subjective fatigue, boredom, and sleepiness, and the greatest decrease in "want-to" motivation. There were no differences between conditions for Flanker performance. We showed that different fatigue types could be elicited using different computerized cognitive tasks. The passively fatiguing task had the most negative influence on subjective fatigue and motivation, suggesting a nonengaging or "boringly fatiguing" task induces a more detrimental type of fatigue. A key next step is to examine longer cognitive tasks to determine whether effects from different fatigue types become more prominent with time-on-task. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

"A sprained ankle is the biggest sign of mental fatigue": A qualitative study of the perceptions and experiences of mental fatigue in professional ballet.

Mental fatigue is known to influence endurance, skill, and tactical performance in sport. Research investigating the impact of mental fatigue on tasks that combine physical, cognitive, and aesthetic performance such as professional ballet does not exist. OBJECTIVE: To understand the perceptions and experiences of mental fatigue in professional ballet. DESIGN: Qualitative, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. SETTING: The Australian Ballet. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-nine professional ballet dancers (53% of the company) and six dance staff members aged 18 years or above (53% female). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: N/a. RESULTS: The average focus group and interview length was 48 ± 7 min and 41 ± 8 min. Key categories were; (1) Dancers and dance staff perceive that new learning contributes to mental fatigue, (2) Dancers perceive changes to their mood and perception of effort when they are mentally fatigued, and (3) Dancers and dance staff perceive that mental fatigue negatively affects their physical and cognitive performance and, increases their risk of injury. CONCLUSION: This is the first study where participants associated mental fatigue with injury risk and provides a springboard to measure the impact of mental fatigue on learning, injury, and performance in professional ballet.

Visual search strategies and game knowledge in junior Australian rules football players: testing potential in talent identification and development.

This study explored video-based decision-making and eye-movement behavior as a complementary method to assess the decision-making skills and knowledge of elite junior Australian Rules (AR) Football players. Performance was measured twice over an 18-month period. This approach tested a practical and reliable assessment of decision-making and game knowledge that does not contribute to physical training load. N = 59 participants were categorized based on their training age groups, U14 (N = 38, Mage 13.37 ± 0.47) and U16 (N = 21, Mage 14.80 ± 0.39). Participants watched 14 brief video clips and provided action choices while wearing eye-movement recording glasses that captured visual search patterns (e.g., fixations). Decision accuracy and speed of decision-making were also recorded. Participants with accurate decisions made significantly faster decisions compared to less skilled players (p < 0.001). Further, skilled participants had significantly fewer fixations of shorter duration compared to less skilled participants at both the initial and follow-up testing sessions (p < 0.0001). This suggests that eye-movement characteristics, remain a relatively stable measure over moderate periods of time. With the ability to differentiate between more and less skilled decision-makers, this proof-of-concept study proposes that examining eye movements in relation to decision-making and game knowledge is a viable tool for Talent Identification and Development (TID) to complement current measures. We provide a platform for further development and research in the quest for efficient and effective talent identification processes.

Modelling and analysing track cycling Omnium performances using statistical and machine learning techniques.

This article describes the utilisation of an unsupervised machine learning technique and statistical approaches (e.g., the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) that assist cycling experts in the crucial decision-making processes for athlete selection, training, and strategic planning in the track cycling Omnium. The Omnium is a multi-event competition that will be included in the summer Olympic Games for the first time in 2012. Presently, selectors and cycling coaches make decisions based on experience and intuition. They rarely have access to objective data. We analysed both the old five-event (first raced internationally in 2007) and new six-event (first raced internationally in 2011) Omniums and found that the addition of the elimination race component to the Omnium has, contrary to expectations, not favoured track endurance riders. We analysed the Omnium data and also determined the inter-relationships between different individual events as well as between those events and the final standings of riders. In further analysis, we found that there is no maximum ranking (poorest performance) in each individual event that riders can afford whilst still winning a medal. We also found the required times for riders to finish the timed components that are necessary for medal winning. The results of this study consider the scoring system of the Omnium and inform decision-making toward successful participation in future major Omnium competitions.

Many Pieces to the Puzzle: A New Holistic Workload Approach to Designing Practice in Sports.

Representative learning design (RLD) in sport is a well-established concept in both theory and practice. The goal of RLD is to faithfully replicate competition environments in training settings to benefit improvement in athletic performance. There is currently little research that considers how representative an activity needs to be to facilitate learning transfer, and how that level of representativeness might fluctuate between activities or sessions, and across competitive cycles. Similarly, there is no existing research that specifically considers the elevated workload (in cognitive and physical load) of highly representative training, and the potential impacts of chronic overuse of these highly demanding activities. This paper addresses these limitations, making a case for the application of RLD that considers the level of representativeness (fidelity) and the demands placed on athletes (load) from both a cognitive and physical perspective. This paper also suggests several categorisations of training activities that are based on their relative representativeness, level of imposed demands, and the intended outcomes of the activity with reference to the perception-action cycle. The two core concepts of fidelity and load are combined for a new approach to representative training that allows practitioners to balance the benefits of representative training with the risks of imposing excessive load on athletes.

She'll Be 'Right but Are They? An Australian Perspective on Women in High Performance Sport Coaching.

Participation and media coverage of women in high-performance sport has been steadily increasing in recent years throughout the world. While this increase in interest has led to many young women and girls becoming involved in grassroots sport, there has yet to be a significant change in the number of women in coaching roles, particularly at the high-performance level. This paper synthesizes and summarizes the current challenges facing women sport coaches in Australia, drawing from existing research, media and government reports to understand the barriers for women entering and progressing in these roles. We also present some of the more recent initiatives to increase opportunities for women in high performance coaching. Within Australia, there is a need to (1) understand the pipeline for women coaches, (2) examine the interacting contexts and constraints that women are subject to within sporting organizations, and (3) create a preliminary framework for future research, outreach, and education to address gender inequity within Australian sport coaching.

Examining the Eye Movement Behaviors Associated With Skilled Decision-Making by Elite Australian Rules Football Players.

Exploration of eye-movement behaviors of humans can provide insight into the processes used to inform and make decisions, with a large body of research revealing general trends, especially in the sporting context. Despite this some questions remain within the sport context particularly for elite groups engaged in diverse sports, and the potential for this information to provide for training, development, and performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the critical fixation points and durations associated with superior decision-making within an elite group of Australian Rules football players. To achieve this eye-movement behavior (fixations) and associated decision-making skills of (N = 27; Mage = 25.0 ± 3.7 yrs) elite Australian Rules (AR) football players were measured while they watched game-based video clips. The most skilled players made significantly faster decisions compared to less skilled players (p < 0.001), who also had significantly shorter total fixation duration (p < 0.0001). Further, analysis showed that the most skilled players spent more time fixating on potential options within an area of interest (p = 0.003). Thus, within a group of highly skilled group of athletes, distinctions can be made on perceptual-cognitive skills, for outcome decisions and decision processes. That is, skilled decision-makers appear to have more efficient visual search strategies, which may help them process visual information more effectively. Further, examination of these behaviors may aid sport science and coaching staff identify the process that can be refined to increase player ability between and within various teams.

Building a transdisciplinary expert consensus on the cognitive drivers of performance under pressure: An international multi-panel Delphi study.

Introduction: The ability to perform optimally under pressure is critical across many occupations, including the military, first responders, and competitive sport. Despite recognition that such performance depends on a range of cognitive factors, how common these factors are across performance domains remains unclear. The current study sought to integrate existing knowledge in the performance field in the form of a transdisciplinary expert consensus on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie performance under pressure. Methods: International experts were recruited from four performance domains [(i) Defense; (ii) Competitive Sport; (iii) Civilian High-stakes; and (iv) Performance Neuroscience]. Experts rated constructs from the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework (and several expert-suggested constructs) across successive rounds, until all constructs reached consensus for inclusion or were eliminated. Finally, included constructs were ranked for their relative importance. Results: Sixty-eight experts completed the first Delphi round, with 94% of experts retained by the end of the Delphi process. The following 10 constructs reached consensus across all four panels (in order of overall ranking): (1) Attention; (2) Cognitive Control-Performance Monitoring; (3) Arousal and Regulatory Systems-Arousal; (4) Cognitive Control-Goal Selection, Updating, Representation, and Maintenance; (5) Cognitive Control-Response Selection and Inhibition/Suppression; (6) Working memory-Flexible Updating; (7) Working memory-Active Maintenance; (8) Perception and Understanding of Self-Self-knowledge; (9) Working memory-Interference Control, and (10) Expert-suggested-Shifting. Discussion: Our results identify a set of transdisciplinary neuroscience-informed constructs, validated through expert consensus. This expert consensus is critical to standardizing cognitive assessment and informing mechanism-targeted interventions in the broader field of human performance optimization.

"It takes a village": the sources and types of support in development of male cricket players.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the different types of support (e.g., financial, informational) and support providers (e.g., fathers, siblings) in the development of male cricket players across different levels of skill expertise. METHODS: A quantitative questionnaire (developed as a part of a broader Australian Research Council Linkage project) assessing support providers and types of support accessed by players was distributed to participants through involvement with a national sporting organisation. Descriptive trends across support types for each provider were explored for the total cohort of athletes, n=1383 (as relative percentages), and community and elite differences were explored using chi-squared analyses (p<0.05). RESULTS: Mothers and fathers were primary providers of financial and emotional support (>80%), mentors offered meaningful sport-specific informational and technical (or coaching related) support, and siblings and peers played an integral development role in acting as fellow participants for practice and play. Access to coaching emerged as a dominant point of difference between community and elite players consistently across all support providers (p<0.05). Mentors and siblings also featured more frequently for elite players across broader ranges of support factors (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Regardless of level of skill expertise, there were unique context-specific roles that different providers played in supporting cricket players. When differentiating between levels of expertise, elite players drew on more "contact" points to assist them in accessing the right type of coaching. Mentors and siblings also featured more frequently for elite players across a broader range of support factors. Taken together, these findings show that elite players are distinguished in their reliance on multiple components within a complex family system, bolstered by additional significant others. This work further underscores the previously limited exploration of social networks in athlete development, highlighting avenues for continued enquiry and action in sport development systems.

"Dad! Let's go have a hit ": Sources and types of support in female cricket players.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the different types of support and different support providers in female cricket players (n=101), and to understand whether these support types or providers differ relative to level of skill expertise. METHOD: A quantitative questionnaire (developed as a part of a broader Australian Research Council Linkage project) was distributed to participants through involvement with a national sporting organisation. Descriptive trends across support types for each provider were explored for the total cohort of athletes (as relative percentages) and community and elite differences were explored using chi-squared analyses (p<0.05). RESULTS: Mothers and fathers were primary givers of financial and emotional support (>70% for both parents across the entire cohort), mentors offered meaningful sport specific informational and technical (or coaching related) support and siblings and peers played integral roles acting as fellow participants for practice and play. Access to coaching also emerged as a dominant point of difference between community and elite cricket players consistently across all support providers (p<0.05). The father emerged as a dominant provider of support for elite players across five different dimensions of support (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Several characteristics related to support provider and support type for female players were consistent with male players (general parental financial and emotional support provision and access to quality coaching present across all support providers). A key outcome from this study was evidence of the specific role that fathers play in the development of elite female cricket players.

VibroSleeve: A wearable vibro-tactile feedback device for arm guidance.

Vibro-tactile feedback offers a complementary augmentation cue for motor guidance and training. Motivated by the needs of prosthetic vision rehabilitation, we explore the use of the cylindrical forearm surface to deliver arm guidance cues via vibro-tactile stimulation. We present 'VibroSleeve', a novel wearable arm motion guidance aid made up of 4x4 arrangement of vibration coin motors embedded within an elastic sleeve for delivering vibro-tactile patterns to the forearm. In this paper, we present the concept and design of VibroSleeve, along with results of preliminary evaluation. We outline key insights gained into the perceptual aspects of calibration and usable intensity bandwidth critical for reliable interpretation of encoded information. Our results demonstrate feasibility of the approach, and provide foundations for future work on developing the sleeve as a rehabilitation aid for guiding the arm towards visually perceived targets.

Shared Demands Between Cognitive and Physical Tasks May Drive Negative Effects of Fatigue: A Focused Review.

Over the last decade, there has been increasing interest in the effects of cognitive fatigue on physical performance. This review aims to provide an understanding of these effects with an emphasis on different types of physical tasks requiring different cognitive loads. We specifically focus on understanding the similarity or difference between the cognitive and physical task to help formulate a hypothesis for when there is a decline in the subsequent physical task and when there is not. Taken together, the research shows that endurance performance and perceptual-cognitive skills seem to decline following the completion of a cognitive task, while anaerobic performance remains unaffected. Consistent with the limited-resource model of self-control, the completion of a cognitively demanding task may deplete or inhibit cognitive resources, resulting in impaired performance on a subsequent physical task that relies on similar resources. In other words, physical tasks involving central executive functioning may be significantly more impaired by cognitive fatigue compared to tasks that utilize an all-out strategy. It is recommended that future research continues examining the impact of cognitive fatigue on different types of physical tasks while controlling for other variables.

Beep Test Performance Is Influenced by 30 Minutes of Cognitive Work.

PURPOSE: This study explored conflicting findings in the literature on the influence of perceived cognitive fatigue on physical performance by testing the effect of the Stroop task (high cognitive load) on an intermittent running test (beep test). METHODS: In a within-subjects repeated-measures experiment, 13 active athletes performed the beep test on two occasions, in a randomized, counterbalanced order. In each session, a preceding cognitive task was completed for 30 min, with the incongruent Stroop task in the high load condition, and the congruent Stroop task in the low load condition. Perceived cognitive fatigue was measured before testing (baseline) and at 10, 20, and 30 min of the cognitive load manipulation. Perceived effort on the cognitive task and general motivation for the physical task (beep test) were measured before the beep test, and motivation-related perception of the beep test and ratings of perceived exertion were measured after completion of the test. Heart rate and beep test performance (completion stage and time) were also recorded. RESULTS: The incongruent Stroop task was perceived as more fatiguing and effortful. Participants also withdrew from the beep test significantly earlier in the high load condition (M = 8:48 min, SD = 2:32 min) compared to the low load condition (M = 9:20 min, SD = 2:28 min), F (1,11) = 21.76, P < 0.01, ŋ = 0.67. There were no differences in heart rate or general motivation between the two conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Whereas previous research shows that active athletes can maintain performance on the beep test after 10 min of the incongruent Stroop task, this study shows that performance is impaired after 30 min. Variables in need of exploration in future investigations include experience with both the physical and cognitive task.

The effects of golf expertise and presentation modality on memory for golf and everyday items.

The present study assessed whether golf expertise, presentation modality, and domain relevance affected memory for golf-related and everyday items. Forty-eight experienced golfers and 48 non-golfers were compared in their memory for golf-related ("putt to the hole") and everyday ("turn on the lamp") items. To-be-remembered items were presented verbally, visually, or were enacted. Enacted information was recalled best, followed by visually presented information. Combined effects of modality and golf expertise on recall of golf items were demonstrated on immediate but not on delayed recall. The findings suggest that recall of domain-relevant information is optimal when one has relevant background knowledge, and under conditions of visual encoding. The data support research on facilitation of domain-relevant knowledge on recall [Weber, N., & Brewer, N. (2003). Expert memory: The interaction of stimulus structure, attention, and expertise. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 295-308]. Interpersonal body representation may have played a role in recall processes among experts [Thomas, R., Press, C., & Haggard, P. (2006). Shared representations in body perception. Acta Psychologica, 121, 317-330].